Virtual Drums Needed Options

Hey y'all -

Got Cubase SX on OS X. Love it, but the included LM-7 drum machine sucks.

Here's what I want to do: I want a drum module or stand-alone software durm sample player that I can control with my Roland SPD-20 pads via MIDI. I need the ability to route each individual sound to a different MIDI track in Cubase, either by assigning a unique MIDI channel to each sound or by some other method.

Also, I want great sounds. The less expensive the better, but price is not the most important consideration.

Q: Will Reason 2.0 fit this bill? I was planning on getting it anyway, so if I can do my drum thang with Reason then I can kill two birds with one stone.

Thanks, everyone.

[Mr.T]

Check the Drum&Perc module from Plugsound. Not that expensive, pretty good sound, easy to use (works like a plug).
http://www.plugsound.com/

Plugsound does look pretty cool, but as yet no Mac OS X compatibility, apparently. An announcement about OS X compatibility in "January 2003" appears not to have happened, never a good sign.

Any other suggestions?

[midiwife]

Hi there,

There's a neat plug in VSTi the SR202 by Muon that comes with Computer Music Mag. It's basically a drum sample player with a few tweakables like resonance and cutoff, panning and vol per sound. Not sure to be honest if it's OSX compliant yet but my guess is that it will be if not already. Or there's Loopazoid which is also free though again, not sure if it's OSX yet.

Good luck.

[rickenbacker]

Loveme1965: the LM7 included with SX is really only meant as a groovier metronome - ie to knock up a more musical click track in minutes than the rather insistent metronome beat. It also primes you to buy Steinberg's standalone LM4 VSTi, which is a bit like NI's Battery. Both will probably be OS X this year.

For cheap and cheerful, have a look at Doggiebox (www.zygoat.ca), a fuss-free OS X native drum machine. Simple but effective. Although if you didn't like the LM7, you might not like this Doggie either.

At the other end of the scale, Reason will suit your needs. Lots of sounds, lots of options. Plus you get all the other instruments, samplers, FX etc

midiwife, thanks for the info. Muon does not and will not support OS X, according to their support forums. I can't find any news on Loopazoid and OS X, but the current version is OS 8.6 - 9x.

Rickenbacker, I've considered the LM-4, but for just fifty dollars more I can get the full academic version of Reason 2.0 for X. But I do want to make absolutely sure I can do my required "live" drumming with Reason: that is, play Redrum (or whatever) with my midi drum pads and assign each drum sound a unique output. Is Reason capable of this?

[rickenbacker]

Ooh, I don't know about Midi pads. Don't see why not, though, if it's just sending Midi signals. I can thwack the keys on my Midi keyboard in a vaguely rhythmical fashion and bash out a drum pattern that way, with keys assigned to unique sounds and outputs. Or I can punch the on-screen buttons in ReDrum, building patterns up in step time, which is actually what I prefer.

E-mail Propellerhead's tech support - they've always been very helpful to me and prompt in replying, even before I owned Reason. Tell 'em what you want to do and they'll give you the yay or nay.

Aside from that, if it's LM4 vs. Reason 2.0, Reason 2.0 would win hands down for me. I'd probably still choose Reason over Battery, in fact. Unless I had unlimited funds, of course, in which case I'd have all of them.

[Dunepilot]

Those free computer music VSTi s are very unstable, in my experience. By all means use them, but save your
stuff very frequently. It usually takes about 10 minutes for the DS-404 to take down Logic 4.8 for me, so saving is a must.

Rickenbacker, thanks for the info - if you can play the drums via a midi keyboard then I am set.

Dunepilot, I always assume everything is going to f*ck up my stuff, so I am a totally paranoid file-saver.

[gdoubleyou]

Take a look at VSamp $39 http://www.vsamp.com

It's a VSTi in OS9, VSTi & AU in OSX.

The standalone app allows you to create your own sample library.