electronic timpanis anyone?

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floppsybunny

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i need help! right now i am making demos on a standalone console with an alesis drum machine but am finding i want to experiment with putting some classical/specialty percussion instruments like timpanis, triangles, vibraslaps, maracas etc. with my music but my drum machine does not have these sounds or the ones it has are extremely cheesy sounding at best.

is there a computer program that can sequence drum sound patches, and are there any decent sounding "drum sound" patches - samples or midi or something that i can buy and download and it will sound like the actual instrument? and what programme would be able to use these files and build up drum tracks with?

(i am a real computer recording newbie as you can tell.)

any help is appreciated! thanks.
 
A timpani, although a drum, falls under the definition of "chromatic percussion", and as such, falls outside the scope of your typical drum machine. Most synthesizers will have a timpani patch. Your milage may vary as to how satisfactory such a patch is. Any synth that has General MIDI compliance is guaranteed to have at least one timpani. If you have Windows XP (or later), then there is a software-based General MIDI synth that is installed with Windows. While I doubt you'd consider many of the sounds usable (they're based off of the old Roland SC-55 soundset from the early 90s), the synth, which is free, does contain a timpani, as well as a full suite of latin and orchestral percussion (all of which is standard for a General MIDI synth, by the way).

Alternatively (and preferably), you can get on over to www.rgcaudio.com and download their free soundfont player, and then get you a couple of GM soundfonts over at www.hammersound.net. No soundfont will ever sound as clean and awesome, while being as customizable as a sound off of a high dollar workstation like a Motif or a Triton Extreme...or even some of the better cheap Sound Canvas modules, but you can't possibly beat the price (which is free). May as well give 'er a try, eh?

Now on the other hand, if you're looking to really step things up and aren't afraid of spending a little cash, you might look into one of these high dollar software percussion libraries, like EastWest Quantum Leap Symphony Orchestra. If I had to hazard a guess though, I'd be willing to bet that you'd be quite happy with the sounds from a cheaper such library, such as Edirol Orchestral (I think it's under $100)

EDIT: I own just about everything that I've mentioned, so just let me know if you'd like to hear a demo of any of it.
 
This probably won't help, but my Korg 01/WFD has some great orchestral percussion. There's one combi patch which has vibes, timpanis, cymbals, bells. I think the timpanis sound pretty good too. Perhaps there's a 01/WFD emulator available?
Good luck!
 
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