I heard you can get real good sampled drum sounds, (like the pod does for guitar ),
for free or cheap on the internet. Does anyone have have any suggestions. I'm wanting to write more songs at home, not just with the band.   I've got a pretty good midi program for writing the drum parts, but I need a tone generator. Should I go outboard gear or virtual
instruments. So I guess what I'm asking is, is their a place to get virtual drum sounds, and are they any good? or should I go with outboard drum machine?

Good question "Goat man" ( ) and one I'd like to know too.

What's the "good midi program" you've got for writing the drum parts, and is it easy to start using?  I've got Fruity Loops, and Beatcraft, but just haven't found the time to learn how to use them properly!

Puppet Xeno's a good source for info about drum machines (and most other things I've found, actually) so he may be the person to ask specifically.

Hope this thread gets loads of answers!

Mac users might try iDrum from M-Audio. I had many good experiences with it, for the full 14 day trial... It has a few handy capabilities, for instance, you can change the eq of each different beat separately... and it has a nice library of (not standard) midi drum hits... but... check out the demo first, just to make sure it's your cup of tea. As far as drawbacks go... if you like it, you'd better be prepared to shell out $70...

Otherwise, I mainly use samples. not loops... just sampled hits. Available from... mmm, many places... might try starting... here?

the first (unsponsored) link is home to many of my beats...

Personally , i use a sequencer  , i use plugins synthe wich have banks inside or a Sampler VS3 to build my banks and play it.Something like Takamin apparently

Yea can get single hits everywhere, most music tech magazines give out free dvd's with loads of samples, loops and other stuff on em which u can use, all royalty free, i wouldn't go for a hardware drum machine... i was thinking about it for a while but i've come to realise you can get everything from a hardware drum machine and more from VST plugins... Maybe something like NI Battery (www.native-instruments.com) can also use a slicer to chop up a beat you may of sampled from someone elses track or a loop you got...

this is a nice one:
http://www.ontology.com/exs24/

oh... didn't realize I already kind of pointed towards that one.

Here's where I'm getting my drum samples and loops from:

http://www.dooleydrums.com

Hope that helps!

-Daniel