i think you are right about mixing, when you have 4-5 instruments playing together with the drums they sound ok i would say, but the problem is when you have Drums & bass only,

get a drummer? FX? errm, there's a limit to what can be achieved by a sampled sound, i either mike up Alex on his real kit, or Fx the buggery out of everything

You said you brother has the DM5, is it any better? Would you say that it's more realistic, how better is it you think (in a scale of 1 to 10 how much would you give to the roland and how much to the DM5).

Like I said there's a limit to how good a sampled sound can be. You also have to be aware that a live kit has the acoustics of the room, and the acual drums have 'sweet spots' no two hits are the same, so there's a constant change in the sound, even my brother's dm5 triggered from pads isn't as realistic as his real kit. The best thing you can do is stack up Reverb, and use a tad of chorus. Thes will be on the board...

And please...dont tell me to go and buy the Bass and drums expansion card.....

would I do that? I actually intend to, when I've bought my piano action board, multitracker, mixer, new, stereo amp, etc...
hehe, I wish...

hope that gives you something to work with...
Al