Hi,

Your quest for a simple way to get drum tracks for your songs is probably a fairly common one. I'm in a similar position myself. But I found that the biggest problem wasn't really what software or equipment to use, it was not having a broad enough knowledge of drumming itself. If you know exactly what you want on a drum track then it's not too hard to build it, even if you put it down piece by piece with each bit of the kit on a separate track.

You can do that with a wide range of software or hardware. For instance, you could write it out in drum notation (some free or cheap ways to do that), use the pads on a midi keyboard or even the keys on a regular computer keyboard. Or you could mic a drum kit and simply build up your own tracks, or loopable sections, bar by bar. Just to name a few ways. Editing midi drum tracks, or even audio ones, to get everything exactly in line is simple enough with modern software. But they all require that you know just what you want to achieve in the first place. I was never a huge fan of rock drumming, and didn't think I needed to know much about drums, or perhaps even to use them at all on songs. But I took 4 or 5 lessons from a professional drummer just to see what I could learn. What an ear opener that was! Sitting next to a really good drummer and not just hearing the sounds but feeling them as well changed my impression.

You could also search round the internet and find any number of free midi drum tracks that you can use 'as-is' or edit to suit.There's even free on-line drum machines like Monkey Machine. But even then you're unlikely to find something that's a perfect fit without you editing it (unless you're content with either having exactly the same drumming all the way through the entire song, or else tailoring your song to fit whatever structure the track follows). So if you want something that will put together drum tracks in a range of styles, to suit your specified song structure, and do a good job of it, then BiaB will do it for you. But it will still make its own choices - it can't completely read your mind. This may be either an advantage or a disadvantage depending on what you're after. You'll also still have to put in a fair bit of study to learn how to use the program and edit or otherwise manipulate what final results you get.

But whichever way you go, the knowledge of what you want from the drums through each section of your song, and the additional knowledge of how to work your equipment, is more important than the exact choice of gear. BiaB can make some good workable choices for you, if you in turn make the right choices when you tell it what to aim for. That may be enough for your purposes (it is a good program) or you may use it as a learning experience, listen carefully to what it does, and then learn how to tweak it a little more. That's a win/win too. That's how it has seemed to me anyway. Others may disagree and see it in other ways.

Good luck with it all,

Chris