Drum Machine Software

**Josh Ryan** · #1 03-06-2002, 04:51 PM

I would love to get a product that was a stand alone drum machine, had tons of kits sampled, and could output a midi or wave file at 24. Does anyone here use drum machine software? Pro's and Con's, cost? Any advice welcome and apporeciated!

JMX · #2 03-06-2002, 05:02 PM

I like Native Instruments' Battery.

Pro:
- standalone, VSTi and DXi
- AKAI and EMU inport
- ASIO
- Good library
- easy to use
Con:

- not cheap
- GUI a little large on small screens

http://www.nativeinstruments.de/index.php?battery_us

LowEndRider · #3 03-06-2002, 05:16 PM

Try Fruity Loops Pro - you're not limited to drums as any WAV can be used (no rude ones please) and the add-on packs have hundreds of acoustic and electric kits...

JMX · #4 03-06-2002, 06:15 PM

Yeah, Fruity is cool too.
But I like to use AKAI samples.
Battery can use any sample, not only drums. Wave and AIFF of course too.

Check out this for some insights:

http://www.musicplayer.com/CDA/Playe...161649,00.html

There's another tutorial and a demo version @ NI's website.

**Josh Ryan** · #5 03-06-2002, 11:01 PM

Thanks everrbody. I take a look at those two.

SupaFli · #6 03-09-2002, 09:44 PM

Sonic Foundry's Acid Pro

You'll never get any free time ever again. Way too easy with incredible sounds...depending on your library.

count_funkula · #7 03-12-2002, 12:40 PM

I downloaded the Fruity Loops demo and was blown away! This thing is much better than my drum machine. I created a little drum loop and added one of the reverb presets and it sounds great! For $49 I can't imagine needing anything else.

I'm going to sell my drum machine and go the software route.

I am going to give Battery a try also. Do either of these products allow you to do things like snare rolls or flams? I want something that will allow me to add some of the dynamics that a real drummer can do to my loops.

**Josh Ryan** · #8 03-13-2002, 11:35 AM

Battery allows for dynamics via a velocity layer for each sample.

Richard Lindsey · #9 03-13-2002, 11:48 AM

Also FXpansion DR-008. Sort of a Battery competitor.

www.fxpansion.com

JMX · #10 03-13-2002, 12:07 PM

Yup, the fxpansion stuff is good, and there are even more competitors, like RM-2 and others.

Howard K · #11 03-14-2002, 07:15 AM

I have fruityloops and steinberg LM-4...

LM-4 is bloody good if you use the 24bit Wizoo kits that come with it. They sound better than you'd ever get a real kit to sound if recording at home!
Great stereo on the cymbals etc. The 16 bit kits are a bit naff, but certainly good enough for playing about at home - practicing etc...

pros
vst plugin
10x 24bit wizoo kits + 20-ish 16 bit steinberg kits
bloody cheap - i paid £30 for my copy
loads of banks available on-line

cons
it can a bit of a pain in the arse to build loops in a midi sequencer
24bit kits eat up your processor and there's a bug where the hat dissapears when your processor gets to busy... it's easily fixed by save, close, re-open the project or track.

fruityloops is the dogs balls really - i think that's general consenus!?

count_funkula · #12 03-14-2002, 08:18 AM

Thanks for the help Howard K.

One question, is "the dogs balls" a good thing or a bad thing?

Thanks!

Howard K · #13 03-14-2002, 08:23 AM

Quote:

One question, is "the dogs balls" a good thing or a bad thing?

oh, yeah, tis a good thing... although the expression doesnt really reflect that does it!

JMX · #14 03-14-2002, 10:37 AM

I find LM-4 a little awkward, although things got a little better with Mk.II

There are some drum computer plugins that can read LM-4 files.

www.kvr-vst.com is a good resource for VST FX and instruments.

Howard K · #15 03-14-2002, 10:42 AM

yep, so do i... but the 24bit kits sound reallygood! I use it as a vst instrument then create the loops in cubase, by mouse.

yeah, kvr-vst is really good... loadsa stuff on their worth playing with.

count_funkula · #16 03-14-2002, 01:17 PM

So many choices.....so little money.....

I think I'm going with Fruity Loops because of the $49 price tag.

My drum machine allows me to break down a beat into "sub-beats". I don't know if thats the proper word for it but basically it allows me to create what sounds like the drummer dragging the stick across the snare. Pretty cool but very time consuming. I'm thinking I might be able to find a sample somewhere of that type of thing.

The only samples I will use are the real drumkit sounds so I will probably buy the CD of extra drum samples.

Just out of curiosity, what exactly is a synthesizer and why does Fruity Loops make such a big deal out of this Simsynth plug-in.

fhodshon · #17 03-31-2002, 12:27 PM

fruityloops kicks butt!!!

major functionality in a simple package.

i'm using it more than my bigger composition packages.

its fun.

fred

DanGouge · #18 04-04-2002, 05:53 PM

Fruity Loops is great stuff, I've composed whole songs just with Fruity Loops.

istaticl · #19 04-06-2002, 01:34 AM

This is a question for fruity loops. I use the piano roll to make drum loops, and I lay down the bass drum pattern, but when I switch to snare or toms or whatever, I can no longer see the bass drum part. This makes it kind of hard to connect everthing. Any way can see everything? Thanks

JMX · #20 04-16-2002, 04:45 PM

I'm not really a Fruityloops user, but I guess they want you to use the step sequencer for that, and then use the piano roll for fine tuning (velocity etc.).
I guess the piano roll is intended for the synthlike stuff, where you build a line with one sound, e.g. a synth sound. At least I haven't found a way to do what you want in FL 3.4.