Drum Software?

GuitarStv

GuitarStv

Sock Market Trader
I got a ton of drum samples about six or seven years ago, and have been splicing them together to make drum tracks in cool edit pro (adobe audition as it's called lately) for ages . . . but it's boring and never sounds quite the way that I want it to. What are the most realistic sounding programmable drum tracks that can give me a .wav output that are also pretty simple to use? Bonus points for cheap/free.
 
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Re: Drum Software?

I have searched for cheap / free drum software that sounded good for a long time, and the answer is this:

Nope.


You just have to pony up the money for one of the two trusted names: Addictive Drums or EZDrummer.
 
Re: Drum Software?

Cheap - If you have support for VSTi, then EZDrummer lite would fill the bill. I bought a computer Music magazine with a copy included (i was about $17 or so)
Or the full version is $99 or less when on sale. Thats what I am using now.
If you want the lite (OEM) version, I can transfer it to you for $15.
It is great for demo, getting ideas down, etc.
If you want full polished tracks, then you want the full version. It is the cheapest/best solution I have found.
 
Re: Drum Software?

I bought iZotope's iDrum not too long ago. Sounds pretty good, and you can use anything for samples. Doesn't need to be drum samples per se.

I'll try to post a couple clips.
 
Re: Drum Software?

BFD 2 is great as well, though it is a bit pricey. However, it doesn't really act as a vst but rather a standalone sequencer. It can export in wav format.
 
Re: Drum Software?

Reload in 5 said:
Cheap - If you have support for VSTi, then EZDrummer lite would fill the bill. I bought a computer Music magazine with a copy included (i was about $17 or so)
Or the full version is $99 or less when on sale. Thats what I am using now.
If you want the lite (OEM) version, I can transfer it to you for $15.
It is great for demo, getting ideas down, etc.
If you want full polished tracks, then you want the full version. It is the cheapest/best solution I have found.
Click to expand...

I've been eyeing EZ drummer for a while . . . 179 is just too much to pay for software. 100$ is maybe doable. How do you record your drum tracks with EZ drummer, are there built-patterns that you can tweak? Do you use a midi keyboard or something to input the rhythms? Do you just copy and paste the sounds in?
 
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Re: Drum Software?

If you have a soft sampler then you can just get midi files of drum groves for your samples. Programmed drums are just a pain and always have been to me. You can try parallel compression and other tricks to get them to sound better.
 
Re: Drum Software?

GuitarStv said:
I've been eyeing EZ drummer for a while . . . 179 is just too much to pay for software. 100$ is maybe doable. How do you record your drum tracks with EZ drummer, are there built-patterns that you can tweak? Do you use a midi keyboard or something to input the rhythms? Do you just copy and paste the sounds in?
Click to expand...

comes with a bunch of loops of various styles - you just listen to a few, find ones you dig, and drag and drop to create your song. you can leave the loops alone or in a midi editor view move hits around, copy and paste notes w/in loops, or add new notes (with a midi keyboard if you so desire, but I don't have one).

when you mix down in your DAW, the drums go to WAV as you hear it during playback.

try the demo. and the demo for addictive drums. shirley, you'll like one or the other.
 
Re: Drum Software?

I've used Addictive Drums for a couple of years and I've really liked it. It's not perfect and has its quirks but I'm very satisfied with it.
 
Re: Drum Software?

I know that I can hook up the Rock Band drum kit to my computer as a midi controller. Could I just use this to trigger the drum samples I want to record?
 
Re: Drum Software?

^ I don't know that controller. You need a soft sampler or drum software like NI Battery to hold the drum samples. What software do you own now?
 
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Re: Drum Software?

innerdreamrecords.co said:
^ I don't know that controller. You need a soft sampler or drum software like NI Battery to hold the drum samples. What software do you own now?
Click to expand...

Picture an empty room at the back of my house with a computer and some amps in it. :P All that I've got is Audition and (since my wife seems to have grow tired of the game) the rock band drum kit (with cymbal attachments). I have nothing to record midi or to use recorded midi as triggers. Any suggestions for me? (Cheap and easy would be best.)

Edit - Actually, I might have an old copy of fruity loops that I got for free with some M-audio stuff ages ago. Does that do any midi stuff?
 
Re: Drum Software?

Fruity Loops should have a sampler or drum machine that you can load your samples into, though the free version may not. You would need to build a drum kit from your samples and map each sample usually to a piano roll C1 being the kick as an example. Then you should be able to use the drum kit to trigger the samples via midi. Fruity Loops would work too if you can import midi files for existing drum groves.
 
Re: Drum Software?

If you have a SoundBlaster sound card with a decent amount of onboard RAM (256 is not decent), you should be able to find Soundfonts of drum samples. The card should have a Control Panel option to replace all the sounds in the card with those samples (so you won't get piano and stuff).

If you can score an Alesis SR16 for cheap, those not only have decent sounds (even being almost 20 years old), and patterns that are truly inspired. By changing the tempo and the associated kit, you can completely change the feel of a preset pattern.
Then you just need a MIDI cable to have the SR16 trigger your PC's samples, and/or a 1/4"-whatever adapter to hook the SR16 into your soundcard to record its sounds.
 
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