Whato
@Bill Saunders This is a subject close to my heart as I, like you, felt so vulnerable that I couldn't play drums and programming drum sequencers properly seemed to be the work of the Devil himself, so I did 2 things to try and solve this.
1. Learned to play the drums and read drum notation. (managed to bash/wallop my way to Grade V before the pain in my hi hat side hip caused me to give up) - I respect anyone who can play triplets on different drums.
2. Learned to programme my drum sequencer.
And both of those things took me a lot of time, and money. So maybe that's the answer... but I ended up saving a load of time by investing in learning how to do it properly. I would never call my self a drummer, but I now do understand more what's going on, what sounds OK, and how to do it on a kit, even though I probably can't do it on a real kit.
I also agree with
@jamesh that it's the groove more than the complexity that matters.
I don't know if this helps but here's a few tips that I found and still find very useful, especially if you want a more complex sound.
but before that I would strongly advise to write out how you want the arrangement, that is, how many bars for each element, intro, verse, chorus etc. then the drum programming will be easier, as you'll know where the fills will be....Have a pattern for each section, such as Verse Pattern, so at least you can use the template for Verse pattern2, when you can possible change something in it, add an open hat, or a splash at the end...Many MIDI drum sequencers have a 'Song' feature, where you can string the different ielements such as verse, chrous etc. together in the order you want them.
Before I embarked on learning MIDI drum programming I took the time to try to understand about MIDI, what it is, and how it works, what's going on when you tick a box in a midi drum sequencer, or hit a cymbal on an electronic kit, or press a key on a midi synth, that helped a great deal, also how to string up the different devices, using MIDI Thru, etc.
1. Keep each drum/cymbal on it's own track - you can do a lot on getting the right production sound.
2. Have more than one track for kicks and snares - again you can work wonders with beats, syncopation, etc.
3. Try loads of ideas, make mistakes, some will be wonderful.
4. Don't always put a turnaround at the end of a verse.
5. Use all different types of kit, mix up acoustic and electro drums
6. When programming midi be very aware of the smallest beat that you will play, then set your grid to that otherwise you won't be able to play it!
Very often I use a mixture of 5 or 6 kits, it can be challenging in getting the right EQ/dynamics for them, but it's all a good learning experience.and I can guarantee, when folk are listening to the finished song, they are not saying "goodness he's got a Breaktweaker backbeat with a Spark2 fill, with some yamaha oak custom acoustic sections" they'll just listen and either like it , hate it or something in between, and probably not notice the drums at all.
They will always notice my 'real' drumming as it's nearly always of of time
(not always by much, but that was one of the most surprising things about learning to play the drums was how hard it is to keep dead on the beat), so that's where audio quantizing in my DAW helps.
I honestly hope this helps.
cpm
Oh yes and one more thing, If you are a lead guitarist...... don't play the drums like one!