[jdaug]

having used both stand alone drum machines and software based, i would recommend software. its more flexible and easier to see your drums in the context of the whole song. BFD and DFHS and EZdrummer are some popular drum sampler instruments. you can tap in the backbone of your beat with either quantize on or off. if its on the notes will snap to your grid based on what tempo you have set for the song and the level of quantize. if quantize is off the notes end up exactly where you hit them. you can quantize after programming as well, and select only the notes you want to quantize. if you change the tempo on the song, your drum track will increase or decrease tempo accordingly. meaning, a quarter note will still be a quarter note, just in a faster tempo.

is that what you are asking??