what do you do for drums on your tracks?

[jimmymio]

I usually record my own songs and I'm trying to take the quality up a notch. For most of my drum tracks I've been using loops from Stylus RMX with varying results. I'm thinking about getting Superior Drummer 2 and learning to program my own tracks. Does anybody else use this? I'm just wondering how long it will take before I can get decent sounding tracks.
JP

[mazz]

I use Superior Drummer almost every day. I don't program my own parts, I use MIDI loops and then modify them if necessary to fit the piece. The MIDI loops that come with Superior and the third party loops from companies like Groove Monkee are played by drummers using electronic drum kits, so the feel is good and the playing is "live". The real trick is knowing what loops to choose and how to put them together to create a cohesive part that sounds like something a drummer would have played.

I also use Stylus RMX a ton, but usually not for straight ahead drum parts, but rather for the tweaky vibey stuff that it excels at. That's not to say that it can't be used for "regular" drum parts, but Superior is so much more designed for that, it just makes sense to use the tools to their strengths.

Superior is a very good instrument, the Music City expansion is one of my "go to" kits. It's really great sounding.

Mazz

[crs7string]

+100 on Superior Drummer 2.0.

It sounds great, great mixer to tweak to taste, and as Mazz has mentioned, the grooves feel good.

All the expansion packs from EZ Drummer can be loaded into Superior Drummer as well, so you can add more drum sounds and grooves.

The grooves are not kit specific, so you can have a funk groove trigger the Nashville kit and vice versa.

I also like Addictive Drums a lot, especially Jazz Sticks and Jazz Brushes.

Chuck

[jimmymio]

Thanks Chuck/Mazz. SD sounds like a great complement to RMX. I'm psyched. But for someone who doesn't have much drum programming experience do you think I'd be able to come up with passable tracks in a reasonable amount of time?
The only screwy thing is that it sells for $300 but every few months the price drops to $150. Never seen anything like that.
JP

[Len911]

JP, as Mazz said, groove monkey. It's midi for drums. You buy a package that has the style your after, and the package is broken down into intros, endings, fills... tempos, you just paste them on a midi track and use whatever drum samples or instruments you have. If the verse has 8 measures and you only need four, you cut and paste to taste. You don't need to quantize them, the midi was recorded exactly as the real drummer played. There's really no need to program drums anymore, there are thousands of midi samples and you can mix and match, cut and paste to your heart's content. Blues verse, jazz fills, punk chorus, whatever and however. If you just want something quick, pick a genre, pick a tempo, intro,verse, chorus, fill, etc. and paste them.

http://www.groovemonkee.com/en/products

*Superior Drummer 2.0 comes with ez player pro. I don't have superior drummer but I use the ez player pro to audition the groove monkey and other midi drum files. When you find something you like, you just drag it out of the ez player and drop it into your daw's midi track.
http://www.toontrack.com/products.asp?item=27

[Cruciform]

In addition to the Groove Monkee loops (which are great), these guys do very good metal and prog loops along with the usual stuff. http://www.oddgrooves.com/

[cardell]

I love Addictive Drums and the great drum loops in Reason 5.

Stuart

[mazz]

Creating passable drum tracks with any tool requires that you know how a drummer would play a part in the style you are working in. These tools sound great but still take time to learn and part of the learning for you might be listening closely to drum parts in the style if your music. Otherwise you're just swimming in a sea of midi grooves. Homing in on the right grooves to place in your part takes knowledge and experience.

The hype on all of these things makes them seem effortless, but of course, the reality isn't usually so rosy. A certain amount of effort is usually required to get exceptional results.

Good luck!

[matto]

I would say you could come up with 'passable' drums tracks very quickly...somewhat depending on your definition of that word. Remember you're not really 'programming' the drums, you drag and drop pre-existing midi grooves pretty much as you would in RMX and then edit/adjust/fine-tune to taste. Assuming you select the right type of grooves and fills for your song, the drums would sound 'passable' right away...
To take them beyond that, you'll need to adjust and fine-tune, and that is what takes work, knowledge and experience...

If you're a newbie to this sort of thing I would recommend checking out Addictive Drums as well to see which package you find to be more user friendly. I believe both have downloadable demos so you can play around with them before deciding.

matto

[vasek.g3]

There is also Battery 3 (I´m not sure whether I can post the link to it...)
by Native Instruments...