I've been entertaining this concept for some time, and I'd like some feedback, just to measure interest and what areas need more thought. First I wanted to fill a need-- the need being that as a musician, I spend a lot of money on instruments. I have yet to buy a drumset, so I rely on drum sequencers to do the work. I can do that competently, but the human aspect is lost. I miss out on the freedom to do complex songs (with multi-bar fills and changing time signatures) without days' worth of work just on the drum track. I could buy my own drumset, but prices pretty much start in the thousands (or $600 for a piece of crap), and sadly I'd have a while to build my skill to the point where I can fully realize the patterns I dream up. So, I wrote up a design sheet for a "human drum machine". What the Human Drum Machine does is emulate styles and read music data (ideally WAV data, but MIDI data seems easier) and insert tempo, signature and volume changes according to what instruments are playing. Users would be faced with some options, like style sliders: Experience This would measure how many times the "drummer" could miss cues, and be slightly off-tempo. Experienced drummers rarely make cosmetic mistakes; you can move to the highest setting to retain that drum machine sound. Intensity This option is for determining how fast the "drummer" is playing. When the slider is low, the "drummer" will prefer straight downbeat-backbeat playing and slow-build fills. The higher this slider is set, the more likely stuff like 16th and 32nd notes could be played, as well as stuff like drum rolls and double-kicks. Volume Obvious. This slider determines whether the "drummer" prefers light, delicate playing (such as using rimshots or plain pedal hi-hat) or hitting each drum as loudly as possible. Mechanics This slider measures between Organic(0%) or Technical(100%). Technical drummers explore complex patterns, sometimes playing a different one with each limb. In contrast, their fills aren't very imaginative as their patterns rarely stray from the time signature. Organic drummers do the opposite, often "doing their own thing", usually contrasting tempo or signature to follow the melody. Organic fills are often convoluted, having to accomplish quite a bit to come back to the downbeat(if they do at all). Users would also have options to set tempo, time signature(4/4, 6/8, 13/16, whatever) and assign sounds to each drum. In addition, they could set a certain slider to analyze the dynamic range of sound data and adjust accordingly. I think it'd also be interesting to have presets that emulate music styles. Pop-Rock, for example, would have 50% Experience, 25% intensity, 90% volume, and 75% Mechanics. Thrash Metal would have 90% Experience, 90% Intensity, 100% Volume, and 100% Mechanics. Jazz Fusion would maybe have Dynamic everything. I'd write more, but I don't want this to turn into an essay. Sorry this isn't exactly a game, but I'd felt that my kin(being part designer, part artist, part musician) would have a lot of interest in a concept like this.

I am also a musician. This idea seems very interesting, but there's this one thing.

You seem to want a more human performance, more than you want the computer to compose for you. That last item, mechanics, and to a lesser degree "intensity" is going to add a ton of technical issues.

I know drum kits cost a fortune, but why not just get one of those cheap Yamaha Digital Drum machines? They are about €260 here, but probably cheaper in US as most instruments are usually cheaper over there. You can play them too like real drums so you won't lose dynamics etc.

Yamaha DD55

Of course this proverb might be better advice:

What's the difference between a drummer and a drum machine?

With a drum machine you only have to punch the information in once.