This noob has a very specific question and no idea where it belongs

[Sprankton]

tl;dr read "What I want" and "Potential solution"

Hello all. I am a noob with a question about Addictive Drums 2 (more accurately, what additional software do I need to do what I want with it) and I have no idea who to ask. The official XLN Audio forums are no more, and this forum seemed like it might be appropriate for what this question really is about. If not, any help pointing me where I should be asking is greatly appreciated. Skipping ahead quite a bit, I THINK what I'm looking for is a DAW that has simultaneous audio and MIDI out, but I'm not totally sure.

Background:
I'm totally new to all things audio besides some very basic knowledge of Audacity. I recently got Addictive Drums 2 and I've been playing around with it for the past few months. The whole thing is super overwhelming especially being the absurdly indecisive person that I am. I'm currently in a band, but I'm having a ton of difficulty figuring out which settings to choose and tweak for each song. What I generally want is to be able to change the settings in AD2 and do quick side by side comparisons of how the drums are going to sound mixed with the other audio tracks.

My Current Equipment Setup:
I'm playing on a Yamaha DTXpress IV Special V2 (with a couple extra pads). The MIDI out from the drum module is connected to my laptop's USB port through a Roland UM-1 USB to MIDI cable. The MIDI signal is triggering the AD2 software. My laptop's headphone out jack is connected to a Jamhub Greenroom, which also has inputs from the rest of my band. We record using a Jamhub MT16 multitrack audio recorder.

What I want:
My ultimate goal is as follows. My band records a multitrack take of all instruments playing simultaneously. Then, I use some piece of software (I'm assuming a DAW, I've never used one before) to listen to the recording. While it is playing, I want to be able to change the settings in AD2 and have that change the sound of the drums in real time. I want to be able to freely skip to or replay sections of a song, and play with tempo if possible.

Potential solution:
I have an idea as to how this might work but I don't know what software I would need, if any even exists. So here's what I'm picturing: I have a DAW with the audio tracks of all the instruments EXCEPT drums. It also has a MIDI track of the drums which is synced up to the audio tracks (Note: AD2 can record MIDI in from my drum module). During playback, the DAW plays the audio tracks while simultaneously feeding the MIDI track into AD2. AD2 converts the MIDI track into audio, and I hear the drums correctly synced up with the rest of the audio, while being able to tweak AD2 settings to change the drum sounds in real time. It would be as if the DAW was emulating the input to AD2 from my drum module. AD2 has a setup window that has a box for "active MIDI inputs" but I'm not sure if it would recognize software on the same laptop or if I would have to somehow get the DAW to send a MIDI output signal to the USB port on my laptop. I could potentially run the DAW on a separate computer from AD2, but it would be a bigger hassle. So, oh great gods of KVR, how do I go about making this work? Specifically, what software do I need? (Free would be nice)

Problems with my current setup and a secondary potential solution:
AD2 can record MIDI tracks and it can play them back while I do real time tweaking, but I don't currently have any way of syncing up playback to the other audio tracks. Also, I can't figure out how to edit the MIDI tracks, so I can sometimes end up with enormous chunks of silence at the beginning or end of them. Maybe someone has an idea for how to sync up audio to the MIDI playback in AD2? It's really clunky, and I can't even figure out how to change the tempo (which seems like it should be easy based on how the interface looks). I doubt that I would be able to pause/skip/replay sections of a song this way, but if I had a good quick way of syncing up the MIDI and audio at the start of the song it would be something at least.

Bonus points:
In a perfect world, whatever software I use to fix my problem would also have some MIDI editing tools. I'd potentially like to be able to add or remove individual notes, play with note volumes, re-record and overwrite a section, fix timing issues by snapping notes to a tempo grid, and/or create new beats manually in the software (similar to TabIt if anyone is familiar).

Side question:
Being the total noob that I am, I wasn't really aware of what a DAW was until I started researching this question. So, how do you guys pronounce it? Do you say "daw" like a word or do you spell out D-A-W?

[whyterabbyt]

I THINK what I'm looking for is a DAW that has simultaneous audio and MIDI out, but I'm not totally sure.?

Sounds like its what you're looking for, and its unusual to find any that dont handle audio and MIDI recording and output.

From the sound of it, the Jamhub Greenroom might have standard audio drivers that a DAW could use but they're only in stereo, so for the audio I think you'd either have to upload the files from the recorder to the DAW or replace/supplement the Jamhub with a multi-input soundcard so that you can record directly into the DAW. MIDI would be recorded straight into the DAW.

There's nothing offhand I can think of that's exactly free, but there's a ton of cheap DAW packages that will do this. I find Tracktion to be one of the easier low-cost (at $60) DAWs, many people have other preferences. Do a search on KVR (for somethign like 'cheap DAW') and you'll find a ton of threads full of cheap DAW reccomendations. (eg viewtopic.php?f=74&t=410578)

[rod_zero]

Almost any DAW can do what you need, you just create a MIDI track for "AD", you record the notes and then you import the audio files. The MIDI tracktempo will always line up with what ever tempo you choose. The audio tracks can be left at its natural tempo or modified, some DAW have better "stretching" algorythms than others for changing audio track tempo.

So you should download demos of I think three DAW: Reaper, Studio One and Ableton Live, those have the friendliest demo policies.

I would start with Ableton Live it has some included tutorials that can help you getting started. After you learn the basic of one DAW you could try to do the same in the others and see which works for you.

[Kaine]

As Ableton live user these days, I think I'd still switch back to Cubase for this sort of work, So errm... I'd maybe say pull down Reaper for this if starting out (for a cheap package the audio and midi engine is superb) or demo Cubase and the cheaper Artist edition would probably do you fine. I just tend to find the layout in Cubase/Reaper easier for multi-tracking over Abletons slightly more cramped arrangement, although it always comes down to personal preference which is all anyone can really offer.

To be honest however OP, as already stated this is a basic function of most sequencers and it'll just be about finding the package that will matches your workflow. Trawling Youtube for walk through videos for any sequencer that raises your interest should reward you with a solution for any problems or questions that come up whilst learning the software.