Best virtual drummer plugin?

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Jan Deal
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Best virtual drummer plugin?

Post by Jan Deal » Mon Dec 10, 2018 12:56 am

I'm looking to get a new virtual drummer for recording demos. Currently I am using MT Power Drum Kit 2, which is a great free plugin, but it lacks the sound that I am looking for. I am looking for something more suited to indie / dream pop / alt. country; MT Power Drum Kit 2 is a bit too beefy for what I am after.

Any advice is welcome!
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Re: Best virtual drummer plugin?

Post by mackerelmint » Mon Dec 10, 2018 1:09 am

Can you write the drum track to a MIDI channel in your DAW? Then you could find whatever sounds you wanted and use those.

EZ drummer has a lot of different sounds, though. All the paid ones do. You could even use kontakt player and just buy a couple of drum libraries you like, keeping the program you have as the "brain" as it were.
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Re: Best virtual drummer plugin?

Post by Larry Mal » Mon Dec 10, 2018 5:44 am

BFD 3 sounds fantastic. Superior Drummer always sounded good also but I don't have the most recent version.

Are you on Mac or PC? If you use a Mac, then getting Logic Pro and then using Drummer is a no-brainer, the single thing that keeps me on the Mac OS and will likely lead to me building a Hackintosh when my Mac Pro expires.
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Re: Best virtual drummer plugin?

Post by Jan Deal » Mon Dec 10, 2018 7:10 am

I am using a Mac and Reaper right now, which I am really happy with.

Superior Drummer looks to be quite expensive, but you get what you pay for, right? I'm leaning more towards EZ Drummer though, some of the add-ons look good.
mackerelmint wrote:
Mon Dec 10, 2018 1:09 am
You could even use kontakt player and just buy a couple of drum libraries you like, keeping the program you have as the "brain" as it were.
This is interesting. I could potentially buy an "Americana" or "country" EZ Drummer patch and use the Kontakt player as a bridge for Power drummer?
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Re: Best virtual drummer plugin?

Post by mackerelmint » Mon Dec 10, 2018 9:23 am

Jan Deal wrote:
Mon Dec 10, 2018 7:10 am
I am using a Mac and Reaper right now, which I am really happy with.

Superior Drummer looks to be quite expensive, but you get what you pay for, right? I'm leaning more towards EZ Drummer though, some of the add-ons look good.
mackerelmint wrote:
Mon Dec 10, 2018 1:09 am
You could even use kontakt player and just buy a couple of drum libraries you like, keeping the program you have as the "brain" as it were.
This is interesting. I could potentially buy an "Americana" or "country" EZ Drummer patch and use the Kontakt player as a bridge for Power drummer?
If you get Kontakt player, which is free, and spend a hundred bucks on one of the drum packs for it, that's really all you'd need. It's got all the patterns and fills and whatnot in there, and as far as I know you use it just like power drummer or any of the other options out there. You could use PD to write the drum tracks though, if that's how you like to do it.

That said, you could also output a PD drum track to MIDI, and then find some other source of drum sounds -literally anything- and use that MIDI track to trigger those sounds. The cost of doing that ranges from zero to however much you feel like spending.
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Re: Best virtual drummer plugin?

Post by Redstar30 » Fri Dec 28, 2018 9:46 pm

Another vote for Kontakt. Good quality and easy to use.

I have also used Addictive Drums 2 and Slate Digital with good results.

With any midi drum program spend time dialing in the velocity or attack of the drum hits to get a more realistic sound and dynamics.

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Re: Best virtual drummer plugin?

Post by Jan Deal » Thu Apr 04, 2019 8:02 am

Thanks for the advice!
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Re: Best virtual drummer plugin?

Post by mackerelmint » Thu Apr 04, 2019 3:53 pm

Funny this thread just got revisited. Just last night I learned that Steven Slate drums has a free version that's pretty good.
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Re: Best virtual drummer plugin?

Post by soggy mittens » Mon Dec 16, 2019 10:01 pm

I've been using SSD5 free version for home demos since it came out and consider it the most realistic sounding midi drum program I've ever tried. Had a few people that didn't realize it wasn't an actual real drummer which is always a good sign. :)
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Re: Best virtual drummer plugin?

Post by burpgun » Sun Jan 26, 2020 1:33 pm

The Logic Drummer thing is pretty cool. I like making it lock onto something I’ve already played. I then output its MIDI data onto Live and drive a different sound source. I’m pretty good at programming drums but never quite got the ability to do dynamic fills, Logic Drummer can do that in spades.

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Re: Best virtual drummer plugin?

Post by NICQ » Sun Jan 26, 2020 3:31 pm

I used to use EZ Drummer and AddictiveDrums 2 - both sound excellent.. expansion packs are not too cheap though

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