What Drum Machine Would You Recommend?

alesis sr-16 is a good cheap basic drum machine. maybe a little more than $100 new. i've used mine for recording in the past but now it's pretty much a practice unit. i usually just play/practice along to one of the many preprogrammed beats. there's tons of them! right out of the box there isn't a learning curve. there is a cool feature where they have a/b patterns to the beats. meaning, if you are playing along to beat #1a, hitting the "b" button changes the pattern slightly enough to make it interesting but its still roughly the same beat. a cool variation.

and while i haven't done this yet i hear it's pretty easy to program your own beats if you want to do that.

 

+1 on the Alesis SR-16. Pretty easy to use and sounds good. I've had one for years with no problems.

 

I have always liked the Boss DR-5 lots of styles to play with. It dose not just do drums it will do everything just mute out the included bass track and jam with the whole digital band. It also has a bass/guitar input with a level control and a headphone out. Its a mini MIDI studio on the go.

 

I just bought an early Christmas present for myself..DR-880. It's the nicest one I've ever messed with , but Boss does not have a problem putting a high price tag on it. I need to get snowed-in for a week to really learn everything it can do ( I haven't got passed the presets , they rock ). It is a "bitter-sweet" feeling with this thing though..I love the machine but hate how much I paid for it. Oh well , time heals all wounds , lol.

 

Roland TR-606! Wooooo!!!!

 

+2 The SR 16 is great for the money.

 

iDrum

 

sr-16 is good. just got one, and i'm learning about programming it. lol, expect more posts from me in the future about it

 

Can you record with any of them? I dont mean on a computer but on a cassett tape?

 

Check out the Zoom MRT3B Micro RhythmTrak Drum Machine
Under $100.00. very easy to use right out of the box.