Help me pretend I have a drummer

mixtape · Post by **mixtape** » Sun Mar 25, 2012 11:30 pm

Any recommendations for (legal) free VST drums that sound convincingly drummish? I've been monkeying around with Cubase quite a bit, and the kits that come with the onboard synth are... pretty ok, mostly, but the toms border on laughable. I've been googling around for a couple days and finding a lot of stuff that sounds good in demos, but once I actually get the "free" version installed, it comes with every feature but the ones I actually want (and yes, I'm aware that they've done that on purpose).

Eventually, I will probably get desperate enough to pay for something, but it's the kind of purchase I can only justify to myself as measured in pages of dissertation turned in, and I haven't written shit lately (probably because all I want to do is play with Cubase).

Sloan · Post by **Sloan** » Mon Mar 26, 2012 12:55 am

I've tried for a while to use free stuff for drums and I never had luck finding anything worthwhile besides some vintage drum machine emulations.
There are however, lots of free sample libraries for drum kits etc.. but you need something to play them. I use Slate Digital's TRIGGER for triggering from live drums, but I don't do it all that often.

Will cost money, but supposedly worth it.

http://stevenslatedrums.com/

Others to check out are Superior Drummer 2 and BFD2.

Get ready to break your fingers/wrists programming drums via midi. fuuuuuuuuuuuu

Ian · Post by **Ian** » Mon Mar 26, 2012 12:24 pm

superior drummer is pretty titties. The only gripes would be on the open hi hat isn't as opened as I would like and you can't crash the ride. Every thing is a bit cut and dry and might sound more produced than you would like for a more alternative sounding project.

I use it for my preproduction demo's in conjunction with my electric kit midi.

Sloan · Post by **Sloan** » Mon Mar 26, 2012 5:49 pm

Ian wrote:superior drummer is pretty titties. The only gripes would be on the open hi hat isn't as opened as I would like and you can't crash the ride. Every thing is a bit cut and dry and might sound more produced than you would like for a more alternative sounding project.

I use it for my preproduction demo's in conjunction with my electric kit midi.

What is the latency like when tracking with a midi kit?
I actually tried a RockBand kit and had it triggering via midi into TRIGGER, but it was just off too much to be useful.

Ian · Post by **Ian** » Tue Mar 27, 2012 1:59 am

In pro tools you can adjust playback latency. Mine goes as low as 128 which isnt very noticable besides maybe the drums feeling a bit sluggish, but not audibly noticable. Also i try not to send the mix out the console while tracking because that actually adds about 2000 to 3000 ms of delay

ultratwin · Post by **ultratwin** » Tue Mar 27, 2012 2:51 am

Ian wrote:superior drummer is pretty titties. The only gripes would be on the open hi hat isn't as opened as I would like and you can't crash the ride. Every thing is a bit cut and dry and might sound more produced than you would like for a more alternative sounding project.

I use it for my preproduction demo's in conjunction with my electric kit midi.

I love SDII very much as well, and agree about how you can hit the ride at 127 even without crashing it, and even at that velocity it's often barely audible in a full mix [/time to bounce dry tracks!]

However, I believe key B2 is the ride crash, hit with the side of the stick. It's admittedly not tracked in the same velocity range (feel/timbre?) of the D#2 ride hit, but still gives a very decent plawwsh that I use a lot for the much-disliked cymbal torture and alternate cymbal hits. I also agree that Bb1 is not an open enough hat, and that C3 is too open (though thankfully it's the same cymbal pair)...would be nice for Toontrack to eventually introduce a set with something like 4 separate keys that give the choice of pedal gradation on the hats.

kim · Post by **kim** » Tue Mar 27, 2012 6:40 pm

i beat cardboard vs. tin boxes for songs

lorez · Post by **lorez** » Tue Mar 27, 2012 8:13 pm

kim wrote:i beat cardboard vs. tin boxes for songs

My first bands drummer used biscuit tins and and a home brew tub when we started. He's now in queen tribute band

mastermorya · Post by **mastermorya** » Tue Mar 27, 2012 8:44 pm

Relatedly, is $40 a good deal on a used Alesis SR-16?

James · Post by **James** » Tue Mar 27, 2012 11:21 pm

Triggering drums from MIDI, as Sloan said, is what I'd go for. You need to find some free sample libraries and a free sample playing VST. Finding a sample library is a hell of a lot easier than finding a straight drum synth VST.

gaybear · Post by **gaybear** » Tue Mar 27, 2012 11:27 pm

mastermorya wrote:Relatedly, is $40 a good deal on a used Alesis SR-16?

Sounds good to me. They're not gonna sound super natural, but I loved mine for some 80s goodness.

Mages · Post by **Mages** » Wed Mar 28, 2012 3:09 pm

gaybear wrote:
mastermorya wrote:Relatedly, is $40 a good deal on a used Alesis SR-16?
Sounds good to me. They're not gonna sound super natural, but I loved mine for some 80s goodness.

the sr-16 or the hr-16?

Sloan · Post by **Sloan** » Wed Mar 28, 2012 5:47 pm

with a drum machine, you could program beats etc.. then use the midi from it to replace with radass sounds.

gaybear · Post by **gaybear** » Fri Mar 30, 2012 11:02 pm

Mages wrote:
gaybear wrote:
mastermorya wrote:Relatedly, is $40 a good deal on a used Alesis SR-16?
Sounds good to me. They're not gonna sound super natural, but I loved mine for some 80s goodness.
the sr-16 or the hr-16?

DOH. HR, totally different beast.

batsbrew · Post by **batsbrew** » Fri Apr 13, 2012 2:38 pm

EzDrummer is so superlative to a lot of what's out there, and really not that expensive.

i'd suggest doing this thing right, saving up and watch for the SALES that pop up from time to time, and then pull the trigger.

you wont be sorry

mixtape · Post by **mixtape** » Fri Apr 13, 2012 3:32 pm

Yeah, I'm probably going to go the EZDrummer route eventually. A question though: what's the difference between it and SuperiorDrummer and is that difference worth $100 to a grad student?

brainfur · Post by **brainfur** » Fri Apr 13, 2012 3:41 pm

...is it really that hard to convince a friend to become ur drummer?

Dokterrock · Post by **Dokterrock** » Thu Apr 26, 2012 5:18 am

mixtape wrote:Yeah, I'm probably going to go the EZDrummer route eventually. A question though: what's the difference between it and SuperiorDrummer and is that difference worth $100 to a grad student?

EZDrummer is less robust - I have it and it's alright. I wish I could do more with it, though. Might be worth the extra to upgrade.

honeyiscool · Post by **honeyiscool** » Fri May 18, 2012 10:19 pm

Anybody looking to spend money on a drum program should check out Addictive Drums.

moogmusic · Post by **moogmusic** » Mon May 21, 2012 9:10 am

Analogue Drums provide a free kit's worth of samples and are supposed to sound pretty good. For the Open Source/Linux amongst us, there's also a map available for Hydrogen.