What it says in the title really. Not looking to debate the merits of hardware vs software at all, just curious as to what you guys think would deliver the best equivalent in the software world (minus the sequencer and effects - Live/Push would cover that for me).
Thoughts please!
Arturia Spark?
I was thinking maybe Tremor but that is missing the sample capabilities.
Maschine 2 has drum synths and samples as well as FX, so that’s probably it.
I really like another swedish product:
I have it and loathe it! Well, I hate trying to get it working how I want in Live. Have up when 2.0 emerged after days of fannying around.
sylenth1 + battery seems like can be used together quite well for drum synthesis/sampling with any pad based controller
I think Rob Papens Punch is pretty cool…
Forgot about Punch - that’s a good one, too.
I use Push and Live to do what RYTM will hopefully be doing for me in the near future like so… (I like doing things this way because Push works best with Lives instruments rather than VSTs)
Create a drum rack in live, layed out to taste, then on each pad I have two chains running parallel,(Just group them inside the pad) one is sampler, with my drum hit of choice assigned to it followed by some basic EQ and stuff to take out anything i don’t want.
The second has a drum generator plug in on it called BazzISM, i’ll usually put this with my Kicks, Snares, Toms, whatever in varying amounts and tunings to get the results I want.
BazzISM Link: http://www.ismism.de/BazzISM.htm (i purchased this a couple of years ago, been rock solid and I remember it was pretty cheap too)
then, when these are summed “at the pad” I treat them again with things like SPL transient designer, more EQ, etc.
My favourite parameters (such as the blend of the sample and synth drum tones or the decay/tail value on the synth drum, compression, distortion, whatever) are displayed across the 8 encoders at the top of Push as I hit each drum (You can assign 8 Macros to every drum pad in addition to the 8 Macros as the “end of the kit”), ready for tweaking. All of BazzISM’s parameters can be easily MIDI mapped, so you really get that hands on experience.
Or I can treat the kit as a whole at the stereo bus in the same way.
Once you’ve set something up that’s a good combination of sound and keeping your system running lean, save it as an instrument preset (maybe even copy it in a few different tunings if that sort of thing is important to you), from there it’s pretty simple to hot swap different samples in and out of your kit, or re-tune the the synth drums… but not as easy/intuitive as i’m hoping RYTM will be 
Hope this helps, have fun 
Nerve is good too. Also like micro tonic and Live.
It’s Mac only (audio unit) but DrumSpillage is my favourite for synthesis:
I have it and loathe it! Well, I hate trying to get it working how I want in Live. Have up when 2.0 emerged after days of fannying around.
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Crazy! I’m 100% the opposite. I’ve got it working like a dream in Live. I output to various drum strips for kick/bass/hats/etc. It’s a dream 
And, those new drumsynths are great!
I still have and use my MD too tho Nothing can twist a beat faster than CTRL-AL.
Motu bpm.
Yep I have to say Rob Papen Punch is really good with synth and samples. The easy edit page is great as well. Maschine 2.0 is also very good but I got annoyed with not being able to key map the synths like samples as they can only be scaled across the whole keyrange (if you can I haven’t found out how).
Drumspillage or the Max4Live drum synths.
I have it and loathe it! Well, I hate trying to get it working how I want in Live. Have up when 2.0 emerged after days of fannying around.
[/quote]
Crazy! I’m 100% the opposite. I’ve got it working like a dream in Live. I output to various drum strips for kick/bass/hats/etc. It’s a dream And, those new drumsynths are great!
I still have and use my MD too tho Nothing can twist a beat faster than CTRL-AL. [/quote]
Routing audio wasn’t the problem for me. I wanted to record and trigger all midi in and out of Live. This was a breeze with Maschine 1.x but was effectively impossible in 2.0 (on release anyway, not sure if it’s been sorted now). 2.0 just has a different approach to midi that, unfortunately, isn’t any use for me.
Some great suggestions though, heaps to check out!
Drumazon D16 is a very good analog TR emulation. Also, Reason can be a very nice environment for drum programming, it’s really a very powerful platofrm. I keep being temped to install it again although since it doesn’t work with VSTis I don’t know if I want to make the investment but be shut out of the Overbrdge stuff later this year.
Another vote for Arturia Spark here, it’s not perfect but as virtual instruments go it’s very very good - great sounds and lots of fun too. Fun is important!
Whoa! Drumspillage is next level!!! Big thanks for the tip for those who mentioned it. Been looking at VST drum synths for years, this is the first one I have really liked, …a lot!
I use Reason all the time and I think it’s the best with my external gear. The rack extension Ammo 1200BR is one of the most insane instruments I have ever used.