I would be interested to hear what drums any of you solo keyboard players use for backing … hardware/software, drum machine, computer, midi, recorded backing or programmed on the keyboard.
I am using Superior Drummer 3
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Hi Paul,
Thanks for the response.
I would be interested in how you integrate is in your rig if that’s not too much to ask, do you use it standalone or as a plugin within GP?
I have Superior Drummer 3 also but haven’t worked out how to use it for different songs in a set.
I program drum tracks with superior drummer and render that as audio.
This audio I am using as backing tracks in ableton live.
From gig performer I am triggering Ableton Live scenes.
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Sounds like a good place to start, thanks for sharing.
+1 for Superior Drummer 3. However, Toontrack’s EZ Drummer will get you 80% of the way there at much lower cost for what you want to do.
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I use Strike2 from AIR Music, mostly for exercising. It’s cheap, it’s versatile and it’s not hitting the CPU too hard.
There are many different drum sets, and for each style there are various fills, endings, verse and chorus patterns available which can be triggered by playing different note values, which works pretty well.
I would say it’s got a very good value for the money.
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Another vote for Toontrack EZ Drummer here. The name makes it sound noddy but it’s actually very powerful and sounds fantastic.
I also really like MODO Drum from IK Multimedia. You could even get that free in their group buy if you bought something else of equal or higher value (till end October 2021).
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Time to do some shopping!
For now, I’m using Kontakt’s Band Drums Pop Kit, which is included, out-of-the box, with Kontakt. It’s enough to get me started building songs, but it’s limited.
Years ago, I was a Giga Studio user, focusing on scoring to picture. For rock drums, I ponied up for Larry Seyer Acoustic Drums, which was revolutionary at the time and featured none other than Pat Mastelotto. I can’t imagine how long that session took!
Sadly, the library was programmed specifically for Giga Studio 3, which had a long gestation time. and Tascam abandoned the program shortly after its release, orphaning the library. It was my go-to kit, until I moved on from GS3. It was challenging to get the exact, right mic and room setup, but the samples were super playable.
I still have the library and Kontakt 6 should be able to import the samples, but I’ve heard that the results are lacking. It really depended on the scripts in GS3, as well as the impulse responses.
It’s a shame that the samples haven’t been re-programmed into a modern software instrument.
Back to 2021… I’ll check these out. Given that it’s for live, I don’t need anything too sophisticated and heavy. And no iLok, please. 
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I am quite happy with the Abbey Road 60s to 80s drum kits, which are part of the Kontakt libraries coming with the NI Komplete collection. When I need a standalone drum sequencer I use MDrummer which also has decent built-in sounds.
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Are guitar players allowed to answer? LOL When needing backing drum tracks, I use the Midi File Player (song parts triggering different midi files) with EZDrummer. I can send PC messages to change kits as well.
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One thing that was great about the Larry Seyer drums was how they were mapped for playability on the keyboard. Yeah, General MIDI was available, but the better mapping would have something like five or seven keys mapped to each drum. That let you play from center to edge. It was more drum-like too, in that you played using your arms, rather than fingers. With General MIDI, my hands are static for kick, snare, and hh/ride and barely move for toms. With LSAD, the bass drum is that half-octave, the snare is this octave, etc. Very dynamic. I built an electronic kit from a Pearl Rhythm Traveler with mesh heads, but I got better results playing the parts in from keyboard. I’d play the drum kit for fun, but for recording compositions, I used the keys. Unless it was electronica, I always played (and tweaked), rather than mousing in the hits.
Do any of the newer kits have similar, large mapping? To be effective, each key needs to be a different hit, like center to edge. Add velocities and anti-machine gun programming, and you can get a very playable instrument.
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I downloaded the EZdrummer2 demo, and I really like it. I expect to purchase it. The most important part is the sound, which I really like. The range of kits is quite nice, with more than half of the Modern kits sounding useful for me. (This is a good hit rate!) You can mix and match drums from various kits and tune, mix, and pan them. You can mix the kit, or use a separate send, if you want to process some independently.
The key mapping is good too. It has general MIDI, and it also has clusters of keys for single drums. It’s especially nice to have multiple high hat positions.
There’s no iLok. And it’s not overly heavy in terms of storage, memory, and processing load. For my needs, it might be better than Superior Drum 3 for live, as I don’t need height channels, and the larger footprint might demand a bigger hard drive.
I checked out the MODO DRUM examples, but all the demos sound overly wet and didn’t match my personal tastes. Frankly, modeling is a great match for solo winds and strings, but I’m not so sure for drums. Drum hits are a perfect match for sampling. It’s sustain, tuned instruments that need to morph without phase issues where modeling works well. Maybe a high hat would benefit most as the pedal position can cause morphing sounds. Cymbal swells could be good too.
So, EZdrummer seems to check all the boxes. It’s a big improvement from the out-of-the-box Kontakt drums. Unless something better/cheaper pops up, they will get my money.
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One thing to be aware of with EZDrummer kits (if it matters to you)…
Check the requirements for each kit. If it requires EZDrummer v1.x, it’s a 16-bit kit. If v2.x is required, it’s a 24-bit kit.
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As for Superior Drummer (and maybe for EZDrummer, I don’t know), I now just use the stereo output. When I tried to use the multichannel outputs (individual kit piece per output), I wound up having to do a bunch of remapping in Studio One if I changed kits. Kit pieces from different kits are mapped to different channels.
The 290 GB initial download for SD3 was fun. I run it off of a 2TB external Thunderbolt 3 SSD. I have purchased the EZDrummer Reggae kit that I run in SD3, so there is that option as well.
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Thanks for the replies everyone, useful information. I am lucky enought to have some of the suggested options regarding drum software but would appreciate some more views on the way you implement them for live use (not studio recording), Pianopaul was very helpful in this respect and any others views would be appreciated.
This might be obvious, but to build on what @pianopaul said w.r.t. rendering to audio…absolutely. I wouldn’t think of running SD3 or EZD2 live. You can render the entire song as a single audio file or create your own loops. 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16 bars for intro, verse, chorus, bridge, outro, etc. and then trigger the appropriate audio drum loop at the desired time using Ableton Live or another sequencer. The second option gives you more flexibility in structuring the song and its length and allows you to reuse one or more of the loops in another song. The first option is easier; it’s just a backing track you can run in the audio player without using a sequencer.
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For real time impro, MDrummer seems to be quite appropriate…
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Any reason for MDrummer over EZdrummer?
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I don’t know SD3 and EZD2 enough, but MDrummer should be Ok for life. (Even if I prefer a real drummer)
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