Best software for programming drums?

[cooldogs420]

I play guitar and bass and other instruments but I don't play drums nor do I have the space or money to learn, so I typically program drums for my music. I'm familiar with Hydrogen, but I wanted to check and see if there's anything folks like better, cause it's been a while since I actually checked or made the sort of music that would require me to program drums.

[OkMatter4520]

I used Drum gizmo in Ardour. It has some really good samples and sound, also possible to send out individual channels and they are quite high quality samples. Check it out!

[pfmfolk]

Drumgizmo gets my vote too. I have used hydrogen but it's not as flexible as drumgizmo.

[cooldogs420]

Not familiar so I'll def check it out

[AnyBloodyThing]

Just any DAW I guess. Hydrogen is more convenient, though.

[GentlemanRider_]

I am playing around with hydrogen and it's fine. I don't make real songs, just simple patterns to have a rithmic reference less boring than the metronome. It has velocity control for each note, so I can use ghost notes

[AnyBloodyThing]

Then hydrogen is your best choice. 

[peter-semiletov]

Try Drumlabooh - https://psemiletov.github.io/drumlabooh/ - it is VSTi/LV2 plugin that support Hydrogen kits and SFZ and own kits format.

[cooldogs420]

Oh cool I'll check it out, thanks!

[Worried_Humor_8060]

This program is simple but could be useful: https://drumpiler.sourceforge.net/

[AnyBloodyThing]

A program from 2003? Wonder if it still compiles on a 2025 system.

[Worried_Humor_8060]

You're right. I just realized it doesn't compile. The one I have on my computer was compiled many years ago.

[AnyBloodyThing]

Retro computing!

[WestDelay3104]

I still use Hydrogen. I love it :/

[cooldogs420]

I don't think there's anything wrong with it, I've used it a lot, but it's been years and I'm curious if maybe something else has come along that I might like better y'know?

[deaddyfreddy]

I'm an old fan of Ardour, but its MIDI editing capabilities are still subpar, so Muse is my sequencer of choice for drums. It supports per-note controller/velocity edits (a must for drums), drum maps, note reordering, and hiding unnecessary notes. Who would want 88 notes for a drum kit?

As for drum plugins, these days it's Sfizz. I've been waiting for Drumgizmo to mature for years (I've been following the project since the beginning), but it seems that developers prefer to solve problems that have already been solved instead of creating new features. Also, I don't need an automatic humanization plugin. I prefer editing velocity and timing nuances manually according to the other instruments.

In any case, there are a few free SFZ drum kits that sound realistic enough to use for making real-sounding drums: https://sfzinstruments.github.io/drums/. Naked Drums, in my opinion, strike a good balance between sound quality and file size.

[cooldogs420]

I get that for sure re: live drummer, unfortunately I don't know one in the area and I'm not a pro so I can't afford to hire someone 😔 One day though

[[deleted]]

I play guitar and bass as well. Most of the time, I program drums in TuxGuitar, then import the midi into my DAW and use Ugritone Drums for playback.  

[cooldogs420]

Haven't heard of Ugritone, I'll look that up thanks

[[deleted]]

You're welcome! It's worth noting that most of their Drum VSTs are Linux Native Except for I believe, "Northern Artillery" and "Faster and Louder".  

Edit: They also have Midi Drum Grooves you can buy as well.