You read a lot about (DIY) sample expanders as module or VST replacements these days. The advertising promises and feature lists usually sound voluminous. But don't be fooled: this is of course not a real VST e-drumming and DAW replacement, and its sound with cheap DACs is also nowhere near on a par with a good audio interface.

In a capable DAW like Reaper (which costs a paltry $60 and works for free as an unlimited demo for the undecided and those who refuse to pay), I have extremely powerful options:

1. unrivaled real-time midi editing capabilities

2. routing options in every conceivable direction (whether midi or audio, e.g. busses, sends, etc.)

3. use of my favorite audio plug-ins (I could never live without my favorite EQ tools, headphone sound optimizers, reverbs, punch generators and loud-makers and when playing over speakers without my room correction tools, which make a sound difference like night and day)

4. play-along options: Practice/play to time-quantized loops and/or to “time-stretched” ( = slowed down) audio and video

5. convenient drum recording options, including drum midi editing

6. e-drum engines with switching functions (e.g. snare wires-off, virtual hihat drop clutch, double kick sound for single kick pads, etc...) or “advanced” engines like Left/Right hand distinction and stepless Center-to-Edge Positional Sensing

7. Pleasantly large screen (check out: "the screen is my music stand" ( The benefit of the (large) screen when playing e-drums ❗️ 😊👉 ))

There's a lot more; these are just the most important points for now.

Of course, an expander box can't do all this, so the question is whether you want to do such unpleasant work as sample export/import (which, btw, will never provide a real 1:1 translation due to possible complex “humanizing” or dynamic audio effects of the original drum sampler), especially when you consider that you can get a complete software drumming package for $500 (maybe even less): used M1 MacMini + (used) "Motu M2" audio interface + (used) screen.

And the fairy tale about "Much lower latency compared to using a computer setup" can also be completely forgotten. That's window dressing. ( -> with the Motu device mentioned, you can play with no more than 2ms ASIO output latency).

And you can also forget the myth of the computer crashing on stage: A capable system doesn't crash; I've never had a computer-related failure while playing in all the time I've devoted to VST-e drumming (and that's really a lot!).


And if you use a computer for VST sample export, you already have a computer at the start anyway, which may also be capable of direct and original drum sampler real-time playback.
Otherwise, I can only advise drum sample library manufacturers to keep their eyes open, because the unpleasant or inconvenient and labor-intensive export/import process could easily be skipped by illegal “exported drum library sharing”.