Two of the sounds I have not enough of are bass and drums. I prefer natural sounding drums and drum loops like those in the Apple Loop browser. Unfortunately there is not enough to pick from. There are many techno/digital sounding drums and basses but the natural kits and loops are what I like.

As far as basses go, same thing, I like natural electric and acoustic and fretless basses. I have Jam Packs "Rhythm Section" but there simply is not enough choices of real bass and drums.

Any ideas on the best plug ins for bass and drums?

If you are working in GarageBand ,there is agreat sounding Fender Jazz bass on the Sonic boom Box.

My favorite drum sequencer is Doggiebox.... all real sounds and really simple to use
demo at doggiebox.com

For Advanced users, Spectrasonics Stylus RMX and Trilogy are my favorites. Also, take a look a LinPlug"s RM IV drum machine. Very sweet!

DANO10

I've heard Battery 2 (NI) but I don't know whether it works on OS X Tiger.
BFD by FXpansion is my fave. They're live kits, rather than simulations

yeah -- i have trilogy -- it is amazing ! That's all it is; that's all it does.

best of luck

For real bass, probably Trilogy, but there is talk that it may never be updated for Intel Macs, as it is not a true Spectrasonics product - the company simply licensed it from an individual developer, who apparently isn't all that bothered about reworking his code. Something to bear in mind, anyway.

Garritan Jazz and Big Band has some good acoustic and electric bass sounds.

Real drums: DrumCore 2, EZdrummer, Stylus RMX with the BackBeat expansion pack, RMIV, BFD, dfH Superior. All much of a muchness. I have all of the aforementioned and my current favourite is DrumCore 2. Great grooves.

I gotta say that Reason 3.0 has some GREAT drum and bass sounds (& the new & improved browser makes it much easier to find them. Subtractor makes great bass sounds (even better with their mastering grade compressor) & Redrum is ridiculously simple to use. Combine that with the loop mangling possibilites of DR Rex & all the free refills you get.....how can you go wrong? It is also really easy on the ol' CPU. So, if you have Rewire capability then Reason would be a great addition to what you already have. I hear that M-Audio's Drum & Bass module is pretty trick as well, but haven't tried it.

This post has been edited by mortalengines: Sun 6 Aug 2006, 22:02

Although M-Audio's Drum and Bass Module is not Intel compatible (and no inkling as to when it will be either), if that's a concern for you.

Reason has wicked (Great) sounds in Bass and Drum. Can't go wrong with Reason. However, expect to hear the sounds you use in other songs... No matter how you "Tweak", "Users Of Reason" will recognize the sounds, unless you have spent hours searching and altering sounds to convince others, you "Created" it. Often easier to just make something "Original" it will probably take less time than searching, auditioning, playing back, blah-blah. Basically. A Snare Drum, Bass Note, takes a nano second.

If one takes as much time searching for free music (i.e., Samples, Loops and Thangs, etc.) One can probably create anything that is out there. Especially when dealing with MIDI. I learned a "New" word... (I'm the last one to find out) but has anyone heard the word: MIDIOT?. I heard/saw it somewhere. It is a positive word, not a 'Put Down'. I would love to be a MIDIOT especially with the Tens Gigs of MIDI Software consuming my Hard Drive. Deaconblue... You're a MIDIOT... I learned how to use MIDI during one of your explanations in the Forum.

Reason is one of the best MIDI Programs out there... That's what I was told from the Whizz Kids at Amptown, in Hamburg, Germany. These dudes create Hit Songs demonstrating it for potential buyers.! When I heard their Drum Refills... Nasty, (Excellent). You can't go wrong with Reason...