In Reaper you are listening to quite a naked sound and a single sound file for a drum kit getting it sounding right is quite a challenge because each drum has different EQ & Compression requirements to sound good.
I use Drummica from Senheisser which is free, a bit of stuffing around to get running but it is recordings of a live drummer with a huge library of beats.
Drummica here http://de-de.sennheiser.com/drummica the site is in German so a bit of thought is required when working through the download but it is fairly intuitive
I sit down with my band mates and find the pattern and sound we want and then come home and create the drum tracks.
Typically kick ( front & back ), snare ( top & bottom ), hi hat, overhead & toms if applicable.
These are all individual tracks that need to be aligned, kick on 1&3 snare on 2&4 etc which takes only a couple of minutes , I then apply EQ & Comp to each track to get the sound I want, slight verb on snare, I balance them individually and then route all these through a drum master track so I can change the entire kit volume in the mix without trying to rebalance each item each time.
I also use automation to bring the snare and cymbals up where required.
Apart from the drum VSTi I don't use anything to treat the drums that isn't native in Reaper.
Kenny Gioa has a heap of terrific Reaper specific tutorial vids on YouTube.
Your main production tools are EQ and Compression and remember "less is more" with these tools, chaining a couple of EQs using small steps will give a better result than smashing it down unless you are looking for a specific sound
Keep asking and I'll do what I can to help.
Last edited by dave.king1; 15-08-2017 at 07:59 AM.
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