HELP, I think I'm travelling to the beat of a different drum!

[Fmmahoganyrush]

I have every question imagineable regarding Drum Pads. I'm doing MIDI work. Pointing and clicking my way through drum tracks. I've tried some of the Looping software available, but I'm not completely sold on it yet. I've been able to tweek my drum tracks on Cakewalk in the event menu to get variations of velocity, off setting timing, etc., for a more "real" sounding drum track, but it's very time consuming. Does anyone out there have any thoughts or experience with Drum Pad MIDI Controlers such as the Roland SPD-6, SPD-20, or the Hart Multipad. I feel this type of medium would enable me to have better control on velocities, drum rolls, etc., even if I were to lay one drum track down at a time, and go back and build off of it. Am I heading in the right direction with this knowing that it would be impossible to set up a full (or even partial) kit in my present studio environment? The Unit doesn't necessarily have to have built in sounds and a good drum module isn't out of the question. Some tips on a really good drum module would also be appreciated (I'm looking for regular Rock / Pop sounding drum patches... ...Nothing Techno. I think I want to go this route before I get carple-tunnel in my wrist from mousing these drum tracks one beat at a time. Any help on this Thanx, Tom.

[Norman Vegan]

I've recently started using the SPD6 to program drums. In the past, I'd use a combination of step programming and playing "live" on my keyboard controller. The SPD (or any good pad) will definitely give your drum tracks more of a "real" feel. It's also much more fun!!!!

Currently I'm doing the kick separately and playing the rest of the "kit" live...I'm not ready to do the whole thing live, I've got to get more hand/foot coordination happening!

As far as sound modules are concerned, I use the drum sounds from my korg x5 rack module. It's a "budget" unit (I don't even know if it's still made)...but the sounds on it are so good that I usually use it for all drums and keys.

The SPD6 is very inexpensive ($245)