Drum machine software

**Chris Fitzgerald** · #1 03-18-2006, 02:55 PM

I'm looking to possibly upgrade from my trusty old Dr. Rhythm machine, and wondered if anyone had any experience with drum machine software that's Mac friendly. I saw a program in a store today that wasn't half bad - I think it was called "Groove Agent" - but I didn't have time to really mess with it enough to see if it would work for me. Programs with lots of jazz sounds/patterns especially appreciated. Basically, I'm looking for something that sounds like an acoustic jazz kit with various patterns that I can practice with. If it matters or helps, I run DP4 on the same computer.

Correlli · #2 03-18-2006, 11:26 PM

I know it's not drum machine S/W, but betamonkeymusic.com have a product called "Jazz Essentials: Acoustic Drum Loops and Samples for Traditional Jazz". I use their drum loops, and I think they are very good quality.

Could be a good alternative.

http://www.betamonkeymusic.com/Jazz.html

**Chris Fitzgerald** · #3 03-18-2006, 11:31 PM

Looks interesting. What program do you play them on?

Correlli · #4 03-20-2006, 03:56 PM

I use Adobe Audition for Windows. Very easy to use. Once the drum loop is loaded into Audition, you just drag and drop the file into a track and expand it out to how many bars you what. Loops come in 1, 2, 4, or 8 bar lenghts and various tempo's, as well as single shot fills, intros, endings, and cymbal samples.

tZer · #5 03-20-2006, 04:19 PM

Groove Agent is pretty great. It had a huge amount of very real sounding kits and very real beats. You get a very human quality to the pre-sets and I would bet that you would really dig everything as-is or 'out of the box'.

**Chris Fitzgerald** · #6 03-20-2006, 04:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tZer

Groove Agent is pretty great. It had a huge amount of very real sounding kits and very real beats. You get a very human quality to the pre-sets and I would bet that you would really dig everything as-is or 'out of the box'.

It looked pretty cool at the store, but I didn't get a feel for how much variety of jazz beats I could get with it. Do you use it? What do you think about the variety aspect?

BTW, please tell me you're not 6'2" and 180 lbs...from the picture of you onstage with the kids on your profile page, you could be my evil twin!

tZer · #7 03-20-2006, 04:49 PM

HA! Not 6' - 2" / 180# ... more like 5'-11" / 155#... Those kids on the stage are really tiny though!

From my experience with it, the out of the box patterns are really great! And you can manipulate them in a huge variety of ways. For example, you could dial up a really goovy cajun beat, break 'slider lock' and individually manipulate the complexity or the 'human' quality - initiate a 'random' quality that will make the phrases have unique and human turns at the end - and so on...

And I cannot say enough about the SOUND OF THE DRUMS! They actually had drummers of different styles in to record the samples used. So you don't get that 'robotic/machine' drum sound - you get human!

these_go211 · #8 03-21-2006, 09:59 AM

i played around with idrum at macworld this past january. really easy to use, very flexible, sounds good, and inexpensive. seems like a lot of bang for the buck.

**Chris Fitzgerald** · #9 03-21-2006, 10:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by these_go211

i played around with idrum at macworld this past january. really easy to use, very flexible, sounds good, and inexpensive. seems like a lot of bang for the buck.

Never heard of it. Is it out yet?

Edit: I'll be damned. I'm gonna search for someplace online that provides sound clips of this - that would be about perfect!

**Chris Fitzgerald** · #10 03-21-2006, 12:14 PM

I downloaded a demo of iDrum, but so far it only has techno/dance sounds loaded into it. I suppose I could upload other sounds...how about Garageband sounds? A couple of Garageband jazz kits sound pretty decent.

What would be great would be an editor like Groove Agent or iDrum together with the kit samples in Garageband. Does anyone know if GB has a drum editing window? Sorry I'm such a newbie at the whole VI thing.