Drum VST's: which one and how to work with it

What drum VST's do you guys mainly use? I'm looking for a good one myself, with mostly electronic drum. Also how do you use it with Reaper? How do you record your patterns and adjust them? The manual is so big I can't really find it in there.

For me the number one thing to look for is versatility in how the room and overheads can be created. For example, In Addictive drums, you have to option to place the hat anywhere in the stereo field and adjust its volume for both the overheads and the room. You can do this will all the pieces of the kit. This will allow you to use drum samples and still have a nice overhead and room section that you can modify to your needs. None of the kits actually sound real, my biggest problem. They all sound processed. Haven't come up with a good solution yet. ~Rob.

I use AD. I agree with the previous post about turning off all the fx. Then use your ears to bring them in to suit. If you're looking for electronic sounding drums there's some listed on the thread at the link below. Pete

WOW. No disrespect meant, but a quick search will bring up boatloads of info on this frequent, frequent topic. The threads are so good, you'll likely get all the info you need. Dan

for electronic drums there is ersdrums drumatic or linplugs CM505 drum module free with computer music magazine all very good or you could do what i do which is just to use a synth. creative programming with a sine wave = kick drum and likewise with a noise oscillator = snare. i use the free oatmeal synth for all my electronic drum sounds/perc

I use a changed version of sequencer_baby JS effect to create the beats. As a VSTi for electronic drums I mostly use Battery 3. The Library is huge, but I mostly use sample collections from the net or samples I recorded myself.

Something I have had great success with is modifying an existing drum sample set, such as Addictive Drums, DFH, BFD, in Kontakt or whatever sampler, and get the whole set exactly as I like it on the correct midi keys. Then when I have it all working and sounding as I like it, I will use Chickensys (I believe, it's been a while) Translator to convert the sample set to a Sound font. It was kind of quirky last time I tried to do it because you have to specify the key hold length for each note for the sound font, and obviously different drum samples need different lengths, so it would be nice if they could correct that in Translator. So Translator will record a specified increment of velocities and record them wav or something for a soundfont. So now in the future, you no longer need your sample set and sampler, which are very big in cpu use and for fx and all, and you can just load the soundfont into a free soundfont player such as sfz. Considering how many systems I bounce around on, this makes it easy to take and install my samples and drums. Cause setting up those programs that require passwords and all that is annoying to do on all of your systems. And if you are one who reinstalls often, then you can appreciate that too.

let's not get confused here, Addictive Drums are real, recorded dry and unprocessed drums, with several layers for each piece. The "kits" are just presets, processed for different genres, you could see them as starting points. That's not any different to what you might do in any studio. If you don't like any of those kits it's another thing entirely. I have AD and I don't use any of the kits, you can build your own kits, as many as you like. The kits I have made sound pretty much like I would want to sound if was going to buy a real kit, of course it's a matter of taste, and that's what AD is so good at at it's price point. edit: ..... Cool idea sumpm1

If you're looking for electronic drums, which I believe that is what you posted, you can't go wrong with Drumatic 3 and ERS Drums (my two favorites and they are both free). They are drum synths, which IMO is best for electronic music. There is also Angular Momentum's VirtuaDrum, which is a sample player and comes with a good library of samples geared toward electronic music styles. It is also free (can you tell I'm a poor man :)). Just add them as an insert to a channel and then you can write your own beats in the midi editor. To create a midi item to use for your beats - highlight the channel you have your drum vst on and from the menu bar on top choose Insert - New Midi Item. Then, double click on the newly created midi item and that will open up the piano roll. Start clicking on the keys to hear the drums. I hope this helps.

linplug's RMV might not be a bad way to go...each pad can be set to either synthesize a drum, or use a sample. it's similar to battery in operation, and costs a bit less. it can also edit loops, etc. might be worth checking out, as the price isn't bad. you have to either "play in" your drums via keyboard, or pencil them in though. also, another one to check out for fun is sonic charge's microtonic. it only does synthesized drums, but has a built-in sequencer, similar to redrum. it can also export the patterns as midi files or audio files you can drag back into reaper and mangle/loop/edit/whatever. you can also kill the transport, and just use it as a sound module. i often use it in addition to whatever other drum module i end up using. for "real" drums, i use Superior2. kell