Best DRUM software plug-ins or stand alone

[tdukex]

Don't know if this would work for you, but it's another option.

http://www.submersiblemusic.com/

 

[Guitar-MJ]

Addictive Drums

(I don't know how to put a link in here, but here's the product page for addictive drums)

http://www.xlnaudio.com/?page=products

 

[zazz]

addictive drums looks a little thirtsy for ram??

 

[Guitar-MJ]

I started running Addictive Drums back when I had only 1gig of memory and an old AthlonMP system.
Memory is so cheap these days, good time to upgrade if you're considering it.

 

[jmorris]

Drumagog.......

 

[cobaltblue]

Drumagog's a different kettle of fish.....


The three main contenders are definately BFD, EzDrummer and Addictive

For sound quality and most convincing acoustic feel and sound i'd go addictive

BFD is just massive and quality

Ez is what I use most and it's easy, you get good results from DFH (I use the vintage rock kit a lot too) and it's easy to manipulate control


Steer well away from M-audios offering it's officially pants.

Bang for buck i'd go Ez-Drummer, but just download all the trials and go with whats best for you.

Someone made a good point tho, why arent you just hooking up you're digital kit? I Cant imagine a drummer enjoying hours of programming drums, or have I read it wrong and you're using your kit to trigger software?

 

[mattkw80]

I sold it.

It just was not working out. I've tried BFD, EZ Drummer, Addictive, Battery, etc. etc. I tried them ALL.

Nothing was syncing up to what I played on the Roland kit. I spent hours tweaking, remapping midi notes.... I even used the TD-6 Map template someone here sent me..... but the performance you play is NOT the performance you get back.

Very very dissappointing actually, not to mention the $1200 I lost in this experiment.

Now I am back to acoustic drums, with a bad taste in my mouth from Roland V-Drums.

I do however use Addictive Drums just as a program, as I find it excellent. Sounds great, works great, very easy to use.

 

[hardwire666]

EzDrummer, and Reason with the RDK 2.0 (reason for how versatile it is) are hands down the best. I can't say any thing for BFD as I have yet to use it. AS far as latencey is concerned what DAW app are you using, are you mac or PC? If you're PC are you using ASIO drivers, does Your interface HAVE ASIO drivers? Latencey is always going to have to do with the computer side of things, and really nothing else.

I'm sad to read you gave up because I want to eventually do the same thing, and have been working this out in my head for months, and I know its 100% doable. I just can't afford the v-drums so I have been working out building a Home Brew Electric kit, and using the PC as my drum module. There are people ou there doing this already. So, I know it can be done.

 

[Guitar-MJ]

Yess, there are people out there doing the homebrew e-kit and running addictive drums... I'm one of them.

Works flawless running my system at 6ms delay doesn't seem to bother drummers on my kit during session time.

My homemade kit is basically the V-drum principle, just using an Alesis DM5 for trigger to MIDI. Took awhile to tune sensitivity to trigger Addictive Drums like a real kit, but I've seen alot of happy faces once I got it set just right.

But not a bad idea for you guys trying to do the same, just keep at till you've got it how you want.

here's a pic if you were curious what this homebrewed kit looks like.

 

[mattkw80]

EzDrummer, and Reason with the RDK 2.0 (reason for how versatile it is) are hands down the best. I can't say any thing for BFD as I have yet to use it. AS far as latencey is concerned what DAW app are you using, are you mac or PC? If you're PC are you using ASIO drivers, does Your interface HAVE ASIO drivers? Latencey is always going to have to do with the computer side of things, and really nothing else.

I'm sad to read you gave up because I want to eventually do the same thing, and have been working this out in my head for months, and I know its 100% doable. I just can't afford the v-drums so I have been working out building a Home Brew Electric kit, and using the PC as my drum module. There are people ou there doing this already. So, I know it can be done.

Guitar-MJ is using a different brain than I was.

Hardwire knows things for certain, and knows them to be fact, but then turns around and says he's not tried it.

I am using a $1400 M-Audio Project Mix I/O, so yeah, it's got ASIO drivers.

Quote : "Latencey is always going to have to do with the computer side of things, and really nothing else."

Wow... profound knowledge, thank you. I thought for sure the latency was caused by the gravitational pull of the moon and the type of drum sticks I was playing with.

I hate to be rude man, but do you REALLY think I didn't know LATENCY was COMPUTER RELATED ??????

That wasn't the issue anyway, but WHERE ELSE did you think someone would think LATENCY would COME FROM ???

I never used Addictive drums with the V-Drum kit, maybe it would have worked.

I have triggers and could easily homebrew my acoustic kit, I'm just not interested anymore. My brother has the DM5 brain, and lives 10 minutes away.

At any rate, I guess this thread is closed, because Newbie-Hardwire says "EzDrummer, and Reason with the RDK 2.0 are hands down the best." despite not trying BFD.

 

[davesworld26]

I feel your pain on this. I've tried programming realistic drums with midi and it can be a headache, makes me miss my Tama kit. You just have to realize that it's a completely different thing and try to find value in the digital rhythms good qualities. The machine like, cold style can be really cool for somethings. When I'm listening to things like ambient, electronic, Radiohead, Bjork, whatever I pull out the midi stuff. But if I;m going for more Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, rock, jazz type things, forget it, nothing's going to replace an acoustic set.

Also another thing with those programs is that you have to at the very least heavily tweak the samples, or better yet create your own. Get a mic and if you don't have any drums of your own find some and chop up new samples in Audacity or something. Record all the drums, cymbals, cowbell, pot, pans, bottles, anything... and you'll be able to build up a cool library of sounds to use. Plus you'll learn about mic placements, get to experiment with audio, and it's fun too. Then you won't have to rely on the mostly shitty samples that come standard with most of those programs.

As for programs, I love Ableton Live, check it out I think you can get a demo at the official site. I know it has full MIDI support, but I haven't had a chance to try it yet since all my MIDI gear is in another state right now. But it's very intuitive and might work for you.

Also, I use FL Studio(Fruity Loops) a lot and really like it just cause I've been using it for awhile and know it well. A lot of people put FL down, but I've heard some amazing things done with it. I've used it with recording MIDI and it worked fine for me.

Reason seems good too, only messed around with it a little, not sure about the MIDI, the thing I liked about it is how you can flip the rack around and re-wire everything like a real rack. But I wouldn't want to use it as my main program maybe just by routing it into something else and using it like an effects loop.

How are those Roland's anyway? Playing drums might be my favorite instrument but sometimes the acoustic kit is not always an option (space and neighbor factors). I've been looking at the Yamaha DD55 for a cheap MIDI interface for banging out some real-time beats for song sketches.

Good luck

I use Battery 3 with my own custom made kit from Blue Jay's and it has served me well... i sometimes do layer stylus kick and snare..