I already paid for this so I am stuck with it, but I thought I might as well ask this community for advice on what I was really looking for. I want an electronic drum VST that acts as a standard MIDI-replacing VST.

Is there a good VST out there with a wide variety of drum samples that just reads midi and replaces it with samples? I want to use this for actual songs where each measure is different. I'm not looking to loop the same 2 bars over and over and then a random bar of "F" or "J" every 8th measure lol.

Is the whole "sequencer" thing really all there is to work with? You HAVE to build a constricted measure, import 1 bar at a time into that grid of bubbles, or nothing?

If you want to skip the Microtonic sequencer then just use your DAW MIDI track.
Import MIDI file into it and drive Microtonic with that data. You can configure which voice react to which MIDI note.

BTW. There is no such a thing as replacing MIDI with samples. MIDI is note and control data information. It tells instruments which note at what time to play. All you need is a MIDI track with loaded instrument (VST or external).

As for wide variety of samples there are multiple products like NI Battery or XLN Addictive Drums. Microtonic is a drum synthesizer so no samples here.

Instead of "replace MIDI by samples" I'd rather call it "trigger sounds with MIDI" ... (-;

And well ... I only use Microtonic without the sequencer. I just like to play the instrument and control it in the DAW itself. Simply hit the stop button on Microtonic (in case it was / is playing when your DAW plays) so that it won't trigger the sequencer when your DAW plays. Then you can play the drumsynth elements with the keys you can set up here:

It's a really great Drumsynth, which - despite the somehow minimalistic things you can set up - can bring up many kind of different sounds. I'd try to give it a chance in your case. (=

Good lukc. And don't hesitate to ask questions in this forum. I think all the people here are eager to help as good as they can.

Jay Lock,

You might find this interesting for programming in midi drums, where you can tweak the midi drum patterns.

https://www.wavedna.com/liquid-rhythm/

I don't work for this company, just gave this a trial some time ago to see if I like it/find it useful.

Jay Lock, let me know if you want to sell Microtonic. They don't do sales and I have been hoping to pick up a legit used license for 1/2 price. You need to have owned the software 120 days (this is only to prevent credit card fraud, it is not a hard clock) and get permission from Sonic Charge (Fredrik Lidström?). I would pay the $10 transfer fee.