The Best, Cheapest Midi Drum Software

[NorkyT]

Hey Hey,

I've just recently started recording and am using Pro Tools 7.4 thorugh a M-Box 2 and am scratching my head about Midi drum software.

I'm kinda new to recording; but am finding Pro Tools a pleasure to use. I've gotten the song parts down but am looking to fill them out with drums, without the hassle of finding a decent drummer (I know plenty of non decent ones).

I've heard great things about Drumkits from Hell, and am aware that EZ drumer is the same manufacturers sequencer, and at £90-ish it seems to be one of the cheaper options.

Any recommendations for software (BFD, EZ Drummer, etc) and also midi interfaces as I've never used them before, and dont know which is better, Midi Pads or Mid Keyboards.

Thanks guys,

Norky

[JAYDMF]

Ez drummer is great but it is more of a realistic drum program, ie emulating real drummers, although you can get some bizarre stuff from it. Battery 3 however really lets you bend the hell out of not only drum samples but whatever samples you load into it, each sell can have several effects, autiomation, a seperate output and even some complex composit sound composed of several samples that are played according to a logic(not the DAW) sequence etc etc and it comes with 13GB of samples plus access to a hell of a lot more from the NI website. at £130/140 its a bargain too


battery3

[barrydv247]

Hey Norky,

If your main goal is to get drum software that can easily be tweaked to sound like a real drummer i'd have to recommend BFD or Addictive drums. In the right hands it can be very hard to tell a really well recorded drummer from really well programmed BFD or Addictive. Battery is great in that it allows you far more flexiblity in editing sounds and using samples so you can use it for alot more than just drums but it's easier to fool people's ears with BFD or Addictive if that's your goal.

i've recorded a few songs with BFD drums prgrammed exactly as I'd play them and it sounds like me playing a real kit recorded in a studio i could probably never afford to use. very impressive.

[JAYDMF]

Originally Posted by barrydv247

Hey Norky,

If your main goal is to get drum software that can easily be tweaked to sound like a real drummer i'd have to recommend BFD or Addictive drums. In the right hands it can be very hard to tell a really well recorded drummer from really well programmed BFD or Addictive. Battery is great in that it allows you far more flexiblity in editing sounds and using samples so you can use it for alot more than just drums but it's easier to fool people's ears with BFD or Addictive if that's your goal.

i've recorded a few songs with BFD drums prgrammed exactly as I'd play them and it sounds like me playing a real kit recorded in a studio i could probably never afford to use. very impressive.

I really wouldnt say that tbh honest, a friend of mine did his major project on Dub mxing and used battery for that and you really cant tell that its a drum machine, the ability to set up predefined logic to alter velocity is much more felxible in battery.

If you do want something you can just jump on an have beats within seconds then BFD/EZ drummer is well good but i wouldnt say that its any better at fooling the listener.

[waxxy]

the best one ive ever used is Spectrasonics - Stylus RMX

this is a monster of a drum machine..the way you can mass up beats puts other software too shame check out the demos on the above site then buy the beasty from Spectrasonics Stylus RMX at DV247.COM i promise you wont be disapointed also theres a few sites doing free add ons for this software just check them out on google.

[barrydv247]

Hey jay

'If you do want something you can just jump on an have beats within seconds then BFD/EZ drummer is well good but i wouldnt say that its any better at fooling the listener'

you just agreed with me while disagreeing! I did say it was easier to fool the listeners ears with BFD - you said 'if you want to jump on and have beats in seconds then bfd is well good!!'. So it is easier!! haha!

No one is knocking Battery - I use it on all my own music but BFD and Addictive drums are geared more towards guitar/band based recording and demos than battery. battery does a hell of alot more than just try and emulate the sound of a real drum kit!

[whis4ey]

Have any of you tried the built in drum machine on the Korg3200D?

[JAYDMF]

Originally Posted by barrydv247

Hey jay

'If you do want something you can just jump on an have beats within seconds then BFD/EZ drummer is well good but i wouldnt say that its any better at fooling the listener'

you just agreed with me while disagreeing! I did say it was easier to fool the listeners ears with BFD - you said 'if you want to jump on and have beats in seconds then bfd is well good!!'. So it is easier!! haha!

No one is knocking Battery - I use it on all my own music but BFD and Addictive drums are geared more towards guitar/band based recording and demos than battery. battery does a hell of alot more than just try and emulate the sound of a real drum kit!

If you look at what i highlighted youd have known what i was refering to with my post dude.

[waxxy]

if you buy the akai mpd24 controller you get drum software with that you get bfd lite and a few other things .its a top controller i love mine and use it all the time its great for triggering samples ,beats,fx anything..check it out in my other posts or click here ..YouTube - AKAI MPD24 demonstration

[waxxy]

heres a link for a free 808 drum machine vst.Free VST plugins and effects - Erik Wollo WOLLO BEAT 2

[MPDmike]

In my opinion you can't do better than go with Jamstix, which can be bought directly from [URL="http://www.rayzoon.com"]their website[/URL] as a download. If you don't play drums, like me, then this is a great way to get realistic sounding drums by adding fills and varying the settings for the style of drumming. In fact there are a number of styles you can use that imitate famous drummers. Give it a look before deciding on anything else, and listen to the demos of what can be done with the software. There is also a pretty good bundle deal where you can buy the basic software and a number of their add-on paks. I think Jamstix is the cheapest way to buy a convincing virtual drummer and some high quality drum kits - I've bought them all so far.

[U]NB[/U]: If you are using a Mac there are work-arounds mentioned in the Rayzoon forums to get Jamstix working, because it is primarily a Windows product.

[fitz]

+1 for Addictive Drums. Haven't looked back since picking it up.
BFD 2 looks pretty damn good too, but the AD samples are superb.

[tudan]

Hi Norky,
EZ drummer is by far the best bottem end market, I am an E Drummer and upgraded recentlly to superior 2 which is the top of the range package. EZ Drummer is easy to play via keys or an E Drum Kit - very low latency on my soundcard and the sounds are awesome. Its also very stable and I believe DV are doing ez drummer and dkfh together for £89 - a great deal.

[Fastlane]

[QUOTE=waxxy;1001]heres a link for a free 808 drum machine vst.[url=http://free-plugin-list.com/plugin.php?id=348]Free VST plugins and effects - Erik Wollo WOLLO BEAT 2[/url][/QUOTE]

thats pretty cool kinda basic tho

[Richie]

Originally Posted by tudan

Hi Norky,
EZ drummer is by far the best bottem end market, I am an E Drummer and upgraded recentlly to superior 2 which is the top of the range package. EZ Drummer is easy to play via keys or an E Drum Kit - very low latency on my soundcard and the sounds are awesome. Its also very stable and I believe DV are doing ez drummer and dkfh together for £89 - a great deal.

+1 for that, I have EZ drummer, it's easy to use and sounds awesome. The basic EZ drummer kit is good although I found the cymbals and snare a bit weak. I've since bought the EZX DFH expansion pack and that's quite simply phenomenal.