Adding Virtual Drums

[Aled_King]

I'm pretty new to home recording and am basically trying to be a one man band (which is proving tricky).

I'm doing vocals, acoustic and electric guitar myself, but was wondering what advice you could give me for adding drums to my tracks. I use Reaper, and have tried using midi and some of the synths that come with it for drums, but the drum sounds pretty awful to me!

I know there are a few different ways to go, with VSTi's and Virtual instruments, and samples etc. But if you could try and help me work out what I need that'd be great. I am a complete beginner at midi, and if it's easier (whilst still sounding good) to use pre-made samples, please let me know.

Your help is always greatly appreciated.
Aled

 

[Dogbreath]

A few years ago, I was in the same boat and I ended up getting a Yamaha QY100. The drums in it sound good, you can quantize, sequence and it's a 16 track recorder as well. AND you don't have to know midi. I still don't.

Not sure what they're going for but a quick search will get ya there.

And you'll find that the one man band is actually pretty common around here so if you run into snags, post away.

 

[Aled_King]

Just looked that thing up, and it looks like maybe it would have been a good idea as my first purchase. However, I already have my preamp interface sorted.

Any idea of any good programs? I heard Battery was good? any idea whether you make the drum samples on that, or are they there for you?

Cheers

 

[Dogbreath]

yeah...I looked it up too and see they're still kinda spendy.

As to the battery or other programs, no help here. I track drums now and don't use a computer.

Luck to ya

 

[jrmillr1]

Virtual Drums

I was in the same place a few weeks back and decided to try Toontrack Superior Drummer 2.0, it sounds incredible (to me anyway). I think you can get a trial version to scope out, give the name a google. Comes with EZ Player Pro as well, which really makes arranging pretty simple. I find myself using "Solo" standalone mode for practice quite often now, it is a great way to keep your timing in check and it sounds great.

HTH,

JR Miller

 

[Aled_King]

Hmmmm, sounds good. I will look it up, and maybe give the trial a go. So do you make the beats yourself, or are they all pre-made samples?

 

[tobe2199]

Addictive Drums has some excellent 'real' kits and a huge stack of pre-made beats (as MIDI tracks) that you can simply paste into your DAW.

If you need to get going quickly you can choose one that's near to what you want and edit to fit exactly.

 

[adam.carstensen]

Maybe I just don't know any better, but I love Session Drummer 2.

It's not too expensive, and I just love the kits.

-
Adam

 

[Aled_King]

EZ Drummer is looking like a good piece of kit. Especially for the money! Just watched a few online demo's of it, and it looks like a simple piece of kit.

Anyone used it with Reaper? I've heard that sometimes these programs don't agree with some DAW's.

Many Thank for all your help and suggestions
Aled

 

[Everybody]

Hey man, I dont think you can go wrong with Superior 2.0, Addictive, or EZ Drummer. Just go with whats in your price range. I havent had any experience, but I have a couple friends that use Superior and Addictive, and they are guitar players. So it must not be to hard to figure out. But like you said the videos on youtube and stuff about EZ Drummer look real good too so

Download some trials, see which one you enjoy more, and buy it!