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drum machine recommendations

H

Howard K

Feb 14, 2002
2,654
8
52
UK
#1
thinking about getting a drum machine... after some recommendations..

bearing in mind i know nothing about them, i need one that is easy to use and has the option to program in pretty much any bizarre rhythm i might want? any tips on features that i'll need etc very welcome!

ta
H
 
#5
nope scoured the effects forum and search resulst for "drum machine", again.. nothing

someone out there must have a drum machine for praticing.. is it good, bad, who made it, easy to use, sounds good, cost, valuable features, etc,etc???
 
#7
Yup, the Alesis, as said, and they can be found cheap. They have many of the same sounds as a DM-5. Great great sounds.

I'm not too into Roland Dr. Rythm sounds at all.

If you could find a vintage 808 cheap. Oh man. grab it twice.

I LOVE the Korg Electribe...not so much a drum machine as an analog synth rythm generator.... good for dance stuff. And that is infinitely real-time tweakable.

ZOOM makes some pretty sick sounding cheap drum machines too. Look at them.

Try a bunch out...don't hurt, right?
 
#8
Check out the "performing with a drum machine" topic in Band Management and Performance. One reply in there sticks out a lot in my mind, where someone gave some pretty neat details about his drum machine. You could PM him and see what he uses, he was very happy with it.
 
#9
I have an old Boss DR-550 that I got some 12 years ago. Only really useful for the 808 and 909 sounds now, as the "real" drums leave a lot to be desired these days. For drum programming I usually use FruityLoops with the nskit samples from Link Removed
 
#10
Are you dead set on a separate physical box for a drum machine? The reason I ask is depending on what & how you want to use it there is software available that does similar stuff that you might want to check out. Two that I know of are:

PC Drummer - it's a software-based drum machine. Simple, pretty intuitive to use. I paid for this one and am using it for rythm tracks for my demos & home recording "projects". There's a free demo version to check out.

Fruity Loops - this app has a lot more features - it's a complete loop-based music production "studio" that can crank out loop/sample based rythm tracks. I found it more complicated than what I wanted/needed (and more expensive than pcdrummer). Again it has a free demo to check it out.

There are a bunch of other drum machine apps (Hammerhead, etc.) and loopers (Acid, etc.) that have similar capabilities.

If you actually want/need the physical drum machine box, then I apologize for wasting the bandwidth. Otherwise you might want to check these out - the demos are fun to play with and don't cost a thing.
 
#11
thabnks for the info.. i trie fruityloops but really didnt get on with it.

generally sopeaking i was planning to get a seperate box, i often find them easier to use than pc based stuff in that you just turn it on and it works.. plus it's dedicated

cheers tho..

i've been looking on ebay... mioght just bite the bullet and buy a relativley new model zoom or summit
 
#14
Zoom MRT-3
I got mine at Sam Ash for under $100. For what I need it for it's perfect. It sounds excellent, is simple. and didn't cost alot. My guitar player and I would run it through his pa and jam with it for hours. Of course being a guitar player he had to out do me and buy a flashier more expensive one, a Dr. Rythm of some sort. Sound wise the Zoom kicks it's ass.
 
#15
I'm gonna piggyback on what Craigb said above about software being your friend if you've already got a PC and don't mind pressing it into service. Especially if you've already got a sequencer, you could use one of Invalid Link Removed programs to get your drum fix. In some cases (and for best results IMNTLBHO) you'll want to trigger your own patterns from MIDI and most of these programs allow you to do that.
 
#17
"If all you want is a good sounding, easy to program drum machine for practice and laying down tracks, without the extra MIDI bells and whistles, the Zoom MRT-3 or Zoom RT123 is a great buy."

That's recommendation I wanted! Thanks jive :)
 

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