You ask how to "improve" the Drum sounds?
Perhaps meaning sounding more authentic and live?

Very easy, use REAL audio drums as does the Audya.
No amount of compression will make fake drums sound real

If manufactures included proper drum samples there would be no need to go the audio route, (Which unless you have the right software you can’t edit) as can be seen here , here and here

Bill

abacus

i kinda agree with you about proper drum samples, BUT

you will still be missing that human feel, that human swing, that REAL human performance, that human "imperfection" that makes it sound so REAL

... But isn't that true of all the accompaniment sounds in an arranger... That's why I throw in a few 'clinkers' now and then...

And, you will be missing the drums overpowering every instrument in the band, the guy at the mixing board going nuts trying to balance the sounds between the drums and other instruments and the vocalist. Yep - you'll be missing all of that. And I for one, am damned glad that "human imperfection" is no longer a problem.

Good Luck,

Gary

IF the style's drums were performed on a MIDI drum kit to start with (and then probably edited a bit) you can get all the human 'touch' you want...

If they are programmed by a keyboard player on his arranger's keys, then probably no... you can't!

The fault with stiff, undynamic styles is not the fault of the arranger's drum samples. If you have got ONE style that rocks, then theoretically, they ALL could rock.

And sorry, Gary. I feel bad for you that you've never played with a real drummer that knew how to play in balance (in other words, not as quietly as arranger players seem to like it!) with the guys..! It's quite sublime.

Played in lots of bands/groups when I was a young man playing a guitar. No keyboards back then - just a couple guitars, slap bass player, piano player and a drummer. And, because I've always had a nice, smooth voice, I was the vocalist most of the time. There were times when I couldn't hear myself singing, which I consider somewhat ridiculous. Of the half-dozen drummers I performed/played with, only one seemed to actually know what he was doing.

I hear drummers here on the island nearly every night - most are just loud, but some are louder! Last week, our incredible female vocalist was drowned out by the guy playing the synth. Unfortunately, he was the person controlling her mic volume, so I couldn't do anything to rectify the situation. This Saturday night, she will be singing through my system, which makes life a lot better.

Guess it depends upon what you enjoy. But overwhelming drums, even on an arranger keyboard, just don't cut it for me. If you have a chance, please record your group the next time you play so I can better understand what you are describing when it comes to drum balance and overall sound. I would be more than happy to record my stuff, and have posted many of them in the past, but I only have so much room on the boat for stuff. And, the salt air is beginning to have some detrimental effect on some of the gear.

Cheers,

Gary

Gary ... you can do some recording for us when you get back to LAND !!! ... ESPECIALLY if you have that 950 ...

So, only ONE drummer you have ever played with got it right? Got any recordings with him in the band? Care to compare to the drum level on most of the user demos posted here?

I believe that overwhelming drums are JUST as detrimental as underwhelming drums. But slightly too loud drums are easier dealt with, simply by playing just a tad harder (which, again, wouldn't be the worst thing for many user demo players here). Tough to play even softer to balance an anemic drum part...

There's wrong at both ends of the scale, but I must confess, the end of the scale that almost all arranger players favor is the low one. One just wishes for a more even balance of wrongness!

There ya go!