Can anyone suggest a good program for drums? I'm looking for one that doesn't alter the original sound of the sample as soon as you pop it into the instument. I've been using Reason, but have recently got fed up with the poor sound playback. Reason has a bizarre habit of playing samples back and making them sound hollow. Maybe it's just me but I'm tired of messing with it and have just decided to move on.

This post has been edited by twain: Wed 28 Jul 2004, 05:14

I recommend Spectrasonics Stylus. High quality sound, easy to use. They have a new upgrade (free if you buy now) coming in September that is supposed to be mind boggling. Go to:

http://www.spectrasonics.net/instruments/stylus.html

You can't use your own samples with Stylus – which is what twain wants to do.

However, you can't go wrong with iDrum if you're running OS X. For $49, it's an astonishing package – a step sequencer (a la TR808), a MIDI module, a drum-kit builder all-in-one. All controls and patterns are presented in one window and it takes just a few minutes to build a kit by dragging samples into it.

Each sample has a pattern matrix (called a Part) that can be displayed (and played) in 16/32/64 divisions and also has its own filters, pitch control, decay, choke settings, and mapping controls. You can even use it with loops!

You can create your own library of parts and load them from disk to mix and match.

Each iDrum file stores a kit and up to 99 patterns and/or a complete song. In AU mode you can use automation to change the first 16 patterns. The swing algorithm is identical to that used in the MPC 3000 (i.e. it's killer!).

You can also drag a MIDI file into iDrum (and out of it) - what more could you possibly want for $49 :-)

If this reads like I work for Glaresoft, I don't – I'm just a very happy user.

For a good drum synth, take a look at RMIV from LinPlug. I'm very happy with mine. Easy to use, it samples and comes with 170 kits ranging from Trash to multisampled acoustic drums. I repeat. Very easy to use. About $150.

NI Battery and Steinberg LM4-II are also quite nice Software-sampler for Drums. It all depends on which sequencer you use, of course.