I feel that rudiments are important to a drummer's vocabulary. I have this opinion probalby because I come a from highly rudimental drumming (drum corps and what not) but in listening to a great many percussionist and drummers, I've noticed that rudiments helps those musicians express themselves more freely.

  First, I do feel that there is a differance between playing four notes RLRL, or RLRR, or RRRL, or so on. Even if you can't tell there is an audible difference, there is a feel that can't be recreated if you choose a particular sticking style. Beyond, being able to play those 4 notes in several different ways allows you to maybe accents different parts of the group differently. Also, playing those simple 4 notes in different ways allows them to be voiced differently on a drumset and allows for more simple transitions between fills and grooves.

  Second, most of the post I have been reading deal with rudiments on a single drum, but what about orchestrating rudiments, especially higly complex ones, (a.k.a. hybrid rudiments) around a kit? What cool grooves, fills, etc. can come from doing something as simple as playing swiss-triplets between you ride and snare. And beyond that, maybe your snare and kick drum?

 I just wanted to give rudiements a good rep and to say that knowing your rudiments should be an essential for any drummer. I mean, why would you want to limit your self by saying you can play something one way, and you odn't have to play any other? If you want to be trully good at any instrument, know every way to do something, the good and the bad. Its ismply allows you to have more item in your "bag of goodies" to use during your next big ass solo. That or you can simple play singles between you hands and feet, crowds tend to like that...

I don't think sticking is important while playing established material, however i've made up some pretty groovy stuff with different sticking patterns, that i NOW apply with single strokes, that i would have never thought of without rudiments (i utilized a double paradiddle-diddle for instance just last week to create one).

This is what I was going to say (and it's a good enough point that it shouldn't have been the third paragraph of your post!). I'm definitely one of the right-hand-lead guys, but it's nice to be able to use a double stroke to make, like, a U-turn in the middle of a fill.

in my opinion..no ive played without following patterns and ive never had any problems.

It's using different rudiments on different sound sources with each hand that makes it really interesting.  Try paradiddles using your right hand on a tom and left hand on the snare.

This is sort of just a "brain dump" for me... just getting all my thoughts on this subject out:

1.) Different stickings will ALWAYS sound different because of the natural inevitable differences in motion between hands.  YOU may not be able to tell... but somebody can.

2.) Contrary to what many think, I think that the rudiments are important even MORE on the drumset than on just a snare.  Why?  There's a much broader range of sounds that can be made with a drumset than a snare.  Also, different sticking patterns make moving around the set more ergonomic.  Compare playing eighth note triplets RLL RLL RLL RLL and playing them RLR LRL RLR LRL, accenting (around the set) on the downbeats.  With the latter sticking, you're accenting with different hands and using a LOT more general motion, while achieving a similar sound.

3.) Mastering the rudiments can increase your speed.  Not your "blast-beat single-stroke" speed... but your overall speed.  For example, I can play certain paradiddle patterns (especially accented ones) faster than single-stroked patterns.  As another example, let's take a look at some swiss-army triplets... play them on your snare drum, but accent the downbeat on your floor tom.  You end up playing constant triplets on your snare while still accenting the downbeat on the tom.

4.) Learning to play with different stickings can help build hand-to-hand independence.  A lot of you might look at me funny for that remark, but think about it.  Play almost any flam or diddle rudiment between, let's say, a ride cymbal and a snare drum... you'll see what I mean.

Anyway... I hope I haven't annoyed anyone with my long brain-barf/rant...

Maybe I helped.  Who knows?  It's late... I'm going to sleep

Hydrogen and Oxygen are elements from a table of elements that represent the building blocks of everything that exists in the physical world.

But, when you take a dive off a diving board, you need to be sure that the right combination of Hydrogen and Oxygen is available for you to land in.

Practicing rudiments in every conceivable combination is like filling the pool.

I'm not saying you won't still bump your head on the bottom every once in a while, but it'll hurt a lot less.