Recently released:

Jamstix 2 Virtual Drummer. http://www.rayzoon.com/

I tend to think of midi based drum apps and hosts as being great for electronica genres, but it takes a LOT of work in a sequencer along with a deep and well thought out set of drum samples, to make something that sounds credibly like a real drummer played it.

That was always true for me until Jamstix came along. The original version was excellent, but perhaps complex enough that it turned some folks off. In reality, I like JS1 a lot, but I would wind up using just snippets of the midi files it made and then pasting them into my sequencer. Less work by far than trying to do it from scratch, but still not trhe ideal solution.

No more.... In version 2, Rayzoon changed the interface completely, and it's much simpler to get this thing up and running now. I like EZ Drummer and Addictive drums, and you can get some convincing drums using either, but there is also some editing involved. JS2 is instant gratification. Turn it on, adjust a couple of parameters, and you're good to go, in real time. Of course there is some very deep ( but quick and simple ) editing that can be done to customize what your JS2 drummer does, and the drummer can be setup to respond immediately in real time to what you play by either midi or audio input.

If you already have a great set of drum samples, even better, since you can route JS2's midi output directly to them. JS2 also allows you to open a VST instrument from inside of it. In my case, I open EZ Drummer up from within JS2. EZ has it's own way of mapping, and it doesn't follow all of the standard midi mappings, but JS2 also has pre made maps for it along with most of the other current drum apps out there.

I've used JS since it's inception. One of the other things about it that I like is first class customer service. Have a Q or an issue, and email it's creator directly and get a prompt ( and always courteous ) response.

Regards

AJ