Up until now, I've always had a drummer willing to let me mic up his kit so all of my recordings have always had live drums. Ever since I've moved I have not played in any bands or had access to a live drummer. As of late I've had some pretty good ideas for some new songs but some of them are in dire need of some drums. Since I don't have any drummers, nor the space to record them even if I had one, I'm toying with the idea of going with some drum software. I was wondering what you guys recomendations would be for some simple, easy to use drum software. I've tried the "drum machines" in reason but I just cant seem to get more than a stale loop going. Any suggestions?

I'm a big fan of "BFD" from FXPansion - runs as a plug-in or as a standalone app. They just came out with a new version, BFD2, which I'm very happy with. Requires a decent amount of hard disk space (preferably on a separate drive from your system drive or your 'audio' drive) and RAM, but well worth the system requirements and $ for what you get.

I've heard BFD is good. I've just never used it so I'm kinda curious about how easy it is to use. Keep in mind, I'm no drummer and I'm in no way familiar with drum software (other than that in Reason, which I've obviously had no luck with).

Also, keep in mind, this is simply to help me develope the songs. If I were to record these to be put on an album I'll definately seek out a live drummer. These simply no replacing the real thing IMO.

Hey Buckshot, I've got a few drummer friends here in town & the space to record them if you're ever looking.


BTW, you still need to make it out to a Sandinistas! show. Next one is at Tin Roof, March 21.

Though my main instrument is pedal steel, I've played drums since about 1960. I have a really nice yammi maple/beech absolute kit. However, I am partial to loops from Beta Monkee. These loops are kind of like a drummer thinks.

Personally, I don't like the sound of the Beta Monkey loops. I have 3 of their CDs (Drum Werks IV, V & VI), and I've always found the sound kind of small and thin. On the other hand, the grooves are good and there's a good selection on each disc. Buckshot, if you're interested, check eBay - I got all three discs for under $40.

The loop CD I use the most is Drum Tools. I forget what company produced it, but they're fantastic sounding loops, inventive parts, and there's a pretty big selection on that one disc. Again, you can probably find a copy on eBay for pretty cheap.

For Rock, Simon Phillips has a good CD and multitrack. Lot's of grooves there.

I purchased all of the Smartloops multitracks and they didn't work with Cubase. Initially their support was good, but now I'm not getting any responses to my e-mails, don't know what's up with that.
So I really can't recommend them to Cubase users.

BFD is popular I'm thinking about the Drumagog BFD, I'm not sure exactly how it all works though, so I'm hesitant to pull the trigger.

Thanks for the input guys.

That Beta Monkey sounds interesting, especially for that kind of price(given that I can find a deal like you did Walker). Quality of the sound is not necessarily my main concern. Like I was saying, this is primarily for a base to work from to develope the songs a little better and to get an idea of what I want the final drum tracking to sound like. I mainly want the ease of use so to kick out a quick drum track before I lose whatever idea I may have for guitar or bass.

Dutch- Seems like I've heard of that Simon Phillips your talking about but being that I'm running Cubase, the Smartloops kinda makes me nervous.

Cop- what's up buddy. I know, I DO still need to catch up with you and I would like to catch that show. I've been so busy with work lately(starting up a new facility in Charleston) I'm doing good to even pick up a guitar every once in a while Where is Tin Roof? Never heard of it. If you can remember, send me a PM when it gets closer to the gig date. I'll round up the crew and come check it out.

Thanks again guys. Now I'm off to watch my Wolfpack try and pull off a win against UNC.

quote:

Originally posted by BuckShot:
I've heard BFD is good. I've just never used it so I'm kinda curious about how easy it is to use. Keep in mind, I'm no drummer and I'm in no way familiar with drum software (other than that in Reason, which I've obviously had no luck with).

To me, it seems like it's as easy or as complicated as you want to make it. It has a 'groove engine' library section if you want it to be a 'virtual drummer', using patterns played by real drummers on triggered kits (and automatically switching between variations, fills, etc., if you like), or trigger different patterns from different MIDI keys, or chain together patterns to lay out a song within it (like 'song mode' on some drum machines), but I like to use it more as a 'sound module' and manually program my own parts, myself. I like the freedom of sequencing the drum parts first, then being able to, say, swap out different individual drums and effects at any time depending on what works in the mix. You could use it like a 'virtual drummer' while songwriting, then edit (or program from scratch) the 'final' parts when you're ready to do the 'real' recording or mix.

Addictive Drums IMO
Doesn't have many pre-recorded beats though.

I've tried all of them.

I'm gonna weigh in...but, first, we need to clarify--you have TWO needs. Drum sounds. Drum patterns/playing. These will get you two different recommendations, IMO.

For sounds? You can get away with something FAR less than the lastest and greatest. Drum sampling has been considered "mature technology" for 15 years. That said, the flexibility of the multimic'd samples that software like BFD brings to the table IS a big step up if you're willing to dick with it. I like BFD a lot. I don't even see much point in the newer "2", because they frankly sound EXACTLY like acoustic drums in the first one--with full control of the mics/placement. But, I've not used it (v2), so...you can listen to clips and tell which sounds appeal to you. To me, DrumKitFrumHell Supperior (favored by heavier music producers) sound too processed...but, their "custom and vintage" sounds great--I'd have likely gone that route if I hadn't been given BFD and expansions.

Now...beats themselves. Loop libraries are FAR to inflexible for me. Some people like them...I don't. My music has too many unique stops/starts and such for a frozen sample loop to work well. BFD has a groove library...that SUCKS. Hard. I could tap better beats in my sleep. You CAN add to it...so there may be third party libs of beats for it by now that improve. Steinberg's Groove Agent KILLS for beat and fills and flexibility in programming them. Particularly if you're using a Steinberg host app--where you can actually vcapture the MIDI output and manipulate it in Cubase. I've used v1&2. The sounds are subpar. They now have a v3, which they've supposedly addressed that with better samples.

I can't overstate how much I liked the inspiring grooves and the way their fill engine works...I've actually considered buying it JUST for that...and then remapping the MIDI out to BFD for the sounds. Previously, I remapped it to Gigastudio where I had nice samples.

For someone looking for inspiring grooves to record to...I would check out the sounds in Groove Agent 3. If you like the sounds? Done. If not...I've not used, but heard many great things about Toontrack's EZDrummer and it's refill packs. I know someone who says the Nashville pak includes every country "money beat" they've dreamed of and then some. It's easiest, because it's all intgrated-sounds&beats. The sounds are also a little more "preprocessed" (the Nashville one by one of the best engineers in town)--so, they're more mix ready than "raw" libs like BFD and DKFHS.

So, check those two and see what you think. Both are intended for exactly what I think you want...unlike "better sounding" huge libs like BFD, which cater more to tweakheads who want the last yard of realism--even if it means it doesn't "play" as well (due to less processing) right off the bat.

Superior 2.0 sounds killer:

http://www.toontrack.com/s20.asp

I haven't had a chance to mess with BlueRoom's drum samples yet, very nice pro packaging though - looks very cool Thanks for sending that, man

I can testify to BFD, E-Mu's Emulator, and DOD (Drums on Demand).

Pros and cons:

1) DOD. DOD (Drums on Demand)is a live drummer (Todd Sorensen) recorded in many different styles and tempos into loops. You can buy stereo sets in 24-bit Acidized Wav (making tempo changes simple) or 16-bit (may be 24-bit now) REX files. Additionally you can buy the multi-track (and dry) versions which is what I generally use. These allow you to manage tracks like you would normally, snare, kick, overheads, etc. I recommend these guys. Quint and Guy at the studio are super nice guys and Todd rocks. The only downside is that the loops are not super friendly when it comes to editing them (other than the Rex versions which are beat sliced). I've been begging the guys to record some midi drum patterns that I can experiment with in BFD. The "song sets" in DOD are set up very well verses, choruses, bride pieces, and then alternates for those and many many different fill parts and I wish they would do this with midi chunks - that would be very cool. There are also loads of single hits on top of that. I've done a little work for Quint, so I'm a bit biased - but these guys are awesome.

2) BFD and Emulator: I'm using Cubase SL3 which is so simple to create drum maps and midi tracks in that it's just plain dumb silly. Emulator has some decent-sounding kits, including a "Seattle kit" which has some fairly good samples in it. BFD is probably the better choice though. The ability to swap kit pieces is priceless and so is the various mic and dynamic controls on the individual drums. The only bitch of the thing is if you're not percussion inclined it's easy to stumble around designing the midi track. Otherwise BFD is a decent solution, especially if you are a drummer and really really especially have a midi electric kit and are able to record the midi dynamics, as BFD has the many layers of hit velocity per sample. You get a little bit of nuance in the recording. I've been experimenting lately with recording a live room stereo channel off of the BFD tracks - so essentially stereo recording the monitors or some other speaker setup - I've even tried my Yamaha PA speakers But that gives you the live room ambience that otherwise you'd miss. this would work with DOD as well. replace its rooms with your own, etc.

In the end, I like both DOD (faster setup for scratch tracks and ideas and generally better sounding drums) and BFD (more control for fine tuning) for different projects and different reasons. Both are good.

Check this out.. Rhythm Rascal.

Review about Rhythm Rascal :

Rhythm Rascal is a software drum machine for your computer that can be programmed to play any style of music. It was designed specifically for metal, rock, and other traditionally "non-electronic" music genres. However, it has been used to create drum tracks for just about every type of music under the sun.

You can create unlimited patterns within a song, and each pattern may have its own meter and tempo defined. Killer drum samples are included, and you can even import your own drum sounds from wave files. You can adjust the volume and pan of each drum sample to create awesome stereo mixes.

Your entire drum track can be exported to a standard WAV file or MIDI file for playback in an audio player, or for import into a multi-track recording software package.

Battery 3 has some good versatility