All you guys are right, from what little I've tried it.
"You have to have it loud enough in your headphones to keep the beat and keep the timing "electronic" which is not natural for a human player."
Right drstawl. Loud is a huge help- and absolutely necessary.
"If you have the individual tracks you can just line up the snare samples with the original snare sound in a DAW, if not give up."
Darn straight jake.
" It's a sonofabitch for sure to make it sound natural but it can be done. I also used a drum machine hat as a timing guide. That seemed to work for me. No sage advice, just sympathy."
Right again Rat Man.
I do have the snare and kick on seperate tracks. The thing is, I like the drum machine kick, and I don't have the right mic selection, gates, etc. to do them all live. What sucks about the whole thing is that even though I I'll end up with real drums, the "exact" timing of the kick gives it a more sterile feel.
I might try doing live kick, snare, toms- then overdubs crashes and rides.
What amazes me is that Todd Rundgren did his huge hit record by himself- including drums. So did Ben Folds on his last solo record.
I'm off work early, here I go.
Titan