Well you are either going to set up drums, microphones, preamps, recorders, etc.? Or you are going to look into a sample library? Sample library's are made by professional folks that have already put a great deal of effort into the production of capturing these samples. So you are asking about what to do? If you're going to deal with a sample library, you just have to find the one you like. If you want to record your own samples? How much money you got? That's like asking, "I want to record a symphony orchestra. Where can I get one?" That's not easily answered. How much money you got? Do you have any experience.....with psychiatrists? If not? You will before you're done.

How much money you got? A girl needs to know.
Ms. Remy Ann David

Depending on what DAW you use (cause I don't know if it works on all DAWs) you should check out Native Instruments Battery. You can just google those words and check it out. It's bascially a sampler that you can use like a plug-in on an instrument track (pro tools). I've used it a couple of times and the drum samples on it are pretty good. Not super knowledgeable about it, I just know it's out there. You might think about checking that one out.

never get a clear answer here, lol

i think you should record your own music, that way your making an investment, and its "yours"
sure you can get samples but you cant replace the original, and it saves money
MAKE YOUR OWN!!

So Blue, you are recommending recording a drum kit with two microphones? Many professionals do it this way, but if you are new to recording I would recommend at 4 microphones for a drum kit. 2 over head SDC's, 1 kick and 1 snare.

If you know a little about audio Remy and Kylempetersen's responses were very clear.

he knows what im sayin, just cause you dont, get a life and stop hatin, unlike you all who beat around the bush with all the answers on this forum
people dont want filler they want an answer,just cause i got right to the point its not a clear question?!? feel for your artist, lol

for the deliterates: make your own music, dont use samples, if you need more equipment get it but make your own music 8-)

to break it down even more: shyt i cant

I hate to get in on these things...but I'm going to!!

He IS making his own music. He's just using samples of other drum kits because since he is NEW at recording/engineering he probably doesn't have a ton of money to throw around at something he's just doing for a hobby (as of now). Yeah, everyone would love to be able to have enough mics/mic pres to through 4-8 mics on a drum kit, but the kid (I apologize if you aren't actually a kid) isn't wanting to do that right now. He wants to know where he can find some good samples that he can trigger with MIDI. So, in reality, you are the person (BluepryntEnt) who isn't answering his question. You're just FILLING in with what YOU'RE opinion of music is. Which no one is in the position to define what music is or isn't.

gameofsk8...another option other than buying a sample library is use your interface, find someone with a good sounding drum kit (if you don't already have one) and go piece by piece through the kit and make your own sample library by recording each individual drum (snare, kick, toms, etc.). It'll save you money and you'll get the experience of recording the actual acoustic instrument. (Not sure how to trigger those samples with MIDI, you might have to ask someone else, but I'm pretty sure it's do-able). You could always just set up a grid and build your audio samples on that (copying and pasting).

Good Luck!

Ok, while technically BluepryntEnt didn't answer the original question, I am still inclined to agree with him as there really isn't way to replace the sound of a kit!

I think for the most part people would agree that there really isn't a way to replace the sound of a GOOD kit. I stress "good". No one is arguing that. We're just trying to help gameofsk8 with the equipment he does have.

Let me add another perspectivve -

If you don't have years of practice and good chops, a great drummer with great chops, a great room and a kit that's perfectly in tune with a warehouse full of drums, then a sample library is your best means of getting good sounds.

If you like "rolling your own" then get some type of sample replacement software (though you'll need triggers or a bigger collection of mics/preamps). That way you're at least doing the work to start with but getting better sounds than you can with a basic 2 channel interface, crappy room and a basic kit.

thanks alot for everyones replies

as much as i would LOVE to record my own drums on an actual set I have neither a set nor drum mics nor the money to get them. I don't really wanna take samples but pretty much key in exactly where each bass drum, snare, crash, etc hits. I have the beats how i want already in my head just need to find a way to put to my software. I use garage band and I can easily do this on this program but the kits it comes with aren't very good. I was just curious to see if there is a program that gives me more variety of kits with a possibly "more real" sound than what i already have and still be able to input where ever i want each drum/cymbal to go.

i am eventually going to purchase an electric set and record through that so i can play in my house without annoying anyone and save some money on mics...until the day comes where i really start getting the hang of the engineering then I will upgrade all the equipment i already have (m-audio fast track pro, garage band, ipod monitors haha)

and thanks kylempeterson i never thought of doing that, recording each individual drums and using triggers. In order to do this i think i would have to put each piece on its own track. if so would this effect the quality of my production?

You could look into Hydrogen. Free one with a decent amount of kits online.

MIDI
It's meant for Linux but has been known to work on Windows (shakily) and Mac (stable)

You might even be able to just use their samples.

When we say samples...we don't mean loops. Samples are individual audio files that you can use to key (as you say) in where each kick, snare, etc. hits are going to be. They are a "sample" of an individual kick drum, snare, etc. Loops are audio files that contain the entire drum kit (or other instrumentation) and are playing a certain rhythm (or melody) already. Does that kind of make sense?

If you were to record each individual piece of the kit and use those samples to construct your drums, you would probably put them on all separate tracks. Kick sample on track 1, snare sample on track 2, high tom on track 3, so on and so forth. This also gives you complete control over each part of your kit without affecting anything other part of it. I hope your understanding me correctly. When I say to record each piece of the kick separately I don't mean record only the kick drum part through the whole song, and then go back and record the snare part through the whole song...what I mean is, you can record a good sounding kick, snare, etc., use that ONE sample and copy and paste where the rest of your kick, snare, tom, etc. drum hits go (it's easy to do this if you are copying and pasting to a grid). Granted, it will be much more difficult to make your drums sound natural because there will be absolutely no dynamic change (unless you automate it in) but that still won't make it sound like a human being is playing it. So to kind of answer your question about the quality of your production...it will sound more natural to use your own samples because you're using a real drum kit (all though a lot of sample libraries use real drums kits that sound really good...but hey, what do you learn from going that route?) but at the same time your dynamic range and "human" sound will almost be non-existent. I hope this helps!

Good post about drum programming.

However the OP is looking for pre-made sample sets as he has no drums/suitable mics.

Good point. I forgot he mentioned that. So, as of now, gameofsk8, just do a good amount of research about drum sample libraries. You could probably google "drum sample libraries" and get a lot of results. Read reviews and figure out which ones would work best for what you want to do. Good luck! Oh...and check out this site http://www.samplecraze.com/
I came across it a while ago and I just remembered that I had book marked it.
Good Luck!

... I have the beats how i want already in my head just need to find a way to put to my software.

I'm looking forward to the interface that will let me plug directly into my head. Now that will be cool.':shock:'

Just keep doing what you're doing gameofsk8, keep the passion for it, keep learning. Experiment, enjoy the process and try to get better everytime you turn the gear on.

For what it's worth: If I were you, I'd lean toward buying a good drum sample library, like some of the others have suggested. Once you have those pre-produced drums you're half way home. There are a lot of ways you can drop those into your tracks - some methods a lot easier than others.

I would always prefer a real drummer on a well-tuned drum kit, but it doesn't look like that's in the cards for you just yet.

Good luck,

Does your DAW support ReWire clients? I run PT 8.0 locked in with Reason 4.0 and love love love it! But that may not be suitable for your operation.

Just a thought.