I also own all of their Midi collections & Sample Sets for SD2-3 and recommend them to everyone looking for solid, drop-in-a-mix sounds. I always recommend the Smart Loops Vol.1 Midi pack to folks mainly because they are great feeling meat & potatoes 4/4 tracks that just work. After years of using all the big & small drum sampler programs that are out there, this just fits my work flow better. Gen16 Groovesįirst off, I am a Drummer in Real Life, and a Session Drummer 2-3 user that sticks with GM files. You'll get aggressiveness and power without mercy! Ideal for headbanging home-studio producers that need some drum parts. Nothing has been quantified, but the publisher promises a lot of precision, like the genres demand.
Their prices go from $9.95 to $19.95, depending on the bank. Slam Tracks is really specialized on hard rock, punk and metal. Certain packs are inspired by renowned drummers (Jeff Porcaro, Bernard Purdie, John Bonham…) and, obviously, nothing has been quantified nor retouched! Slam Tracks Single packs cost $19 and include several hundred loops. Their first six libraries are available for $79 and cover styles ranging from disco, funk, hard rock and reggae, to shuffle and swing.
Smart Loops pledges that their MIDI drum loops are compatible with any software and material while recreating the feeling of a real drummer. And it also includes a collection created by a renowned drummer: Bill Bruford.
There are very original sound banks focusing on specific music styles, like Colombian Beats and Future Beats. mid and Motif (ES and XS) format, and they include from very simple 4/4 rhythms to more complex time signatures (7/4 or 7/8). Keyfax offers the Twiddly.Bits MIDI groove banks for $39.95. Do notice that, in case you don't already own EZDrummer or Superior Drummer, you will have to buy the EZPlayer (€39) to be able to use the grooves. They basically focus on American music styles: rock, metal, country, blues… Every pack includes several hundred files organized in songs. The publisher of Superior Drummer and EZDrummer has around thirty packs (€25 each) in its catalog. Everything is organized in songs, and there are also individual song endings and motifs (rolls, etc.) as well. It supports the most classic formats, like BFD 2, EZDrummer, Superior Drummer, Addictive Drums, SSD4, General MIDI, but also Cakewalk Session Drummer. Among its most original offerings are a Military Cadence pack dedicated to military marching music and a nice Reggae pack. The collections are focused on ‘star’ drummers or specific music styles. The prices are a bit higher here (up to $40), which is explained by the fact that each pack generally includes many more MIDI patterns (several thousands sometimes) than those of other brands. With a fixed price of around $20, each pack includes hundreds of grooves compatible with Addictive Drums, BFD, BFD2, Eco, EZdrummer, Superior 2, General MIDI, Session Drummer, Steven Slate and others… it is important to note that the grooves are organized in songs: verse, chorus, bridge, etc. You can even have a mix of everything with the very interesting Twisted Beats. Groove MonkeeĪmong the most common publishers, Groove Monkee provides a mountain of MIDI grooves, classified by genre: rock, funk, hip-hop, metal, fusion, and some other genres that are less represented like Afro-cuban world music, Latin and Caribbean music. So be careful not to buy a groove by these publishers if you don't have one of its virtual drums. EZPlayer will then be able to "translate" the groove for other virtual drums to understand. To use a loop of these publishers you need to have the corresponding software and drag and drop the groove into a MIDI track in your sequencer. Do consider, however, that it recognizes Toontrack files as well as classic MIDI files, but it doesn't support the grooves of other publishers, like FXpansion (BFD) or XLN Audio (Addictive Drums). This software could serve as your MIDI file library to manage all your different virtual drums.