Drum machines vs Software?

[TheTriumpH]

Slowly putting together a small recording setup. I wonder what your thoughts are on drum machines vs software like battery, drumkits from hell etc? Pros/cons?
I'm recording mostly hard rock/metal.

thanks

[Kevin Taylor]

You're much better off using something like Battery rather than an outboard drum machine. You'll have an endless supply of drum sounds cause you can use any .wav file on your hard drive. You can build a kit that has about 30 pieces in it. You can record completely digital rather than taking the audio outputs from a drum machine. You have more control over the audio editing.

[Superhuman]

I have Battery too, it's a great program, very flexible and it works in nicely with Cubase too. If you are looking to create realistic drums for rock/metal check out Drummer From Hell Superior (by Toontrack). It's a VST plug-in that pulls real drum (a large variety for each drum to keep realism) off your hard drive. You can also bleed sound across mics for a more realistic sound plus you get a number of different kits to play with. Add all of that together, then look at www.groovemonkey.com, they just came up with a cd of pre=programmed midi files for use with DFH Superior... a very tough job made easy!
Also, you keep everything in a digital environment, that means you can do just about anything with the sound with a few clicks and it's all reversable. Personaly, I wouldnt bother with a drum machine.

[Akira]

I too use Battery, it's fantastic, however, I haven't had the opportunity to compare it to other methods, but I can say that it's a great program.

[chucklivesoninmyheart]

Which brings me to my butting in on the thread.


I just got sonar 4 producer...where the heck is the vst drums?Do I need battery or what?Stupid thing wont play midi sounds out of my presonus firebox(to my monitors)either...gah!

[Kevin Taylor]

I've never used Sonar so I don't know for sure.
Cubase came with a very basic VST drum machine as well as some really cheesy synths. Anything decent though, like battery, I had to buy.

As far as how you use them ... like I said.. no clue how Sonar works but with Cubase, you pull up the VST instruments pull down window and select which one you want to use. Then you set the midi recording track you're using to output to that instrument. (from a choice of outputs like modem/printer etc..)

To check what VST instruments or plug-ins you have (if any), you can probably take a look inside the VST Plug-Ins folder on your hard drive.

[lifeis@song]

so i curious , are there any pro's to having a drum machine if you get thoes programs? can they sound identical to a drum machine?

[Kevin Taylor]

so i curious , are there any pro's to having a drum machine if you get thoes programs? can they sound identical to a drum machine?

They are drum machines.
But instead of being limited by what sounds came with the machine, you can use any sounds on your hard drive. Plus, it's completely digital, rather than converting to audio then back to digital again.