DR008, Other Drum Softsynths, WAV samples, & Drum Mgr

King Conga


So, obviously I have X2 Studio (sidebar: I'm a little confused if that's supposed to come with Session Drummer 3 X64, or at least an X64 ver. of SD2), and I'm trying to merge all of the best of my drum resources to come up with the most efficient use of them without wasting any of them. A daunting task..INDEED! I remember weeping like a child when I had to come to grips with parting with my DR008 as my 32Bit goto guy for all of my drum needs since it had 96...count 'em ...96 pads that I could assign ANY FREAKIN' sound I wanted to. Not only that, it had THE BEST, AND TRUEST velocity response of ANY synth, or whatever I'd ever used. It also had tons of great sounds. Even just now, I tried to install it on my 64Bit system, and it just doesn't like it. SOOO, that's my 1st question: Does anyone know of a VERY reasonably priced 64Bit drum sampler that allows for more than just the obligatory 12-16 pad assignments, that also has really good velocity response? Next, if I can't get DR008 to work again, is there any way I can use either Session Drummer 2, or SI to import some of my WAV samples so I can use them in the Drum Map Mgr? Any other suggestions? KC

As a DR008 user I'm wondering if you've kept an eye on fxpansions BFD2 or BFD Eco ? You don't get 96 pads but why would you ever need that many?
I'm guessing if you feel you have to have that many pads you're not looking for acoustic kits ? 
BFD2 has a maximum of 32 pads (or kit pieces) which I think (?) is more than any other drum synths out there. 
You can load your own samples and do your own velocity layering. You say DR008's has the best and truest velocity response but you've not tried any of the others ?

DR008 is very old and long in the tooth and since it was made by fxpansion BFD2 will be at least as good but I'd suggest it's a whole lot better.  
You may get some kind of upgrade from DR008 to BFD 2 but don't quote me on that.
Not sure how many velocity layers  DR008 is capable of but it's mpore about how many layers you have in your samples. 
The standard kits that come with BFD2 have up to 96 velocity layers but other libraries "platinum samples" in particular have up to 256 velocity layers which should be enough to please anyone.
Depending on how much money you want to spend I strongly suggest you check them out.

Otherwise I'd suggest something like Battery 3 might be up your street, some love it, others dont.
I'm one of the latter   You can have up to 128 cells/pads though so that should please you 


Steve