Mr. torture
Anybody here creating and recording songs using midi drums like superior drummer, BFD, or even Cakewalks built in drums?
Is it possible to get them real sounding? I always find the cymbals lacking.
I did fake drums for 20 years and after all of that time and work....they sound like fake drums with 20 years behind them.
I can almost always tell when drums aren't real. And for the reason Bitflipper mentioned - the performance. It will give you away. Plus, fake snares and toms tend to lend themselves to big, commercial sound. You can just tell a sample was made in a studio where they expect my beat to be really, really slow and simple. And, fake drums become more noticeable when they get busier - so keeping them simple helps keep the man behind the curtain, so to speak.
The only way to get close to real human feel is note-by-note editing. I actually would play drums in my lap so I could feel how my hit intensity changed from note to note...and try to mimic that pattern note by note. Took forever to do a drum track. Honestly, I felt some of the feel was there, but something was always wrong....always...