Drum Machine vs. electronic table top drums

[franksnbeans]

for home recording.  I'm leaning towards the electronic table top drums, because i can play the drums and don't really understand why a drum machine is much different. 

Which would you all prefer and why?

[Hemisaurus]

The point of the drum machine, is for people who can't play drums, or can't play them well, you program them so they play (near) perfectly.

If you have drum skills then electronic drums, or real drums and some electronic mics, are the way to go

[Hemisaurus]

I should also add in fairness, that programming drums, is also a skill.

[VOLVO)))]

Tabletop drums = worthless and offer nothing more realistic than programmed drums.

Me ^^^ fake drums ^^^^

[Hemisaurus]

Tabletop drums = worthless and offer nothing more realistic than programmed drums.

Well if you are a drummer, with no space to practice, or no room / sound level allowance in your recording space, I suppose they make sense. I've known a few drummers go with electronic kits (not tabletop sets) just cause they can fit the whole dang thing in a single case and carry it up stairs.

[franksnbeans]

Good stuff Sunno.  What kind of machine did you use?

I saw some tabletop drums that come with foot pedals.  I don't know if I want to have a whole big electronic set. 

[VOLVO)))]

It wad ezdrummer!

[EddieMullet]

Get both.

If you get the table top electronic drums and they have MIDI you can MIDI them to the machine put the machine in real time recording and play the fills on the pads.  Turn the quantize off and you can get better fills and snare rolls than you would if you just programmed them.

Still no substitute for the real thing, but OK for quick 4 track demos to lay down basic ideas and you'll have less cringe worthy drums on your rough demo.

[Hemisaurus]

Here's a related question, I saw one of those Rock Band drum controllers today for $20, it's USB, can I use it to program drums into a PC with something like EZ-Drummer? I suspect it may not be velocity sensitive though, right?

[chlorpromazine]

Probably not velocity-sensitive, and will probably have problems double triggering

get a Roland SPD

or better yet

real drums!

[VOLVO)))]

Not velocity sensitive, AT ALL. It's just Piezo elements under the pads. They're ungated, unpreamped, unbuffered sound signals. (I already tried this.)

Honestly, if you know how to play drums at all, get EZdrummer, and use FLstudio to program your hits.

1. It's the easiest to pirate
2. It's the easiest to understand if you're new to the world of programming, etc.

[Harm]

I've tried nearly everything what is out there in electronic drumming software and i would advise addictive drums if you want simplicity and somehow realistic sounding drums. But i must add that i eventually switched to acoustic drums because it just didn't sound good enough to me. Get a middle priced kit instead and play your own drums, it's not that hard to play them and you can use loops of the best parts too. When you hook up two mics it will sound better than the most expensive electronic kit out there with the best software.

[franksnbeans]

Not velocity sensitive, AT ALL. It's just Piezo elements under the pads. They're ungated, unpreamped, unbuffered sound signals. (I already tried this.)

Honestly, if you know how to play drums at all, get EZdrummer, and use FLstudio to program your hits.

1. It's the easiest to pirate
2. It's the easiest to understand if you're new to the world of programming, etc.

Aaargh, you've said the magic word!  Where's a good place to pirate this stuff from?