Is there a drum app to rule them all? Cinematic drums and non-pop/rock drums.

[Audiowalter]

I use Studio One and I wish I got along with Impact XT. The workflow leaves a lot to be desired. Every track I create uses a different drumming app, or loops when I get desporate. I guess that's fine but after YEARS I still have no go-to drumming app. I'm TERRIBLE at playing and programming drums. I want to audition drum patterns and use my own (not dance or hip hop etc) drums with those same patterns/midi. I'm not looking for something cheap, or a best buy. I want a go to solution for drums. If it has sounds, great, but that's not necessary. If it has performances/midi, great but that's necessary other than I HAVE to be able to use midi/patterns from somewhere. IDK why I can't find an all in one drum solution, or why one doesn't seem to exist. It seems the market for drums is all about the app creators trying to protect their sounds and their drum patterns by making it as proprietary and hard to understand as possible. We should be beyond that at drums by now. A universal drum app is desperately needed... by me. Please tell me the drum apps I'm ignorant to or your workflow for drums that are outside "rock/soul/blues" drums with EZDrums and the like.

[Audiowalter]

For what it's worth, I tried Mdrummer by Melda. I like Melda. And the Mdrummer has some great sounding cinematic drums and some decent patterns, and is at the same time impossible to use. It somehow does everything you want a drum app to do except work with your daw or any sort of workflow that makes sense. It's the best WORST drumming app I've ever come across and a real head scratcher as to why it's this way. It's almost like they designed it to make you want to use it and never want to go through the trouble of actually using it. Simple drag and drop could save it maybe.

[Vocalpoint Studios]

Please tell me the drum apps I'm ignorant to or your workflow for drums that are outside "rock/soul/blues" drums with EZDrums and the like.

I also use Studio One and a number of the other drum VSTs you mention - but yes - outside the realm of "normal pop/rock" type stuff - the choices are vast and none are specifically easy.

A lot of my "not normal" drums/percussion usually come from Kontakt based instruments driven via Komplete Kontrol - and while I too am no expert in programming - I can still whip up some wicked stuff in no time as needed.

Studio One is a joy to edit MIDI so I find it to be fairly easy to do. Some of my key libraries for this kinda stuff come from Sample Logic, Heavocity and a wide swath of sounds from within Komplete 13 Ultimate itself.

VP

[Googly Smythe]

Not sure what you're looking for (it's been a long day) but this is not pop/rock and has midi patterns [Apocalypse Percussion Ensemble]:
https://soundiron.com/collections/drums ... percussion
Steinberg's GrooveAgent can load up samples (not just drums) which can be triggered by midi patterns.
https://www.steinberg.net/vst-instruments/groove-agent/
Or this, whatever this is:
https://www.steinberg.net/vst-instruments/hybrid-hit/

[zerocrossing]

In all honesty, the best tool I've ever used for sequencing anything is my DAW. Doesn't really matter what the source is, as long as you like the sound and it is responsive to velocity and automation.

[Audiowalter]

Thanks guys!
Looks like I just missed the summer sale on GrooveAgent, but I'll check it out. And Halion as well. I never looked at the Steinberg stuff because I assumed it was only for Cubase.
zerocrossing may be right as well, in that I probably need to come up with a workflow using Studio One's built in tools...

[Uncle E]

Addictive Drums Vintage Dry works for me for pretty much everything. The sounds work perfectly in mixes (they sound mixed) and there is a lot of variety, unlike most libraries that just sound like minor changes to the same basic sound. I also like XLN's MIDI files better than the EZdrummer ones, if only because they are complete sections and I don't have to think every minute variation or fill.

[neofolk]

If you can, check out Hansa Studios from toontrack and also their orchestral pack. I use both all the time. The Hansa is more of a rock kit, but the rooms sound really good and I feel you can use the kits for lots of genres.

[xbitz]

S1 can see the pads of GA (drum map is created automagically) so +1 to it

[Audiowalter]

Nice. Thanks guys.

[pinki]

I hear you and have been on the same journey. I ended up buying a used Spark 1 controller (the big older one) for £45 and now just use Arturia Spark. It has everything I need in terms of tight integration and midi drag and drop, fabulous sounds and programming and very deep rabbit holes of sound manipulation if you want it. But the controller…just a joy. I have no idea why Arturia abandoned this.

[Hewitt Huntwork]

I have SO many drum plugins. Melda, XLN (2), Toontrack (+ countless EZXs), IK Multimedia, NI (too many to count), Algonaut Atlas, Dopesonix, Izotope, Auddict, Audiomodern, Beatskillz (3), Klevgrand (4), Sonic Charge, Steven Slate, Sugar Bytes, UVI, UJAM, and dozens of one-offs and Kontakt instruments.

Bear in mind I am not trying to make the rhythm sound like a drummer with 10 hi-hat articulations and 127 velocitites.

I love EZ Drummer's MIDI and song building, but it lacks sound sculpting capabilities. Superior Drummer could probably do everything I want (except kit creation), but it's so huge and feature-laden that I've never bought it. I love Atlas's and XO's sample browsers, but I find I get what I'm looking for faster just folder diving. I do think Addictive Drums sounds great, but finding grooves is too fiddly.

Ultimately I'm taking grooves from wherever (usually EZD) and feeding them into the free Decomposer Sitala. I grab samples from my folders of one-shots and then tweak the midi in Studio One. What I like about Sitala is the sound shaping. It's all done in a really smart way - compression, filtering, tuning, envelopes. I wrote a review of it here on KVR where I said that I would gladly pay for a Pro version that had a few more features.

I guess my ideal workflow would be EZD's groove/midi song creation, kit creation by Atlas (they just really do it better than XLN) into a slightly enhanced Sitala with each channel going to its own KNOCK and all bussed together with compression and room. Presto! Naturally, this would suck for anyone looking for the sound of a real drummer.

[Uncle E]

How does Atlas 2 compare with XO?

[Hewitt Huntwork]

How does Atlas 2 compare with XO?

Right after I typed my comment, I got an email that Atlas 2 was just updated to 2.3. Synchronicity!

XO is better looking. It's AI may be slightly better at identifying kit pieces. For instance, Atlas is more likely to put a ride in with your hi-hats. XO gives you more control over each sound. It has great saturation and reverb, which both really contribute to making a kit sound cohesive. This concludes XO's advantages.

As far as I'm concerned, for features that matter more to me, Atlas is the clear winner. You can make a map of any set of samples you want in Atlas. Like, if you get a new set of samples from your favorite developer, you can make a map of just that pack. To me, this is so much better than XO's approach, which is to make a map of every sound you've got, and then make you whittle away using search functions to get down to the area you want to focus on.

Atlas allows for your pads to match your controller. Your layout can be 1X8, 2X8, 4X4, or 8X8. Obviously, this means your kit can have up to 64 pieces, as opposed to XO's meaasley 8. For this alone, Atlas is superior. The fact that XLN continues to sleep on this feature makes me wonder about them as a company.

They both have humanization features, which I think only Battery 4 has as far as other drum samplers go. (I wish Sitala would add this! Sample start and pitch controlled by velocity.) I don't use their sequencers but they each have some features the other doesn't.

The final advantage for Atlas is the developer. He may not have the resources of XLN, and maybe that's a good thing? He's here on KVR, and he has a genuine interest in user feedback and ideas. He's actually excited whenever he implements a feature request. He's made more improvements to version 2 of his software than XLN, who have yet to make a version 2. That's my $.02.

[Uncle E]

Thanks!