[PD] Using Pd to play drums in a band

[Carlo Trimarchi]

Hi,
I recently started learning Puredata reading this tutorial:
http://www.pd-tutorial.com/english/index.html

I'm generally interested in making electronic music, but since I'm
trying to play in a band as a "drummer" I wanted to use Pd as a drum
machine.
I'm thinking about a live situation and the best approach to that. My
idea for this, at the moment, is to create a patch with some sort of
step sequencer and a matrix or something to change drum patterns.
Then, for a live concert I'll have this patch saved different times
(once for every song we should play) with different patterns. Then I'd
like to implement something to play with the drum sequence: adding
effects, moving samples, randomize the pattern. Everything to actually
play something live.

One of the main problems I'm thinking about is the metronome. I don't
think we are going to use a metronome or a click live to play at a
predetermined bpm and often the drums start after others are playing
at a certain bpm. So it would be hard to define a fixed bpm and stick
with it live. I was thinking if is there a way to make a patch
retrieve the bpm dinamically. For example, when a song starts, I can
tap my fingers on a key and from that it can retrieve the bpm that I
can use in the rest of the song. Can you suggest me a way to do this?

Then, since I'm a beginner and I just know the basics of Pd
programming, what can I study in particular to create a drum machine?
And, do you have other suggestions or better approaches to achieve my goal?

Thanks for your help,
Carlo