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Drum Machine. Is It worth buying one?

Crabby

Crabby

Dec 22, 2004
4,404
410
#1
I'm looking at picking up a Zoom MRT-3B drum machine which sells in canada for $140.00. This is about half the price of any other full function drum machine on the market. It sells for an average of $99 in the US.

My question is this:

Will the thrill of practicing along with some drum loops soon wear off or will this be an invaluable tool to improve my playing??

I am looking at buying another pedal but I have quite a collection already and dont really "need" anything else at the moment. (famous last words) I am just wondering if dropping the cash on this little Zoom unit will be a good investment.

The unit itself get fabulous reviews. I tried it and the drums sound very real. there are 395 preset patterns, 70 different kits and 100 user presets. It has a stereo or mono output, midi and a headphone jack.

I dont have a lot of cash to spend on gear for awhile so this is the last bit of gear I will be purchasing for awhile. I was eying up another filter pedal but though I should go for something that would actually be usefull to improve my playing.

let me know your thoughts on drum machines in genneral and if you think they are worth:help: having as a bass player.
 
#2
I think a drum machine IS an invaluable tool for practicing. So many musicians don't know how to lock with a drummer, or keep good time on their own, in spite of whatever other skills they may have. Just as with intonation, your brain can fool you while you're "in the moment", but if you record yourself playing along to a drum machine, in the playback you'll hear what needs improvement.

Flip side: IMO, any drum machine will do, even the beats in a tiny Casio keyboard. In fact, the simpler the better, otherwise you can get caught up in playing with the drum machine and fiddling around with all the sounds and patterns.

The only "specialty" feature that is worth money to me is if it will play in 3, 5, or polyrhythms.
 
#3
I'm definately jonesing to sit down and play my butt off with soem different drum beats that may inspire me to try soem other types of grooves.

I was trying to jam along with some modern hip hop style dance beats and found this to actually be really fun as I dont listne to or play this kind of music regularly. Kind of pushed me to try some new things. I think I am going to spring for one of these bad boys and will update evryone on how it works out.
 
#4
bongomania said:
I think a drum machine IS an invaluable tool for practicing. So many musicians don't know how to lock with a drummer, or keep good time on their own, in spite of whatever other skills they may have. Just as with intonation, your brain can fool you while you're "in the moment", but if you record yourself playing along to a drum machine, in the playback you'll hear what needs improvement.

Flip side: IMO, any drum machine will do, even the beats in a tiny Casio keyboard. In fact, the simpler the better, otherwise you can get caught up in playing with the drum machine and fiddling around with all the sounds and patterns.

The only "specialty" feature that is worth money to me is if it will play in 3, 5, or polyrhythms.
Click to expand...

+1,I could not have said it any better!....BTW, I use a little Casio too!:D
 
#6
Crabby said:
I'm looking at picking up a Zoom MRT-3B drum machine which sells in canada for $140.00. This is about half the price of any other full function drum machine on the market. It sells for an average of $99 in the US.
Click to expand...
I've had one of those Zooms for about 5 years now, even recorded a demo with it. It's great for the price, sounds good enough for budget recording, and is great for practicing. You can hear the songs on the stupid Myspork link in my signature if'n yer interested. :smug:

Programming is a pain, one tempo per "song" sucks, and the odd time signatures are limited to just a handful, but hey, the MFer is $100.
 
#9
Another "me, too". I have software and MIDI files on an old notebook and a headphone to RCA cable so I can hook it to the CD in on my amp. Besides being useful for practice, I hold a jam with a few guys that all play guitar (though a harp player is about to start joining us also) and most of them sing so adding the drum gives us a full band feel/sound. One of the guys has talked to me about possibly doing a restaraunt gig where he would sing and play guitar and I would run the drum machine and play bass.
 
#13
bassman275 said:
+1,I could not have said it any better!....BTW, I use a little Casio too!:D
Click to expand...

Count me in with the casio club. I play keyboard as well, but I use it alot of times just for the beats to practice with. These days, they have cooler beats programmed in too. And if its just for practice, you dont need all those kits and sounds and all that. The style is most important, and you'll get all that for less. If you are doing some serious recording and stuff like that, then go for the DM. If not, I'd stick with the casio (or whatever). you can find them in a pawn shop for sometimes 10 bucks.
 
#15
I have a Zoom RT-223. I've only had it about a month, and have been practicing with it most nights.

I find that it's easy to program. I set the quantize function to the fastest common denominator beat (such as sixteenth notes or eighth notes) and record "live". Usually I just record 2 or 4 bar patterns, and will first lay down the high hat or cymbal beat, then I'll lay down the kick drum beat, then the snare beat after that. It takes about a minute at the most. Even if you don't hit the pads exactly on the beat, the machine will correct it to the closest beat that you set as the quantized value... It can be hard to hit the pads exactly in time. If I want to refine from there, I'll use the step programming method (but that can take a while to figure out unless you have the beat written out).

Right now, a guy I work with and I are trying to get a band started. It's only us, me on bass, and he on guitar. Since we don't have a drummer, I'll program the drum beats, send them to him in MP3 format (I also have the four track zoom recorder) and we can both practice to the same drummer at home. We're just getting started, so this is a good way for us to learn some songs. We may even figure out a way to amplify this thing and get together and jam with it.

Definitely pick one up... It'll help you with your timekeeping. Bass and drums should always be working together, and you can't be a good bassist without knowing what your drummer is playing.

I was looking at the MRT-3B, but found the 223 for $100 on craigslist. It's practically brand new (still has the plastic on the screen).
 
#17
Sounds like more people than I realized use drum machines or at least something that provides some beats. I had bought the Zoom B2 multi effect padal last year and kept it for about three weeks before returning it. I love individual pedals and could not get into the whole digital multi effect thing. In the end, I spent more time jamming along to the drum tracks that the B2 had and had no real interest in the actual bass effects.

So Thanks for all the input, I have placed an order for the Zoom unit. I looked into the little multitrack recorder buts its over $250 Canadian which is out of my reach right now. So the MRT-3 is en route for $140. Ill throw a review up once I have it and can give it a good demo.
 
#18
i like screwing around with my alesis sr-16 because generally on a set, because i haven't really learned, i can't drum for s***. if i spent more time learning how to put together songs with it, then quite certainly it could help....nothing is like having one guy pumping out bass heavy drummachine sampling through another one of your bass amps and bringing out different patterns at random to see how well you adapt
 

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