Steel Drum rolls

[Mouse]

I have a steel drums instrument, and the tone is not bad, but only for plonk-plonk-plonk. For sustained notes, drum players do a roll. Any suggestions on how to simulate that?

[Acoustica Eric]

You have to take into consideration that one arm will hit harder than the other with a human player and accented notes are harder hit as well.
Not to mention that human players doing a roll will not be right on a 16th or 32nd note snap, it will vary.
Put a load of hits right next to each other and vary everything about them from velocity to position.
You might also record yourself doing a drum roll with a midi controller and start with whatever gets recorded.