The Best Drum Samples For Finger Drumming
Jun 25, 2023
Finger drumming on a MIDI pad controller is becoming more and more popular every year. There are so many options for drum samples that it can be a headache to figure out which drum sounds are the best. This updated guide will help set the record straight and give you the best drum samples for finger drumming in 2024.
The most important distinction to make is between one-shot drum samples and drum emulator software.
One-shot drum samples are single recordings of a drum sound, like a snare drum, kick drum, or a hi-hat cymbal.
These samples only have one audio recording, so when you load a one-shot onto your pad controller, it will play the same exact sound every time you hit it.
This isn't bad for hip-hop beats, or making simple tracks, but for realistic drumming, this actually becomes problematic.
This is because when you're playing a real drum kit, your hits all sound slightly different, and the physics of the drum as it vibrates will change the sound slightly every time you hit.
One-shot drum samples just won't sound realistic enough to create a real drum sound, which is not good for realistic finger drumming like I teach here at Dragon Finger Drums.
This is where drum emulator software comes in.
Drum emulator software is special software that's designed to sound like a real drum kit. These softwares contain thousands of individual drum kit recordings, and they're programmed to rapidly shift between all the different hits so it sounds like a real drummer playing a drum set.
This method of cycling between different samples is called round-robin sampling, as opposed to one-shot sampling. It sounds a lot more realistic, and also feels better to play since it sounds like you're playing a real instrument rather than just a sample trigger device.
After 10 years of playing and teaching finger drums, I've found that drum emulator software is the very best choice for realistic finger drumming.
With a good pad controller, using a drum emulator software will basically make you sound like a real acoustic drummer. This means that you can play any kind of drums you want on the pads, and you can mix and edit them however you like to get different sounds appropriate for every genre.
By approaching finger drumming this way, you have the most control over your drum sounds, which gives you the best experience possible.
Top 3 Drum Softwares For Finger Drumming:
These are 3 of my favorite drum emulator softwares. There are tons of different options out there, but these are the ones that I have the most personal experience with, and I highly recommend all of them for finger drumming:
If you're wondering what the difference between all these softwares is, it's mostly in the sound. Each software uses different drum kit samples and different methods of modeling the studio room, so it really comes down to personal preference.
All of these drum softwares have free demos that you can download and try them out for yourself. If you want my personal favorite recommendation, I'd say you can't go wrong with Addictive Drums (that's my favorite drum software of all time and I've been using it for years).
And if you want an in-depth walkthrough of exactly how to map your pads with a FREE drum emulator software, then just click the button below to get my free Finger Drumming Starter Course.
This free course includes everything you need to get started with realistic finger drumming.
I'll walk you through exactly how to set up your pads with a drum emulator for the most realistic sound possible, show you the best pad layout for playing finger drums like a real drummer, and we'll start playing some finger drumming grooves together.