If ya wanna get started fast, go for hydrogen. They have a couple of VERY good ready-to-use hip hop drumkits to impress your buddies with fast. The jaw-dropping effect is especially fun when you create the beats right then and there, which is pretty easy to do with hydrogen :) Once you've reached the limits with it, you can combine specimen with the samples from http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/. It's a bit more work but you get to be more creative because you are building your own drumkits, but also more rewarding because you get to be more creative. (don't worry about specimen being umaintained, I'm gonna pester Pete Bessmen until he finds a successor if it's the last thing I do) start using synths to create your own sounds. Thats even more work, because you're not only creating your own drumkits but your own sounds, but even more rewarding because what you are doing is COMPLETELY original and hence a canditate for rocketing you to superstardom. Seriously! :) If you synth your own sounds, I recommend you jack up TWO different LADSPA compressors (e.g. with jack-rack) to minimal threshold, minimal attack and release, and maximum compression ratio, and pipe whatever you do through this combo. This way it's practically foolproof, no matter what you do, it will sound FAT. (Why do you think music companies can get away with selecting talent based on who slept with whom? Right, foolproof tools! If we are to appeal to the masses, which is a genuine goal of mine, it makes sense to do the same) Of course, for anything except hydrogen you will also need a sequencer. SEQ24 is highly recommended. Carlo