I am looking for an inexpensive virtual drum machine.

[elperromagico]

I do digital home recording, but as I'm not much of a drummer, I mainly use midi tracks for the drums. I'd like something better, hopefully either cheap or free. I checked Google but didn't come up with much of anything.

I'm running on Windows (yeah, I know... not the best for home recording). Any suggestions? :shrug:

[emulatorloo]

1. what kind of music? and what kind of money? n/t

[elperromagico]

3. Various types. And low-cost,

preferably free. :P

I just want something that sounds a trifle more natural than midi. I used to be satisfied with midi, but it's become a major irritant for me.

[emulatorloo]

4. Here - try this page of links and see if anything works for you

http://www.synthzone.com/drums.htm

Hammerhead seems cool, but maybe more dance-y than you are looking for. BUT IT IS FREE!!!!

Anyway, synthzone is a good resource, see what you find down the list

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If you had real money to spend. Steinberg Groove Agent seems real good:

http://www.steinberg.net/ProductPage_sb.asp?Product_ID=2015&Langue_ID=7

Or the one I would like someone to give me:

http://www.fxpansion.com/product-bfd-main.php

Be sure and listen to the demos at
http://www.fxpansion.com/bfdsound.html

[elperromagico]

5. Thank you.

I'll see what I can find.

I have used HammerHead before. It is very good for dance-y tracks, yes. Not good for much else.

[Magrittes Pipe]

2. I'm not much of a drummer, but I still play drums.

In order to keep the beat if I'm recording guitar or bass first, though -- I use the mighty Alesis SR-16.

It ain't free... but it works.

[tridim]

6. Native Instruments Battery

is what I use.. Works as VXi or Cubase plugin. I use it within Cakewalk Sonar, which has a midi plugin called "session drummer" that allows you to build sequences from premade segments. Add some groove quantization and it sounds very close to the real thing. Battery sounds better than any drum machine I've heard.

If you want to go completely free and your soundcard supports soundfonts, there are tons of great drum soundfonts out there for download. I used to use the "Gold Drums" soundfont before I moved to Battery. It's definitely passable.

[frylock]

7. i'm a rebirth/reason user myself..

but you might give FruityLoops a try. It's an excellent program and relatively inexpensive.

http://www.flstudio.com/