In pop music it's being done all the time - Aerosmith, for one.

I don't hesitate to mix in a sampled kick, snare, tom, or sidestick if the drums aren't cutting it. (Especially if I wasn't the tracking engineer ;) ).
At least on pop music projects.

In one scenario I have a D-4 that I can trigger from the recorded tracks, then just nudge the sampled track ahead to compensate for midi delay. This would be for replacing/reinforcing a whole track.

In another scenario where I just need to fix a weak snare hit here and there, I'll copy and paste from elsewhere in the track.

I use a sample kick with the normal kick a lot.
Not all the time, I normally spend some time with the drum sounds at the start so I do not have to totally replace.

I know a lot who do it for all drums including toms and snares.
I never liked soundreplacing toms, although I noramlly do not gate drums anyway.

Soundreplacer can be your best friend when dealing with
1, an inconsistent drummer
2, bad sounding drums
3, poor micing technique
4, just to add effect here and there..... etc,

I always try to use only the real drums (they usually sound better anyway) but many a time has using a sample kick or snare blended with the real one saved my ass! :)
One session i was told by the drummer he loved what i had done to his snare!
If he couldn't tell the difference....who cares? :) ......(assuming of course a drummer has any frequencies left in their hearing range!)

Just my $0.023 :)
S1LVER

Soundreplacer on both Kick and Snare and then try to mix the new with the old.

One day I will have a good sounding kit put in front of me. All I get are clapped out kits with clapped out skins with no tone.

I have great results with triggering kicks. I agree with Davemc, I dont like sampling the toms, and I've never tried sampling the snare, cause I dont need to. Do anyone know of a famous record where the snare was a sample?? you know, some record where we wouldnt spect it. anyone?

Just about everything Bob Clearmoutain has mixed has a sampled kick and snare. He is very skillful at making it blend perfectly. The same goes for many other top mixers.

like kev, i've added soundreplaced kick and snare to my tracks (kick more than snare, though)

i've had interesting results from keying the kick off the bass track

Originally posted by max:
i've had interesting results from keying the kick off the bass track

Hey , now that's different ... I usually do it the other way around!

it sure is different, sometimes, if i also leave the original kick as is, it can sound like a funky double-kick kit

nirvana's "nevermind"...

sampled drums abound, which is odd, because Dave Grohl kicks so much ass anyway [in utero has, in my opinion, some of the coolest sounding drums around].

i think on kick it is totaly justifiable...kinda like just adding some eq, ya know? except with out the phase shift. we're willing to do all other sorts of crap to it, addin' a sample ain't gonna hurt.

--owen

I almost never replace drum sounds, but about 90% of the time I add something in... I wish I could change the pitch of my drum samples in "Soundreplacer" like I can with my Forat F-16...I love (as stated in a ton of my other posts) to tune my kick sample in the key of the song.

Usually as a fix, but sometimes for effect, I gate a sine tone onto the kick for oomph (can be neat to pitch it at the tonic). I also occasionally do the same with white noise to brighten up a flabby snare sound. It's not quite replacement but it still feels a little impure.

I.