I just stumbled on a way to make programmed drum tracks feel way more “played” by treating MIDI like it’s got four actual limbs. I mapped my pads so each hit belongs to a specific limb (R hand, L hand, R foot, L foot), then added rules: each limb can only strike one surface at a time, there’s a realistic minimum time between strokes per limb, and some articulations are mutually exclusive (e.g., rimshot vs cross-stick). Suddenly fills stop sounding like an octopus and the groove breathes in a super believable way.
A few questions for folks who play and/or program drums:
Limb modeling: What are realistic per-limb speed/coordination ceilings for common combos? For example, hi-hat 8ths with foot splashes, backbeat snare, and ride bells on top-what’s a believable maximum before it turns into science fiction? Any rule-of-thumb BPMs or note densities that drummers use as boundaries?
Articulation exclusivity: On a real kit, certain combinations are basically impossible or rare (full open hat + strong ghost roll + foot chick, etc.). Which pairings do you almost never do simultaneously in a live setting that would be smart to “lock out” in a MIDI rule set?
Timbre coupling: When you open the hat a bit, does your snare or ride tone subtly change in the room from bleed and playing touch? I’m thinking about linking the hat pedal CC to small tone shifts on other pieces (slightly brighter snare center, more ride wash) to simulate the whole kit reacting. Has anyone tried this with an e-drum module or sampler routing?
Velocity curves for ghost notes: If you program with limb constraints, ghost notes start to land more naturally. Any favorite velocity ranges or curves that keep ghost notes audible without pushing the whole kit into compression weirdness?
Implementation tips: I did this in a DAW by splitting MIDI onto four tracks (one per limb) and adding per-track rate limits and choke groups. Are there drum machines or modules that can do limb-aware voice groups natively? Or max-hit-per-limb scripting without diving deep into custom environments?
Practice patterns to test realism: If you’ve got a few “tell me if a robot played this” patterns-like Purdie shuffle variations, linear fills, or bossa/foot ostinato independence exercises-drop them. I’ll try to encode limb rules for them and report back with MIDI + audio.
If this isn’t a common approach, I’m happy to share a basic template and the rule logic I used. Curious how close we can get to “this was performed” without actually sitting at a kit, and what details drummers think are most important to model.