Easiest / Most Affordable Virtual Drums?

[pian0dude]

Hi there,

I am looking for input / advice on what is the easiest and most affordable way to generate or play a drum track for initial / rough recordings of new songs. I traditionally use just the built in drums in my keyboard, however, they aren't the most realistic sounding things.

I'm also not a pro with creating loops, etc.. nor do I have the software necessary to create loops.

Are there drum machines out there that you'd suggest?

Thanks,
Brian

[mikeymo1741]

Hydrogen. (http://www.hydrogen-music.org/)

It's pattern-based, very easy to use, with ports for Windows, Linux and Mac.

Did I mention Free?


LMMS is good for making loops as well, but I would go with Hydrogen.

[waschmunk]

If you have a Mac, I have found Garageband to have a lot of options. It comes with many loops and you can also find free drum loop packages on line. Many of the loops are real instrument loops, so they sound much better than the keyboard patches (although those can be sampled sounds as well).

[chipshot0701]

that hydrogen looks like a great program. I use Protracks plus which is a cakewalk product and it works similar but I like the mixer function on that hydrogen program. I might download it. It says youcan save in midi format. I should be able to import those files into protracksplus and adjust tempo to fit each song file

[pian0dude]

I've seen lots of drum machines out there from Roland, Alesis, etc. Anyone use or suggest these?

[waschmunk]

I have used an Alesis drum looper before. It worked ok, but I did not like the user interface. Very involved when you need to program custom drum loops. I ended up buying a Yamaha MM6 keyboard that has fairly good drum samples/loops. I use it when I don't have a drummer available. It is very flexible to use.

[sethdekkenga]

I would also like to look into this more. I played around with a Roland drum machine, but I quickly realized that I could do what I wanted to do in Garage Band much easier with a lot more options and flexibility (as far as I know). I would personally say that software is the way to go, but it may be a different story if you don't have a laptop and are wanting to be mobile with it.