Good VSTs or softsynths for MIDI drum patterns?

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Good VSTs or softsynths for MIDI drum patterns?

Postby Jimmy » 05 Jul 2012 13:14

I love composing drum patterns. Problem is, I'm not a drummer, so I can't record the stuff that I write. I rely completely on MIDI to compose my patterns.

The problem I'm having is making them sound good and clean, above all else. As I work with MIDI, I'm forced to use the standard MIDI drum map (kick drum on C3, snares on D3 and E3, hi-hats on F#3, G#3 and A#3, etc.). This presents a slight-ish problem when I try to make them sound better in a DAW because not all synths still conform to this standard, although I'm pretty sure quite a few of them still do (Reaper's DrumCore definitely does).

My question is: Are there any VSTs or other good drum synths out there which conform to the standard MIDI mapping, but sound really good and realistic? Like... ones where I can just slap a MIDI file's drum track into them and it will sound as though there's a real drummer playing it with a real kit.

I have used Reason's Redrum and Kong synths, but they don't conform to the aforementioned MIDI map, and they're a bit of a pig to get sounding good anyway. :?

Basically I'd like to build up a collection of the best-sounding VSTs and synths out there for this purpose. A quick recap of my requirements:

  1. Must conform to standard MIDI mapping for drum tracks. Don't want to bother rearranging everything on my various drum tracks.
  2. Must sound realistic. Easy-to-adjust samples and clean-sounding presets are also desirable.
  3. Must export as WAV - don't want to mess around with Audacity/Goldwave converting them from a format that Reason won't recognize.
  4. Free, if possible.

Any recommendations, guyses? :) I'll be asking my dad as well, since he seems to have amassed every synth under the sun (and moon, for that matter).
Last edited by Jimmy on 05 Jul 2012 13:20, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Good VSTs or softsynths for MIDI drum patterns?

Postby Versilaryan » 05 Jul 2012 13:20

What DAW do you use that forces you to conform to those standards? What I usually do is write my drum parts out in Sibelius, export the MIDI, and then keep the rhythms but use whatever notes I want to use in Ableton. In fact, I usually have 3-7 separate samples per drum and then randomize them so each hit sounds different.
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Re: Good VSTs or softsynths for MIDI drum patterns?

Postby Jimmy » 05 Jul 2012 13:32

I'm using Cakewalk Express 3.02. It's through-and-through a MIDI composer/editor. :)

I'd actually really like to be able to do something like what you do in Ableton, actually, but I'd like to avoid rearranging the drum tracks at all, if possible. Depends on how much rearranging is involved, I suppose. :P
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