Been triggering them with my mesh head kit. Easy to use. Good sound! Glad I took this suggestion. Not a bad way to go. Much easier to use then SD3 IMHO.

 

Do you use Drum Machine Designer at all? If you have a good collection of breakbeats, it is a very fast and efficient way of making nice drum kits. well, getting one started anyway....

 

Yes, but SD3 sounds amazing. I upgraded my songs with the SD3 default kit along EZ bass default bass, and omg, what a difference. Using my M1 Macbook Air and my Motu M4 interface.

 

I went from SD3 to producer kits on Logic and I found Logic to be better. Def much easier to use. I don't miss SD3 at all. I've had collaborators who would not use my SD3 sounds and preferred EZD2 kits. I had to agree it sounded better. Maybe I wasn't using SD3 properly or to it's full potential, but that is part of my point. I found Logic easier to use. One big thing for me was ease of monitor. Seemed like I could not get a decent sound in my phones with SD3. Seemed like it didn't feed the interface hot enough. I have plenty of monitor volume in Logic. I consider myself permenantly switched from SD3 to Logic Producer kits.

 

As is Logic's Ultrabeat.

Depending on genre, I can agree in that sometimes less velocities or round robins sound punchier and more pop friendly if they are more lofi due to less samples.
I can't imagine the Logic stuff has many samples compared to SD.
I've never checked them and I mostly only use SD!

 

I am no expert, but I found SD3 a little hard to use. I did get some drums recorded, but I am including user friendliness in my comments. I am sure someone with more knowledge than I could do a better job in making SD3 do marvelous things. I just found Logic easier to use. I could take what I record and render them in SD3. I have that option. It gets to a point where if something is so complex, you never get to use it because it's a whole cirriculum. So I am not saying SD3 is bad, only that Logic's producer kits was a better fit for me. I think I tend to be a rock drummer, but there is some overlapping genres I collab on, so yes could be more for pop, and ballads. I sure haven't found them to be inferior. I am now investigating a better trigger kit. I am using Alesis Nitro. I am mildly disappointed in the "partially closed hats". We've been discussing this on our discord collab server and I have been made aware that there are some more indepth choices for kit that have better hat action. My buddy who is also a drummer plays an acoustic kit that has been converted to triggers with mesh heads, and an upgraded kit brain from Alesis. He says he has more options for partially closed hats and Logic handles it. I don't think my kit brain has the hats action I really want. I am used to acoustic kit hats and it's a big jump to triggering hats. I've been a bit disappointed by attempts to do partially closed hats.

 

Yes, it's called MIDI ! Sorry, couldn't resist!

I didn't think you were.

Yes, they're alright if you don't mind going in and doing some editing, but the Roland gear is a straight take always.

That's because very few sample libraries have them, or if they do they haven't scripted it all well enough with a good controller hi-hat unit.
And in fact there are only 2 dev makers who have bothered to go deeper with hat samples and provide proper velocity layers with actual open, closed, and all in between.
This is because it takes a stupid amount of samples and time, and I guess because none of us have ever requested it or felt it was necessary.
It is genre dependent, but hats are not the most important instrument of the kit in a lot of modern music.
But if they need to be, the answer is to keep that part of the kit acoustic!

You'll like being able to do realistic cymbal chokes with the Roland gear! Even with the basic brain.
Remember that then you will want SD3 or something that provides the different areas of the snare, and the bell and edge of the ride.
I don't think this would have been accessible with your Alesis.
Do the Logic drums have cross stick, snare centre, snare edges, all triggered by your Alesis snare?

Ah, and you can get the partial closed hat sound & feel with a good hats controller and the right library.

 

I should not speak with any authority on this. It might be there and I have not found it yet. Thus far I've found closed and open. I would like at least one in between. Yes I am not giving up my acoustic kit. I find a partially closed hat necessary. If you try to use a fully open hat it just does not sound right. At least not yet. I don't speak with any authority on this and I listen when people speak. I have a lot to learn about this. I am merely speaking from my own experience, and that could change as simply as my realizing I am doing something incorrectly. I wouldn't agree that partially closed hats are not important in any genre, but I'm listening. I am gathering info and testing things to make up my own mind. If I find anything note worthy I will share it. Thanks for your feedback guys!

 

No, you are totally correct man. And you speak from authority of coming from an acoustic kit. So you know the truth!
It's never going to be as good as the real thing. End of story.

If you mean partial closed hat articulations and the physical potential with the Alesis hardware and brain/or even SD3 as brain, then nope.
There is nothing you are missing as far as I recall.
Good to keep though, so you can add extra pads to whatever you buy next!

But what I actually said was:

Which is very different, thank you! But you are listening, right?
If you listen to a lot of recordings, the kick and snare are usually the most important aspects.
This is undeniable.
And even when I used to work for a P.A. company on the road, the hats mic was rarely switched on! Because it is picked up with the overheads once you have eq'd for the cymbals! And it can bleed anyway.
This why there are only 2 sample library companies who have done what I said, which was very specific. I'm not sure you understood.
Can you imagine having every single articulation of a hi-hat with smooth cross-fading of dynamics, with an external hihat controller?
It exists, but is pointless when you can use the real thing! That's why nobody else has bothered to sample it.
This is my point.
Don't search for the holy grail when it is already an acoustic kit!

Aaand back to why EZDrummer with less samples than SD, and the Logic thing with less samples than SD, sound good in a mix?
Because drum sounds need to be there every hit in commercial music. Simple is better. Not many samples needed really.
Least of all 20GB of samples for a hi-hat.

 

I'd settle for one more articulation. I've been a kit drummer since the mid 70s. I know what I want and need, and it has nothing to do with what is modern. What I get might have everything to do with that but that is separate from what I want. I am sure I can find a kit brain that handles at least 1 partially open hat. The kits themselves no doubt have it. I need a controller with more trigger options. 1 in between is my goal, not every articulation.

 

Not sure exactly what your point is here. Those being the most important part is not the same as saying the hats are un important. You really don't have a point here. Hats are important. I have played kit for a long time, and I have yet to see a kit that does not include hyhats.

 

I've been playing since the 70s too, and using MIDI since it began.

You sound like you can't understand what I'm saying because you don't yet understand what I am saying.
And the sentence after what I quoted also doesn't make sense in context.

Your physical Alesis, the lowest of the offerings since they held the non-pro hardware strata for this for years, will NOT do what you want regardless of what brain or sample library you use.
I have used notingr but the Roland V-Drums since they gegan because they are the best, and just keep getting better.
And I use them with SD and various other sample based libraries.
Because they are the only ones to supply what you require.

The lack of Logic in this last sentence is why I do not need to respond to you again.
Cheers, and good luck on your musical journey.

ps. I suggest using acoustic hats with a mix of acoustic kit and pads, as I have already implied.

 

Oh, you're a drummer?! Niicceee!! I have a Tama Starclassic Tom set mixed with a DW collectors snare and DW Performance 24" Kick drum. And Meinl Cymbals.

 

Not OT?
They are a free download anyway for Logic owners.
And prior to those kits, all the Apple loops were shared on torrents over the years too.

They are .caf files (Core Audio Format) which as far as I know are macOS only, and they also have some other files that go with them, as some of the files include more than hits. If you're on macOS, cool.
So it would not be as straight forward as even being able to make kits out of it, let alone just drag the samples into Simpler or Live. Due to how the Drummer software reads the .caf files.
If you still want to go forward, we can chat through Inbox.

 

I have a set of Tama Rockstar (black) for acoustic. I have Sabian Aax Dark crashes (14, and 15), and an 18 Steve Gadd Custom ride, and 18 zildjian china. My hats are zildjian too but I am not sure exactly what. They are old. I have a set of shure sm 57s for snare, and toms, and beta 52 for the kick. Overheard I have a stereo x/y audio technica, all going into the rack mounted 8 channel focusrite which goes into my macbook pro and Logic. I just sampled those Sabia crashes and successfully used them along with the Logic Producer kits, via AU Sampler in Logic. Worked better for the genre of this particular collaboration. Not nearly as splashy as the producer kit cymbals I've heard. For room mix either use a PZM mounted on a 4x4 sheet or I have a rode Nt2a that I've been using for room.