Drums on Demand

[pewterbird99]

I noticed no one has really put up a review of Drums on Demand yet, so I figured I would take the liberty of doing it. I just purchased Drums on Demand about a week a go after much debate over the price. I play mostly a rock style so I couldn't settle for anything less than the Upbeat and Aggresive package which is volume 3 (and $79.95 at that). Before I had actually programmed most of my drum beats using FL Studio and single hits. I was hoping when I got Drums on Demand I could go back into some of the songs and work in some new beats.

When I first started playing with DoD I realized that they are not as versitle as I wanted them to be. Granted there are over 1200 loops but once you wipe out most of them due to the tempo of your song you are left with only about 40 loops. From there, there are only about 4 versions of a verse, with a few fills, about 4 versions of a chorus and so on. So the downside of drums on demand is the lack of versitility.

Another thing about the versatility is that sometimes you may want to jump into a half time chorus or have a cool pause in the middle of the last chorus, or something like that. It is very hard to find anything that will work out perfectly with what you can imagine up.

Some of the plus sides of DoD though is the quality of the recordings. These drums no doubt sound great. The sound very thick in a recording. I didn't know how bad my old drums actually sounded until I had these in the back.

Another plus of DoD is the loop layers. I was making a song the other day and I found that I liked a certain beat, but it on used the hi hat to keep time. I needed that beat for the chorus and it just didn't hit very hard with only the hi hat. I decided to run a low pass filter over the loop and shave off a little top end to kinda kill the hit hat and then I used a Crash loop layer to make the beat sound stronger. It worked out pretty cool.

These loops also work together seemlessly. After putting them together it's hard to tell that they are loops.

Overall I think that DoD is a great product especially for the quality but when it comes to versatility nothing beats having a real drummer that can change with you.

[therage!]

Take a look at Discrete drums, much more comprehensive but they aren't cheap.

Another thing about the versatility is that sometimes you may want to jump into a half time chorus or have a cool pause in the middle of the last chorus, or something like that. It is very hard to find anything that will work out perfectly with what you can imagine up.

That is one of the downsides of using loops.

[TelePaul]

I was just going to post a review (somewhere) about these. My DOD Vol. 1 arrived yesterday. Having a 2-Channel interface, I rely on either midi drums programmed by myself or on free loops. I didn't like the lack of 'flow' you have to reconcile with when it comes to midi drums, and the free loops available were very hit and miss, hence my desire for drums on demand.

The first thing I should point out is that the drum loops are fully acidized; however my version of Cubase, SE 3, doesn't support this time-stretching function. Therefore, I am at a natural disadvantage over people ucing Rex or acidized files. However, I knew this was going to be the case.

Volume 1 is a 'mixed bag' and there really are alot of styles catered for, though they are generic rock and pop sounds; exactly what I was looking for! I happen to think the drums on demand samples and layout are incredibly user-friendly, very much a 'drag-and-drop' affair, with optional editing and looping done with simple cutting and pasting. it's so easy to put together a verse chorus and bridge and then go abck and add your fills. It takes a little while to get things the way you want, but so far I'm impressed with the quality if the smaples and how easy they are to work with. I'll definetely be ordering more stuff, as the DOD guys were really helpful and easy to order from. My 2 cents.

[TelePaul]

Originally Posted by therage!

Take a look at Discrete drums, much more comprehensive but they aren't cheap.

Another thing about the versatility is that sometimes you may want to jump into a half time chorus or have a cool pause in the middle of the last chorus, or something like that. It is very hard to find anything that will work out perfectly with what you can imagine up.

That is one of the downsides of using loops.

M-audio pro sessions discrete drums?

[Axe]

I understand what you are saying about lack of flexibility with DOD.. I used them on "Lost in the Clouds" on my soundclick page.. It took me longer than I'd like to admit to accomplish that
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page...?bandID=154724 if anyone wants to here DOD in real world use..

I'm going to give Pro Drum Works a shot.. I tried them on one track remix and they seem more flexible but a bit spendy and still a PIA to work with..

I'm curious about "Discrete Drums" as well

[Dogman]

If you have the money, and it works in your system, Ez-Drummer is great...I have the DFH expansion pack also.

Not super cheap though.

[therage!]

Originally Posted by TelePaul

M-audio pro sessions discrete drums?

No, the series one, two or Heavy Mental are what I'm referring to/

http://www.discretedrums.com/