Drum software suggestions?

[Virgil.]

Ok, I searched the forums already for this type of thread, but honestly, i'm a n00b and most of the results or responses are pretty much alien to me.

Can anyone suggest some good drum software programs that are either free, cheap, or downloadable? Pretty much just looking for a virtual drum machine.

I've heard Dumagog and Steven Slate mentioned here a few times, but I honestly don't know what those programs do. Can you program drum patterns with them? Or are they just library's of samples?

I'm currently using a PC, but I welcome any MAC suggestions as well that I can consider when I get a MAC next year. But my immediate need is for a PC.

Thanks in advance everyone. Sorry if this thread has already been created a lot.

Jesse

 

[avrinder]

Ezdrummer is pretty cheap. You can program drum patterns (comes with a plethora of loops + upgradable to different genre packs)

It's roughly $160 canadian, so probably 130ish US.

The upgrade to that is Superior Drummer. Much more options/ more control of sound. Better quality drum samples as well

both at
www.toontrack.com

 

[TimPio]

Steven Slate Drums EX fo 99$ ( http://www.stevenslatedrums.com/ex.html ) it is a "best of" Slates drumsamples. You can use it as a VSTi and program your own drumtracks. You have got 10 different drumkits for Rock, Pop, Metal... Just give a try and listen to the samples on the website.

 

[Virgil.]

Thanks for the suggestions and tips so far

 

[Russtopher]

MyDrumset is a free VSTi that you can use http://www.bluenoise.no/mydrumset.html; you can either program on a MIDI grid or use any MIDI interface to give it a shot.

Hydrogen is a free standalone sequencer that uses a grid for programming, you can either export the final MIDI file and import that into something like MyDrumset (or any other drum VSTi) or you can just export straight .wav files. http://www.hydrogen-music.org/ It's designed for Linux systems, but does have a Windows installer of an older version.

 

[lordofthestring]

You cannot go wrong with Addictive Drums. The price is great and their support is pretty good too. The new update really makes the product worth buying. I tie it together with ApTrigga2 and basically have an awesome metal drumkit. If you go this route then I'd be more than happy to help you out and give you some tips on how to set it up right.

 

[Jackal_Strain]

Steven Slate EX. Cheap and great drum sounds.

 

[muckypup1]

Steven Slate Drums EX fo 99$ ( http://www.stevenslatedrums.com/ex.html ) it is a "best of" Slates drumsamples. You can use it as a VSTi and program your own drumtracks. You have got 10 different drumkits for Rock, Pop, Metal... Just give a try and listen to the samples on the website.

Are they really this cheap? I thought that they were more like $500!

 

[Damian B]

It's not free, but Addictive Drums is ridiculously versatile and sounds great.

 

[Zombietakeover]

Are they really this cheap? I thought that they were more like $500!

For the EX yeah ...its got like 10 kits

The Platinum version is like 329 bucks and u get 40 kits

 

[Jind]

The EX version as stated before has 10 kits and while they are great, you can also add bundles of kits as you progress forward. EX Expansion packs such as the "Metal & More" one are an additional $59.00 each - and it seems that they still have the 2 for 1 deal going where you can get EX Drums for $99.00 and when you buy 1 EX pack, you can get another of your choice for free. So EX Drums and 2x Expansion packs for $159.00. I took advantage of that deal a month ago.

 

[Virgil.]

This is great fellas! Thank you all for the suggestions and explanations why you would recommend each one. I'll look into these and see which one fits my budget and which one has the best sound and features I want. Thanks again.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

You only have till the end of the month:

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/SupDrum2/
http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/product/Toontrack-Superior-Drummer-2.0?sku=720000

 

[Tokyurot]

I personally like Addictive Drums because it's quite versatile and not too hard on the memory of your PC,
and most importantly I like how it sounds

Here's a small clip I made, using AD with zero external processing:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1147572/AmpSimTest - Le456.mp3

 

[dill_the_devil]

For a free, downloadable piece of drum software: http://www.leafdigital.com/software/leafdrums/

It's pretty limited - the samples that come with it are a little lame, and you can't do velocity mapping - however, you can find better samples, and as a way of adding drum tracks to your compositions for free without a drummer, it's not bad at all.

 

[Raptor7]

To be honest but not trying to showoff here I own all three major drum sample packages: bfd, sd2 and add. And I can tell you, all of them have many pro's and many con's. When it comes to creating a full drumkit I always use the kick and toms from BFD, cymbals from SD2 and the snare from ADD. Room is a sum of all the room busses from all three plus send room reverb of the drum group channel or individual subgroups such as toms. Thats 40% of the sound. The rest of 60% is MIDI/audio tweaking: velocities, articulations, expressions, compressing, EQ and a bit of natural room drum sampling. A lot of hardwork, I know, but not everyone can afford studio time.