Drums for Rock & Pop Rock Tracks: Live, Drum Machine or S/W?

[elser]

Yes, if you work with this engineer a lot that makes perfect sense. Good luck!

[mojobone]

I'm a huge fan of Addictive Drums; they're maybe not quite as flexible as Superior Drummer or BFD, ( there's no layering, unless you use multiple instances, for, heh instance) but they're very quick and easy to tweak, and sound less 'canned' to my ear than EZDrummer. I got up and running very quickly, and the kitpieces are mapped in a way that makes sense for playing them from a keyboard. There are nifty, thoughtful details like cymbal mutes and free/rest strokes on the kick drum. Sounding like a band is extremely important to me, so I use an Alesis electronic pads kit. Even some drummers can't tell it's a VI, but if it's ever sounding too perfect, there's a neat trick; you just change the perfectly time-aligned mic distance on the overheads for instant punk/indie rock sh*ttiness.

[AlpacaRoom]

I use Addictive Drums for everything, too, and I've been asked more than once if they were live. I wouldn't say they sound live to me all the time, but there are definitely little touches, if carefully programmed, that make them sound pretty close.

I do all my work in Logic, and program exclusively with the Hyper Editor (that's my drum programming secret; you get a grid and draw in note events by velocity). It seems to me that people are much more sensitive to variations in velocity than in timing; I don't usually "humanize" the timing in my drum tracks, but I'm pretty careful about programming velocity variations.

[Warmchordmusic]

I've been a drummer for 20+ years, playing mainly rock and indie stuff and drums for me is the most difficult thing to get over when doing home recording. I can't stand how rigid and mechanical so many of the midi loops are and find myself spending way too much time programming parts that I could play myself in and 1/8th of the time. I think the sounds from Steven Slate are great and some of the Toontrack stuff as well. I will soon be getting a set of Roland vdrums so I can just play all my parts I need. I'll connect USB to my Mac and trigger the various drum software out there, but avoid their midi libraries. Perhaps I can help some other Taxi members with laying down drums for their songs? There seems to be a void there, as I hear a lot of people saying their stuff was returned because the drums sounded too robotic or mechanical (not real). Perhaps I can contribute in some way and collaborate.

[CHuckmott]

Rehashing what has already been said here, but it seems the top 3 drum programs in terms of popularity would be Superior Drummer/Ex Drummer (isn't Superior a beefed up version of EZ), Addictive Drums (which I own and is on about everything I do) and Steven Slate Drums. There is a leaning curve to Stylus RMX and (please correct me if I'm wrong ) seems to be primarily a loop editor although highly recommended by many including myself. Still 2 years in almost and barely know how to use it much outside of playing loops and some basic editing.

Part of the question is how much "radio friendly" drums these days use a real drummer and how many are drum programs? I suspect there is a lot more drum programming on the pop side then what you would think. Regardless, and probably the same for the other programs, but there are also Ad Paks that you can purchase that let you use Electronic Drums with Addictive Drums. Although if you can wrap your mind around Stylus if you decide to get it you may find the AD unnecessary. XLN Audio makes Addictive Drums. If your system can handle it and If I were to do anything different than I did before I would have bought Komplete, which not only has Superior Drummer, but also Konakt (which you may very well eventually want), Guitar Rig, etc.....and some of the more popular synths on the market. Oh and also Battery for electronic drums sounds.

[mojobone]

Stylus RMX has tons of available add-ons and its most prominent feature is loop slicing, which allows you to re-arrange beat loops, thereby expanding the usefulness of all of your audio loops, not just the rhythmic ones. It's a really cool and worthwhile software instrument in its own right, and probably a must-have if your styles-genres include EDM or other electronica, or if you just generally don't need 'realist' drums, though it can do that, too.