This sounds like it's way to much work to get what you need, it's likely limiting you.
Probably, but its the method I have available that works (many others tried don't).
There are a lot of things that limit me...but that's life--if I had unlimited funds (and thus didn't have to work a dayjob) I could get around most limitations, partly by paying people to custom-build me things or custom-write me software, and having enough time to do more of the things I need/want to do (including get enough sleep)a. But there are some that are built into me, like my physical body control problems, my miswired brain, etc., that I can't do anything about.
You use FL studio as DAW right, so any vst should work? There are free vst plugins like Drum Pro, Steven Slate Drums 5.5 free or MT Power Drum kit 2.
No, I use a very old version of SONAR, and not going to change over to something else (reasons discussed elsewhere in this thread, and also over on the current cakewalk/bandlab forums in various threads if interested). Can't presently add new VSTs (reasons discussed previously here and cw/bl forums).
I took a very quick peek at those three, but from the very little info on their sites and in a very cursory google search for users with similar needs, none of them can do what I require (not even as well as the one I already have, much less improving the situation). Below is a cursory summary of what I found.
Drum Pro is a rompler, you have to buy new packs. I can't use it if I can't customize it myself easily right off the bat. If it doesn't let me use multiple samples per pad with velocity switching, round robin, etc., then there's no difference from what I'm using now, so no reason to learn something new that doesn't do anything different that I need. Can't tell what kind of copy protection it has, but any form of that beyond a one-time entering of serial number makes it unusable for me.
Steven Slate Drums is a big unwieldy thing I don't want to deal with; I don't need/want something to do drums for me, I just need it to play the drums I want to hear from the notes I play in or draw in. It's also a subscription model if you want more than the basic kit from teh free thing. While it supports velswitching and roundrobin, that's only for their prebuilt kits--you apparently can't build your own that do that. So useless. Can't tell what kind of copy protection it has, but any form of that beyond a one-time entering of serial number makes it unusable for me.
MT Power Drum kit 2 appears to be the same thing as SessionDrummer3; i can't tell from their site if you can build your own kits or not; since they don't make that a big deal then it's probably basic at best if available at all. So also not useful. No need for any of the built in rhythuyim/building/effects/etc.
Can't tell if any of them have multiple outputs each drum can be assinged to separately either, which SD3 can, which is extremely important to effect and process each one separately without having to mute all but one and render each track out to its own audio track, first for the basic input of the tracks, then dleete all those every time i edit any drum note and re-render them all over again (would have to do this hundreds or thousands of times in any project).
So, if you know of a free one that I can build my own kits from my own samples (without editing them outside the program), with multiple samples per layer with velocity switching and round robin, can assign pads to any note, can save my kits as "presets" that don't require saving as a huge bundle file of all the samples (that are already on my drive and don't need yet more copies of), that doesn't ahve any copy protection, doesn't rquire an internet connection to use, doesn't require logging in to use, doesn't have autoupdating, doesn't require using their kits or patterns, has at least 8 separate audio outputs that can be routed out as mono, or stereo pairs, tuning/pan/volume controls per pad, etc., then it would be at least equivalent to what I have, plus the editing built in and the roundrobin/velswitching I'd like to get.
Something like that might be worth dealing with the issues of learning it (which takes a lot of time away from eveyrthing else I want and need to do), and figuring out how to get it to install and be seen by SONAR.
Unfortunately everything I've seen that has even *most* of the features (pay or free) also has some form of one or more of the unacceptable things: autoupdating, login-to-use, internet-always, subscription (even free ones are unusable***), always-running-copy-protection, separate "manager" software, etc. None of those are going on my machines.
(those are also some reasons I can't use the modern version of SONAR, but serious visibility, customizability, and other GUI problems are others).
To me, having to take all those steps to edit sfz is also 'fixing things instead of making music'. You've just grown accustomed to it. But I believe you would be more productive if you didn't have to take all those extra steps.
It is indeed, and yes it would be more productive and creative not to, but thankfully I don't have to do it very often--only whenever I need to use a different drum that has to be played in...which is one reason i drop them into the track as audio samples instead, much of the time. Because that's faster, as long as I already know where I need them.
I don't play the drums (well, I don't actually play anything, not like a real musician or whatever), so 99% of the time its' just as easy to construct them by samples dragged around int he trakcs as it is to play them from midi notes in a different track. I sometimes use an old Yamaha tabletop drumpad unit, or a keyboard, to tap in midi drums via realtime recording, then edit those, but the editing of my poor playing is often more work than constructing them note by note.
But not sure what would work even better for you then what you're using now.
I haven't found anything yet that doens't have problems (often advertised as features) that make it unusable for me...or else I'd probably be using that already.
***many things have gone the subscription / login method, which means that even if it's free, it's useless, because if their server goes down, I can't use it because if it can't phone home it won't run. If that's a momentary glitch, its' bad enough...but if they decide to discontinue it now suddenly I (and all their other users) are now frocked, because all the years of work I and the other users have put into it are now completely lost, and we all have to start over with some other company's trash instead.
A few years ago, I had tried out a really nifty free symphonic orchestra by the BBC, and a bunch of other cool free instruments they made...started really getting into learning and using it, then last year they forced an update that deliberately removed a bunch of the instruments, changed the way it worked and responded to input, destroying all the work I had done with it. Supposedly they "fixed" this, but I can never use it again because I can't trust that it won't do this again at some point, destroying my work and my music created with it. (because anything that was still in progress would now be destroyed and have to be redone from scratch as a different piece of music using some other instruments...if I have to do that, I have to do it from the start, because for me, the sound itself is everything--a tiny difference in the sound of something means I will probably make very different music with it).
It's too bad that companies have this mistaken belief that punishing their leginitimate users with all this crap is going to prevent the pirates from using their stuff without paying them for it. It doesn't even slow them down a little. So I just avoid all companies that do this (especially the ones that even do it on their free stuff).
