Are there tutorials (web sites, books, videos) for making realistic-sounding performances for drums, bass, etc. using soft synths?

There was an article in March 2011's edition of Computer Music called "Keeping it Real": Program realistic strings, guitar, winds and brass.

Find more stuff here: http://www.musicradar.com/computermusic

From my own experience, using the CAL files "Random Time" and "Humanize" goes a long way in this respect. Also, learning how the instruments are played, orchestrated and their inherent limitations allows you to program more realistically (e.g. no drummers with three feet and four hands, or strings playing in ultra-stratospheric ranges!!). The instrument you use is also critical. The best results I've had have come from my recent purchase of NI Komplete 7 especially MM-Scarbee Bass (which is unbelievably realistic when you get to grips with it) and the Kontakt Sax and Brass for Kore 2/player. For Drums, XLN Audios Addictive Drums and Toontrack's ezDrummer plugins are excellently modeled. Some of Session Drummer 3's presets are not too bad either but don't have the depth of dynamic range for my liking (the free Ocean Way download that came with Sonar 8.5 is, however, a little closer to what I like). There are some very good presets in Dimension Pro for Acoustic bass, especially in the new expansion pack 3 (which is a free download for registered members from the cakewalk store)



Hope this helps :)

Computer music is great.  
Also their is a book CAKEWALK SYNTHESIZERS by Simon Cann has some great advice on the subject. 

learning how the instruments are played, orchestrated and their inherent limitations

This is exactly the sort of info I'm after.  I'd love to see videos of someone playing a real instrument (e.g., bass) and then someone mimicking it via midi.  Even just an audio equivalent would be cool.

I notice you mentioned both Kontakt and Dimension Pro.  Do you use both regularly?  Is one better for certain instruments than the other?

This is exactly the sort of info I'm after


Me too Uche...after reading your post I bought MM-Scarbee Bass ...then plopped it in to replace the DimPro bass I've always used (that is still out of tune after all these years but has a decent tone) and it immediately improved a couple of things I'm working on.
Care to share any more wisdom?

this is a tut I made on making drums sound as convincing as possible,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruAnAPR6-hQ

It helps if you have a MIDI keyboard that allows you to play the parts as you record them into Sonar. Just typing the notes into Piano Roll View or entering them in the staff view isn't going to sound realistic unless you add a lot of control information i.e., volume, expression, attack, modulation. aftertouch, etc. that give you the "eyebrows" on the notes, as Frank Zappa described it. It also helps if you know about the instrument you are trying to emulate so that you can simulate the playing technique, style, range, etc. that a real player would use. Its not easy. Just having a good sample isn't enough to make it sound real, but it helps. 

daveny5


It helps if you have a MIDI keyboard that allows you to play the parts as you record them into Sonar. Just typing the notes into Piano Roll View or entering them in the staff view isn't going to sound realistic unless you add a lot of control information i.e., volume, expression, attack, modulation. aftertouch, etc. that give you the "eyebrows" on the notes, as Frank Zappa described it. It also helps if you know about the instrument you are trying to emulate so that you can simulate the playing technique, style, range, etc. that a real player would use. Its not easy. Just having a good sample isn't enough to make it sound real, but it helps. 

ive done it both ways and I still think prv will allow you to make a midi drum line sound real as possible
with not much effort at all
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruAnAPR6-hQ

ive done it both ways and I still think prv will allow you to make a midi drum line sound real as possible with not much effort at all

C'mon....maybe a basic rock and roll drum beat, but you can't do anything even close to the skills of a real drummer without using audio drum loops. You can't even do a convincing roll with MIDI. 

I was just looking at this one. It's a bit of an older sonar version but he uses the step sequencer in SD3 really well, showing how to add swing and feel you wouldn't expect from midi.
This is #3 of a series in the master classes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_493832&feature=iv&src_vid=Hnkl_BrbrHQ&v=h3sKXjBgjoE