Fake drums are sounding very real

[Supercreep]

I must say there have been numerous occasions where DKFHS has completely fooled me. It's getting that good, with careful programming.

I'm getting ready to move into a nicer house, and am looking at my options for the studio side of things.

I could purchase a modular drum booth for 18k, and keep trucking along.

Or I could buy DKFHS for $300 and get better sounds than I can get with my kit (a nice kit, btw).

I really like the acoustic drums, but I have to ask myself if it's just my ego causing me to spend so much money to have them...

Your thoughts?

[zed32]

i have DFHS and i love it, but dude just stick with your real drums. do you really need to spend 18k to get good sounding acoustic drums?? the stuff you guys have out right now sounds pretty good as it is. if i could drum worth a shit i'd play the real drums on all my songs, but DFHS is better than me, haha.

[Supercreep]

Originally Posted by zed32

i have DFHS and i love it, but dude just stick with your real drums. do you really need to spend 18k to get good sounding acoustic drums?? the stuff you guys have out right now sounds pretty good as it is. if i could drum worth a shit i'd play the real drums on all my songs, but DFHS is better than me, haha.

I'm moving to a slightly more upscale neighborhood where 100+db of drums is a no-no.

I could build a drum booth, but getting a permit to do this to code and providing ventilation and natural light would cost nearly as much as a portable booth. I'm really into insurance, so I won't build without the proper permitting.

[zed32]

i see what you mean. i think my neighbors already hate me for my 30 minute drum practice that i do every day around 6:30 haha. thats also the reason why i hardly ever get a chacne to mic up my amp. i'm trying not to get the police showing up at my place. but hey if you can get the money together, then a drum booth of course would be the best way to go. however, if you really like DFHS (and the expansions for it), then for 1/60th of the price you could probably get the job done pretty well.

the thing i like about DFHS is that once you bounce the tracks to WAV, they then behave like real recorded drum tracks. compressors affect it the same way they would a recorded snare track and stuff, and with all the variations in velocity, you can really get some pretty realistic sounds from it. the main difference is, if there's too much bleed in the hi hat or something, you can adjust the bleed level and re-bounce it. or if you don't like the kick sound, you can switch to a different sample and re-bounce. so it's pretty flexible. but then it's almost like cheating when compared to real drums.

i suck so bad at drumming that it would take me an entire day just to track one song. i can sit at DFHS, map out some basic rhythms in like an hour, record all my guitar tracks and stuff, then come back and add some fills and make some finishing touches on the drums later.

oh and i would recommend Cubase for mapping the DFHS drums. it has a drum editor mode that you can use instead of the piano roll view, and it makes things a whole lot easier. you can arrange the "keys" in whatever order you want, and they are all labeled so you don't have to keep looking at a keymap to figure which button to press. i like it because i can move all the stupid keys i never use out of the way and keep everything nice and compact. when i was using the piano roll mode in Reaper, i would sometimes have to scroll way up just to see where some of the cymbals go.

[DavidK]

I have EZdrummer with the DFH expansion set. I couldnt get a sound like that in a million years. I also have new Korg and Yamaha Synths for percussion sounds. It's literally all I need, there is no way I can get anything remotely close unless I spend the megabucks and hire big studios and big engineers. I'm pretty impressed.

[Ironklad Audio]

ezdrummer + DFH = heaven

not only because the shit sounds damn good, but because now i don't have to spend assloads of time dicking around with stubborn-ass drummers

there's still some instances where i'd prefer to use live drumming, but for most of the metal stuff that i do, i'll be hitting up the ezdrums most likely por vida

[mikeh]

I've been recording almost exclusively with a Roland TD10 kit for about 6 years and started triggering DFH about a year ago (to put this in perspective, I've got 3 very nice acoustic kits - maple, birch and mahogany - and a full range of top of the line cymbals).

The electronic kits still don't really cut it well for the full out "hard rock" and are relatively useless for jazz - but for just about anything else I'm able to get very realistic sounds with no volume concerns, no need for numerous mics, cables, stands, etc. and best of all, I can tweak the sounds with the touch of a button (or click of a mouse) - even after they've been tracked.

I've been playing drums for close to 40 years and I firmly believe that there is no way an electronic kit could ever replace acoustic drums (the variance of techniques, the dynamics, the pure joy of hitting "real" drums) - however, for tracking drums in a less than ideal space - electronic drums can be a very valuable tool.

[Dogman]

Casey...I have DFHS and EZ-Drummer...I love them. But, I'd love to play acoustic now, as it's pretty new to me. If there is any way you can keep the acoustic set running, do it. Don't hesitate to get the programs if it's an option, as they kick ass.

I want to keep the acoustic portion, as it's real....maybe not the best sounding for me, but I play music because it's merely a release for me. Doesn't mean I won't use programmed drums if that's what my tune calls for, but programmed drums aren't always the answer.

DFHS and EZDrummer wil always sound better than what I can physicly play, but they can't beat real drums as far as the true feel of the tune.

Just for you....my latest drum effort.

Slow Burn

It's a collab I'm working on with Cy, and so far, this is just a scratch without a click. I'm happier with this than a programmed track, because I learned it and did it in a few hours, without any midi.

[ez_willis]

Originally Posted by Supercreep

I must say there have been numerous occasions where DKFHS has completely fooled me. It's getting that good, with careful programming.

Yeah, I'm concerned, too.

I think it's nervebag over at RP that blew me away with his use of ez_drummer(they spell it wrong ).

[ez_willis]

Originally Posted by ez_willis

Yeah, I'm concerned, too..

What I mean to say is, I didn't just spend all this cash and the last 3 years of my life getting proficient enough to track my own drums to have some nerdy programmer come up with a better idea.

[zed32]

yeah you gotta get one of those ez_drummer tshirts dude!

http://www.cafepress.com/toontrack.113762206
























too bad they don't make a bandana.

[metalhead28]

Supercreep, I think you know my stance. DFHS is the best thing that has happened to me (musically or technologically speaking) in years! Love it.

[Greg_L]

I play real drums because I could never in a million years figure out all that fake drum shit.

Personally, I'd rather hear less-than-perfect real drums really played by a human over fake sampled stuff any day.

[metalhead28]

Originally Posted by Greg_L

I play real drums because I could never in a million years figure out all that fake drum shit.

Personally, I'd rather hear less-than-perfect real drums really played by a human over fake sampled stuff any day.

I suppose I agree with that to a point. But in my situation - being not a very good drummer, not knowing any drummers who can record my music whenever I get a whim, and not having a good place to record them if I did - sampled drums win. Not to mention how much it helps when writing music - anything I want is right there at my fingertips. I can lay down the drums to a track with little or no racket being made, and they can be as perfect or as sloppy as I want 'em. I've also fooled quite a few people. Non-musician or non-recording types don't even question them, and alot of those types don't question them either.
If I could have a stellar recording environment and a skilled drummer on hand, of course I would prefer that. But oh well. The only people it ever matters to are drummers anyway!

[Greg_L]

Originally Posted by metalhead28

I suppose I agree with that to a point. But in my situation - being not a very good drummer, not knowing any drummers who can record my music whenever I get a whim, and not having a good place to record them if I did - sampled drums win. Not to mention how much it helps when writing music - anything I want is right there at my fingertips. I can lay down the drums to a track with little or no racket being made, and they can be as perfect or as sloppy as I want 'em. I've also fooled quite a few people. Non-musician or non-recording types don't even question them, and alot of those types don't question them either.
If I could have a stellar recording environment and a skilled drummer on hand, of course I would prefer that. But oh well. The only people it ever matters to are drummers anyway!

Lol. Yeah I don't knock anyone for using them. They have their place and have obviously come a very long way as far as reality goes. My only real problem with them is mostly with some of the people that use them. While the samples may sound real, it seems that many people get caught up in how "perfect" they can make them sound and end up making them too perfect. It sounds like a real kit played by a robot. Every snare hit sounds the same and rolls and fills are all perfectly timed and each drum is hit precisely the same way. I just think people get too blown away by the ease of making a kick ass drum track and don't take the time to "humanize" it.

[Nakatira]

Casey.

I love the sound of your drums on your recordings.

Being a good drummer, you should continue with natural drums IMHO.

I`ve been using "fake" for years and
I`d choose decent real drums over perfect "fakes" any day.

Thats my two cents

[zed32]

there's another VSTi called Jamstix which can load up DFHS inside it. Jamstix has some "humanizing" features to it which can make it sound pretty realistic. you can program it to sound like a crappy drummer on a good kit!

[Dogman]

Originally Posted by zed32

there's another VSTi called Jamstix which can load up DFHS inside it. Jamstix has some "humanizing" features to it which can make it sound pretty realistic. you can program it to sound like a crappy drummer on a good kit!

Hell, you want a crappy drummer, buy me a couple of beers....I'm your man....

[engine joe]

Originally Posted by Nakatira

Casey.

I love the sound of your drums on your recordings.

Being a good drummer, you should continue with natural drums IMHO.

I`ve been using "fake" for years and
I`d choose decent real drums over perfect "fakes" any day.

Thats my two cents

if for no other reason: character.

how!

[YellowMatter]

any you guys got Kontakt, Reason, GigaStudio, Halion, Battery, or EXS? soon the slate hits will be programable with those samplers and will have a cymbal pack that like the hits, were all done to 2 inch tape and preprocessed. Right now all the audio demos on the page are real drums with replaced hits, but we'll have fully programmed drums up soon.

[elementary]

YellowMatter, will that be a free upgrade?

Sounds good!

[Gorty]

I'm looking into either DKFHS or BFD.

This type of programming is new to me so I'm looking for advice on either of the above. I think I will be using Cubase as my host.

Opinions??????

[Greg_L]

Originally Posted by Gorty

I'm looking into either DKFHS or BFD.

This type of programming is new to me so I'm looking for advice on either of the above. I think I will be using Cubase as my host.

Opinions??????

Buy real drums!

[Dogman]

Originally Posted by Gorty

I'm looking into either DKFHS or BFD.

This type of programming is new to me so I'm looking for advice on either of the above. I think I will be using Cubase as my host.

Opinions??????

Gorty, look at Ez-Drummer with the DFH expansion pack. There's several kits you can pick from, and it is really easy to use.

[Greg_L]

Gorty, I just whipped out the Ouija board and had a chat with Eric Carr. He wants you to use real drums.