What do you like for drum software?

[maddnotez]

I hate asking what is the "best"? I know, there is no best right?

So what do you like for being the most natural sounding for metal?

Frankly I am tired of producing shit quality demos and I must put an end to that. I am going to buy some software.

I currently have EZ drummer and to me it is doo doo. I did have Drumkit from hell as well and idk, I just am a horrible person or it does not sound good.

So post what you like.

I read Superior drummer is great and Slate drums?

I am not sure what else is out there but I need the best sounding drums I can get to start my quest of a decent home recording.

Thank you,

 

[bryan_kilco]

I have Metal Machine for EZDrummer and I like it quite a bit.

 

[He's Dead, Jim]

It depends on what sound you want. Toontrack products offer a range of sounds, from very snappy and pre-processed (Metal Machine EZX, imo the best out there) to very raw and sculptable (Made of Metal EZX). If you want to do professional recordings, I would highly recommend upgrading to Superior Drummer and mixing the cymbals and snares from that kit with the kicks and toms from any of the metal packs.

Other products vary from dogshit (Addictive Drums) to good-but-not-great-for-metal (Steven Slate Drums- too vibey and processed for me). BFD is the only other competitor I've heard that sounds solid, but I'm used to the Toontrack workflow and kit sounds.

Not sure when you bought Drumkit from Hell, but it was released many many years ago and those samples were never very good in the first place. Virtually nobody uses it anymore, and the stock EZ Drummer kit is awful for metal. So that's probably why you don't like it. Sounds like you should do some handy-dandy Googling before you spend any more money, though, because you need to know what you're buying and what people think of it before you write anything off.

 

[maddnotez]

If you want to do professional recordings, I would highly recommend upgrading to Superior Drummer and mixing the cymbals and snares from that kit with the kicks and toms from any of the metal packs.
.

So you mean to use Superior Drummer "stock" cymbals and snares and then use kicks and toms from other Superior Drummer packs?

Also, I got Drum kit from hell a long time ago and yeah, seemed much better in the advertisements then the sounds I actually got from it.

 

[ForHerDeadEyes]

I got Slate 3.5 Drums still, and EZdrummer 2 (and 1), they both have their strengths and weaknesses, and I'm using both.
I also got many different samples packs from forum-users and from around the net.
There is no best and also it depends on the music genre a bit..

I'd suggest listening to what you think sounds good, and if it's going to suit your needs.. If you think your song should sound a bit like X, Y, or Z, then check sample sites for the same sounding snare, or ask what others think the snare is!
I don't think DKFH sounds bad, but it's not going to fit every song, maybe you need to switch out/augment the snare and kick with some different samples, unless you dislike the cymbals as well..
I pick up samples here and there to see if they fit the soundimage I want..

 

[He's Dead, Jim]

So you mean to use Superior Drummer "stock" cymbals and snares and then use kicks and toms from other Superior Drummer packs?

Also, I got Drum kit from hell a long time ago and yeah, seemed much better in the advertisements then the sounds I actually got from it.

Superior Drummer can use EZX's- expansion packs for EZ Drummer- as well as SDX's, which are generally rawer, much larger in file size terms, have more loops, and have more samples per kit piece to sound more realistic. Superior comes with a "stock" kit called the Avatar kit. Although it's way overused and you get used to hearing the sound in commercial mixes, the kit is of extremely high quality, well-mic'd, etc. So yeah, use the cymbals and snares from that- which benefit from all the extra layers and sampling- and kicks and toms from the metal-focused expansions for either EZ or Superior, since those can afford to be a little less realistic-sounding and more "hyped." You can use the Avatar toms, but I prefer the ones in Made of Metal and Metal Machine.

Here's a metal machine kit demo. I own it and can attest to the fact that this is what it sounds like raw or with minimal processing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=929u2SSNulE

The only problem is sometimes it's actually a little too tight for some stuff, but if you have Superior you can then blend it with the Avatar kit or others to fill it out.

Do bear in mind that Scott Hull used the Drumkit from Hell on Agoraphobic Nosebleed's Agorapocalypse. The drums (and the mix overall) sound kinda ridiculous, but if you listen to the drum solo in Question of Integrity

https://youtu.be/hgLAqrVSWvw?t=103

It sounds reasonably decent. So that's some of the best stuff you can get out of DFH.

 

[maddnotez]

Superior Drummer can use EZX's- expansion packs for EZ Drummer- as well as SDX's, which are generally rawer, much larger in file size terms, have more loops, and have more samples per kit piece to sound more realistic. Superior comes with a "stock" kit called the Avatar kit. Although it's way overused and you get used to hearing the sound in commercial mixes, the kit is of extremely high quality, well-mic'd, etc. So yeah, use the cymbals and snares from that- which benefit from all the extra layers and sampling- and kicks and toms from the metal-focused expansions for either EZ or Superior, since those can afford to be a little less realistic-sounding and more "hyped." You can use the Avatar toms, but I prefer the ones in Made of Metal and Metal Machine.

Here's a metal machine kit demo. I own it and can attest to the fact that this is what it sounds like raw or with minimal processing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=929u2SSNulE

The only problem is sometimes it's actually a little too tight for some stuff, but if you have Superior you can then blend it with the Avatar kit or others to fill it out.

Do bear in mind that Scott Hull used the Drumkit from Hell on Agoraphobic Nosebleed's Agorapocalypse. The drums (and the mix overall) sound kinda ridiculous, but if you listen to the drum solo in Question of Integrity

https://youtu.be/hgLAqrVSWvw?t=103

It sounds reasonably decent. So that's some of the best stuff you can get out of DFH.

cool thanks man.

 

[maddnotez]

maybe you need to switch out/augment the snare and kick with some different samples, unless you dislike the cymbals as well..
I pick up samples here and there to see if they fit the soundimage I want..

hmmm,

I have tried that route but simply could not figure out how to do it and thought it was not possible.

So you are saying if I map out a drum track with the basic EZdrummer kit I can have the hits replaced with samples?

If so what do I use? Resample or whatever it is called? (I use Reaper)

 

[bryan_kilco]

You can blend in whatever you want. There are a few ways to do it. ReaSamplomatic or whatever always seemed to have too much latency for my taste and I always ended up with flammed hits.

You can duplicate the track you want to blend the samples with, then on the duplicate you can Dynamic Split so it cuts the track at every transient, then there's a way you can automatically plop in a desired sample for every hit, but I think it can only be a 1-shot. I forget exactly how to do this off the top of my head.

Or, if you like, say, cymbals from Superior and everything else from EZD, you can run both plugins.

 

[maddnotez]

Cool. Thanks Bryan and everyone for the replies. I have some homework to do.

 

[Vihaleipä]

You can blend in whatever you want. There are a few ways to do it. ReaSamplomatic or whatever always seemed to have too much latency for my taste and I always ended up with flammed hits.

You can duplicate the track you want to blend the samples with, then on the duplicate you can Dynamic Split so it cuts the track at every transient, then there's a way you can automatically plop in a desired sample for every hit, but I think it can only be a 1-shot. I forget exactly how to do this off the top of my head.

Or, if you like, say, cymbals from Superior and everything else from EZD, you can run both plugins.

Since we're talking about midi drums here, you should rather use ReaSamplomatic triggered from the same midi for blending oneshots and then render them to audio, then print the snare track (just something like mono snare top works here), and use it as reference and align the oneshot(s) to it, flip the polarity from the oneshot if needed. You should always align your drum samples you're going to blend in. If you use the Dynamic Split function for this, you may get mistriggers and stuff like that, for live drums that's a necessary evil but not for midi drums.

And finally about the subject here, I'll go against the current here, and recommend SSD 4 over the Toontrack stuff, I could never get the drum sounds I wanted with Metal Machine or anything by Toontrack, with SSD 4 it's atleast for me much much easier, I many times end up replacing the kick and snare with something that sounds more natural and less "Slate-y" . I currently use SSD 4 Custom, the EX or Platinum are probably better choices if you really need many options but for me the few options Custom offers are enough, especially when I have many other samples (mainly free) on my computer to use with them.