Beedster

I cut a nut using the string trick, takes time and the nut had tiny guide lines already marked which helped, but it can be done. There are easier ways, but then building a bass isn't the easiest way to acquire a bass either ......

Yep, I get that, one of the things that makes Roland versus MPC difficult is the fact that I have never been disappointed by a Roland product, never struggled to use one, and never broken one, and that’s a pretty good reason to consider them for future gear. The flip side is that a lot of folks appear to favour MPC for what I want to do. Decisions, decisions, decisions

Ah, OK, fair point

Thanks, my problem is the opposite, when confronted by a huge database of of snares and high hats I will be forever changing my mind. What I loved about the Roland TD30K was that pretty early on I found a pre-installed kit that just worked and stuck with it. I'm something of a luddite with tech

The times they are a-changing If you had a spare few minutes, could you share what is making you lean towards the TR8S over the MPC?

Thanks for the advice, I've owned a few of those also, have to say the one I liked the most was the Electribe, just so easy to use, and at the time we were playing a lot of stuff that allowed for its very tight and obvious albeit quite characterful tracks (seemed to work very well with Prince tracks IIRC, we even did some RCHP tracks using it, it was extremely easy to programme). COVID has done some very odd things to prices across the board, I was looking at used Roland gear a few days ago and some of it is more expensive than RRP simply because they're not available to order at the moment. Must be hell to be in retail at a time when people want to buy this stuff but they can't get stock. I had to take all my face-to-face stuff online earlier this year and wanted to buy a decent hardware compressor, shops were simply not able to help, and eBay/Reverb sellers were having a grand time of it! Anyway, re the MPC One, do you know if it comes with decent samples or whether I have to go looking for them from word go?

That has seen some action

When I was in a band in the early '80s I used to occasionally head to the West End (what was the keyboard shop in Paddington called?) and watch our keyboardist play keys for hours, checking out every tiny detail. A different era I guess, and whilst so many shops either don't have the stock on display or don't welcome that style of auditioning or gear (or both), I guess at least we can use the distance selling rules to compensate as you suggest. I have to say that I'm already looking forward to reading your direct comparison of the Roland and the Akai BRX. Reading I've done over the last few days leaves me torn with a slight bias towards the Akai.

Yep, get this, just think that pre-Brexit it was legitimate - no import duties etc - post-Brexit it isn't. I'm sure it will sort itself out but I imagine a few UK retailers must be a bit miffed that in internet price searches a store that appears to be in the UK is undercutting their advertised prices by such a degree?

But they're not selling from the UK despite their name (and the company registration you've linked to) arguably suggesting that they are? Anyway, c'est la vie, the only reason I mentioned it is that there's a lot of confused people out there, and I suspect use of 'UK' in relation to Thomann in Germany explains part of that confusion

Agree, I don’t understand why they’re still using ‘Thomann UK’ though, they’re not in the UK unlike for example DV247 who are

I get that, but I think use of 'UK' is misleading as the naive buyer would not expect to pay extra on a UK purchase?

They appear to be describing themselves as just that online (or at lest Google are, example below). I'm trying to sell some stuff on eBay at present, and quite a few people have said "I can get it new at Thomann UK for just a few quid more"? Apologies if this has already been covered, haven't read the whole thread.

Thanks sammybee I'd like to use the same machine for practicing, jamming and rehearsing as I will use for recording, in short I don't want a collection of rhythm boxes! The main thing for me is that I can get a decent drum sound that will pass for real drums to the non expert listener, in my case I want a small jazz kit type feel for most sessions and recordings, although the option for other kits is always going to be useful. I'm not too fussed about the interface because even those that are described as intuitive tend to have unknown unknowns, so I'm prepared for the learning curve. i assume it's a case of uploading samples as opposed to sampling samples (as we used to do back in the 80's)? I get what you mean about robotic, when we used to rehearse with a drum machine it was chaos when a real drummer came in for that very reason, the whole band had become too tight if you get my drift, so some 'looseness' is good. One thing I do like about the Roland and similar interfaces is the 16-beat step input, because I'm going to be using the machine with my daughters and it's a lovely way of them learning and the rhythmic structure of music; I've no doubt that within days they will be far better at programming whatever I choose than I am

Great stuff, and your left hand looks like an alien spider at times

Just the sort of advice that gets expensive! For me the hardest part of selecting gear is knowing when something is enough; I'm all too often sold on the possibilities way beyond my needs, and end up never exploring or exploiting them (I tend to run all my amps flat and active basses in passive mode). My sense here is that the Roland might meet my needs while the Akai might significantly exceed them. But damn, I bet I end up owing both at some stage

Great post, what a journey

Yep, true but I don’t receive email notifications etc on my drum machine

Keep hearing Akai MPC mentioned on other forms, any thoughts here?

Tell me about it, I was doing Electronic Music Technology at the LCF in the early 80's, we were lucky enough to have a lot of decent tech including a Fairlight, but the prices were astronomical, to the point that it was simply cheaper to have a drummer and a bassist than a drum machine and a keyboardist, despite the trend for keys to encroach on the latter's territory (and the fightback from us lot with slap and fretless, which were beyond even the best keys players)

Go over to Gearslutz and you'll find that it's not only a thing, but a time consuming and expensive thing

Likewise, I spend enough time at a computer to not want to have to be in front of one when I'm playing music for pleasure

Thanks BRX, funny isn't it that since reading that the TR-8 is essentially an 808-909 derivative I hadn't dug any deeper. I'd assumed that the S version would represent a minor refinement of the TR-8, especially given it was released pretty quickly afterwards, as opposed to pretty much a completely different proposition from my POV (I had 'digital' in my head, perhaps had I had 'sample' the S might have jumped out). So, new journey I guess, I've found drum machine demo vids (too much house/techno/electro effects) to suffer from the same problem that so many bass guitar demos experience (too much slap), but will have a good read around the TR-8S. It certainly looks like it might be the machine I was looking for with respect to the sounds I was able to get from my Roland electronic kit (on which I pretty much only ever used a small jazz kit setting). Thanks once again for your advice. Chris

Yep, it’s the same principle that ensures that no matter how high quality is the gear I use, it still sounds like me playing it

Early days with Modulus yes, but it was new technology then, and the rare exception now demonstrates that even the best technology is fallible. Moses have always been lower quality than Modulus