what is the best software for drums/pianos and why?

[SilverSurfer2]

I'm in the market for the best software in drums and grand pianos, for your money. As far as drums, i've come across Reason drumkits, BFD, EZdrummer, DFH superior, addictive drums. I hear lots of good things about ezdrummer, but i'm kind of stuck deciding which one is best in terms of realism, tweaking ability, tech support, expansion/upgrades, ease of use, how much of a CPU hog they are etc.......

For pianos, reason piano refills.


What is the best software for both, for the money?

I am running Logic pro 7 on a powermac G5 (non intel), so it has to be compatible with AU's

I'd appreciate all opinions, advice, and thoughts.
Thanks in advance

[albee1952]

Ivory is a great sounding piano package but I have never used it myself so I can't comment on the ease of use. All the drum programs can sound pretty stellar. I went with ezdrummer after watching a demo and have been very happy with it. You will want the Nashville expansion kit for sure and probably the other sets as well(but the Nashville kit is the best rock sounding kit). Once you get the hang of it, you can start running it in multi-track mode and treat individual sounds with plugins(like compressor/EQ/Pultec for the kick, limiter/EQ on the snare, buss the toms thru a stereo compressor set to squash....). All the tricks you can do to an acoustic kit are possible with the ezdrums as well. Check out the demo videos on the toontrack site and on youtube.

[Wild_Child]

EZDrummer, hands down the best one out there. Whats more, with the right expansion packs you can use it for literally any genre. As has been said, you can run each individual drum through it's own channel and tweak as if you had a live recording.

I use reason for synth and keyboard sounds for my bedroom recordings. They always sound great, and the library of sounds is very impressive. I've been using the Triton refills, and they sound great. For piano alone though, it might be overkilling a bit because it's capable of so much more, and can be a pretty hefty program.

I've used NI's 'Akoustik piano' before, and that was really great. It is focused entirely on piano so all the samples are second to none. They have a good range of pianos too, including grand.

[Aris_T]

+1 for EZdrummer!
I use the DFH expansion, which is easier to use and needs less computer power than the real DFH 2. I'll say no more, as the other guys probably said everything that needs to be said.

For piano I use Steinberg's The Grand 2. It needs a bigger amount of your computer power, but IMO it sounds great. And that's the only reason for me to use it. There are probably many plugins for piano out there, but this one made a difference to my ears.