Re: What are people using for drum plugins these days?
hows that work - you start with a stock beat then tap out some hits to tweak it, or just tap the whole thing out? does it snap to a grid or something? is the software basically a midi editor? superior sounds pretty realistic - does it compete with it sound-wise when it's all said and done?
I tap the whole thing out, usually in layers. It's totally possible to just copy/paste midi loops from Superior drummer and tweak from there, but what I like best about it is that it inspires me to make my own beats from scratch instead. The software is almost (ALMOST) a DAW in its own right, and since it can be opened as a plugin in your DAW it's like having two at once. But yes the core of it is a super solid midi editor, and yes it snaps to a grip. The quantize function is quite accurate, so to an extent it's actually possible to play nonsense and have it come out sounding halfway coherent. How realistic it sounds depends completely on the samples you use. The supplied ones are artificially "big" sounding, but I like that for a lot of stuff these days. If I wanted to I could use Superior Drummer sounds (more on that in a moment). Some of the functions, like note repeat, will give signature electronic and hip hop sounds like rolling hi-hats (switching between 8th, 16th, and 32nd notes while holding closed hi-hat pad), but the pads are velocity sensitive and can sound be played to sound very realistic. The swing feature also helps make it sound more human by moving your beat ever so slightly "behind." Can give something fairly static a nice groove. Another great feature is the ability to organize parts into "tracks," so you can strategically mute and un-mute pre-sequenced flourishes to add variation to a beat or change beats completely, or you can just have it switch to the next sequence, with its own set of muteable tracks. This also allows you to do things like change time signature or tempo.
Here is a good demonstration:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7FigKhvSkE
It's also a lot more than a drum machine... For example, you can take any sound/sample and automatically pitch shift it and assign it chromatically to the pads, or use a keyboard going into your midi in. Works amazing for stuff like horn jabs hehe
dominus said:
I'd use that as MIDI out into the computer to control Superior. I use Superior with an E-Kit that I built.
It's actually possible to open superior drummer right inside the software (or any other vst plugin for that matter), and it automatically assigns sounds to the pads as if it were a keyboard. So no need!
I was actually burned out on those sounds, or I'd just do that every time I sat down to compose something.
Edit: So it's a (almost)DAW opened as plugin within a DAW which can also open plugins. It's like inception!
