Drum machines - what are you using?

[Al Krow]

On 01/03/2020 at 18:39, sammybee said:

RD-8 arrived on Friday, and I took it out of the box this afternoon. My god, this thing is as much fun as legally possible with £200! After about 30 mins, the kids arrived .... ",....whats THAT??? "... they took over and I didn't get a look in. Looking forward to recreating all the 80's soul classics with this one. 

Just rediscovering this thread and to revisit my notes on Behringer RD-8 vs Roland TR-08 to remind myself why I went for the Behringer!

Despite lockdown this got put to one side  - I found a very usable drum machine on the Zoom B1-4 which has been great for home practice. But I'm hoping to rectify that in 2021: having had a clear out of a bunch of pedals, particularly those that require PC editing, I've hopefully got a bit more headspace  

Did you manage to put yours to good use and come up with any cool drum tracks?

[sammybee]

Yes in a way. Whilst for a lot of people, covid and lockdown's have meant less to do - my work has been busier than ever & Mrs' B's business has been through the roof - so there hasn't been a whole lot of time for music making shenanigans. I did take some time off work in August and wrote/recorded one old skool house track with it. Trouble is, I don't think the RD-8 or any of my synthy type toys fit with my bass/guitar playing, so I end up making acid/old skool house with them. Synth gas is always with me though, & I picked up the Behringer RD-6 (TR-606 clone) & the TD-3 (TB-303 clone). The current crop of Behringer stuff is amazing fun, great sounding & as cheap as chips... but would I want it to accompany my bass/guitar - nah!!!! Linking in the soundcloud link to the track featuring the RD-8 (and others) 

 

[Al Krow]

Enjoyed that a lot @sammybee - thanks for sharing.

Just seen that the prices of the RD-8 are back up to the £270+ mark, so you picked yours up for an absolute steal at Bax Music! 

[sammybee]

9 hours ago, Al Krow said:

Enjoyed that a lot @sammybee - thanks for sharing.

Just seen that the prices of the RD-8 are back up to the £270+ mark, so you picked yours up for an absolute steal at Bax Music! 

Thanks, yes I did get it for a 'song'. Even at £270 it's a bargain though. I don't know if you're aware, but Behringer released new firmware for it a few weeks back so they have even more features as a Brucie Bonus. They fixed the unstable midi sync with it too

[Stub Mandrel]

A QY10 - seriously! 🤣

[dave_bass5]

On 09/12/2020 at 21:28, Stub Mandrel said:

A QY10 - seriously! 🤣

Ive still got mine. Great little all round boxes.  I used to use it as a sound module live, hooked up to a Casio CZ1000 IIR. 

[Beedster]

Good thread folks. I've a Drumbrute and an Alesis SR-18 - very different machines - but I want a machine that sounds as much as possible like a real kit. The frustration for me is that having owned a decent Roland electronic drum kit, the sounds were great but my drumming was the problem, I would just love some of the sounds from the Roland kit in a relatively inexpensive machine. Any suggestions welcome (and I know I can get them in a virtual kit but I also like to use drum machines to jam to and it's nice to not have to have a computer around to do that). I don't need much, nice simple kit sound like this works for me

 

[Al Krow]

@Beedster - what do you think of Behringer RD-8 that a couple of us have picked up on this thread?

I previously had the SR-18 and can vouch for the fact that the RD-8 is a step up from that in terms of ease of programming your own drum lines - just based on my initial getting to grips with it. It's on my 2021 "to do" to be spending a bit more time with it, but I've found my little Zoom B1-4 actually has a pretty decent set of presets for practising along at home to which has kinda taken away a bit of the incentive on the RD-8 front! 

Worth noting that the RD-8 is a fair bit bigger than the SR-18.

Edited January 24, 2021 by Al Krow

[Geek99]

I have an sr16 and that was a total pig to program

[bartelby]

11 hours ago, Al Krow said:

@Beedster - what do you think of Behringer RD-8 that a couple of us have picked up on this thread?

I previously had the SR-18 and can vouch for the fact that the RD-8 is a step up from that in terms of ease of programming your own drum lines - just based on my initial getting to grips with it. It's on my 2021 "to do" to be spending a bit more time with it, but I've found my little Zoom B1-4 actually has a pretty decent set of presets for practising along at home to which has kinda taken away a bit of the incentive on the RD-8 front! 

Worth noting that the RD-8 is a fair bit bigger than the SR-18.

Is the RD-8 purely an 808 clone?
If so I don't think that fits the "I want a machine that sounds as much as possible like a real kit" requirement.

 

I have an SR-16 that's midi'd to my Roland R-8 as the SR-16 is an utter swine to program and the R-8 is a doddle.

[ubit]

10 hours ago, Geek99 said:

I have an sr16 and that was a total pig to program

For years when we were a two piece, we used an SR16 to play live. It was superb but it was my mate the guitarist that programmed it. I never learned. I bought my own to have in the house and I have never gotten round to learning how to programme it. It just seemed too complicated right enough.

[Al Krow]

Completely agree with the above comments about the Alesis SR16 / 18 models being atrocious to program!! So whatever you get you're likely to find life easier on that score.

See my short review (Feb 7th 2020) above of the RD-8 and this is indeed a Roland TR 808 clone.

Edited January 25, 2021 by Al Krow

[Geek99]

1 hour ago, ubit said:

For years when we were a two piece, we used an SR16 to play live. It was superb but it was my mate the guitarist that programmed it. I never learned. I bought my own to have in the house and I have never gotten round to learning how to programme it. It just seemed too complicated right enough.

I’m a programmer by trade and it was the worst interface design I’ve ever encountered 

[BigRedX]

18 hours ago, Beedster said:

Good thread folks. I've a Drumbrute and an Alesis SR-18 - very different machines - but I want a machine that sounds as much as possible like a real kit. The frustration for me is that having owned a decent Roland electronic drum kit, the sounds were great but my drumming was the problem, I would just love some of the sounds from the Roland kit in a relatively inexpensive machine. Any suggestions welcome (and I know I can get them in a virtual kit but I also like to use drum machines to jam to and it's nice to not have to have a computer around to do that). I don't need much, nice simple kit sound like this works for me

 

I would have thought the Roland TR-8S ought to fulfil that need. It might not be cheap compared to the competition, but it appears to be the best all-round for sounds and pattern/song memory. 

[Al Krow]

13 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

I would have thought the Roland TR-8S ought to fulfil that need. It might not be cheap compared to the competition, but it appears to be the best all-round for sounds and pattern/song memory. 

Good shout, but if @Beedster is looking for something relatively simple wondering if the TR-6S might be a good option?

[Cuzzie]

SR-16 was an absolute bugger.

For real drums is it not way easier to use EZ Drummer or Superior drummer and take the output from your laptop?

If not playing live and just using for recording they are also super easy to use in a DAW and have great drum beats and packs

[BigRedX]

34 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Good shout, but if @Beedster is looking for something relatively simple wondering if the TR-6S might be a good option?

From what I have seen of both the significant number of extra controls on the 8S make it a lot easier to use.

Also the 6S only supports 6 channels simultaneously so some things like multiple tom patterns are going to be more difficult to program since AFAICS it has to be done either by sacrificing the availabilty of other sounds or by programming in pitch changes on a single tom sound.

Having looked at both there are too many compromises to the 6S

[Al Krow]

1 minute ago, BigRedX said:

From what I have seen of both the significant number of extra controls on the 8S make it a lot easier to use.

Also the 6S only supports 6 channels simultaneously so some things like multiple tom patterns are going to be more difficult to program since AFAICS it has to be done either by sacrificing the availabilty of other sounds or by programming in pitch changes on a single tom sound.

Having looked at both there are too many compromises to the 6S

All good points. But you're looking at more than double the price of Behringer RD-8 by the time you get into Roland TR-8S territory.

[BigRedX]

6 minutes ago, Cuzzie said:

SR-16 was an absolute bugger.

For real drums is it not way easier to use EZ Drummer or Superior drummer and take the output from your laptop?

If not playing live and just using for recording they are also super easy to use in a DAW and have great drum beats and packs

Some people want dedicated hardware.

I use a laptop for the backing of one of my bands, but we also have a drummer, and what it supplies is very much secondary to the live instruments.

However in my other band, when we get back to rehearsing and gigging, we are most likely going to be without a drummer, so I am looking at a serious drum machine that can both replace a conventional drummer as well as produce unusual percussion sounds. For this I'd much rather use a hardware drum machine rather than having the cart round the laptop and all the associated interfaces etc. 

[Al Krow]

1 minute ago, BigRedX said:

...I'd much rather use a hardware drum machine rather than having the cart round the laptop and all the associated interfaces etc. 

Exactly this! I thought I was being a bit Neanderthal in thinking this, but apparently not  

[BigRedX]

3 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

All good points. But you're looking at more than double the price of Behringer RD-8 by the time you get into Roland TR-8S territory.

But the Behringer is essentially a TR808 which isn't much cop for creating realistic sounding and feeling drum parts. I know because for the best part of the 80s my band had an actual Roland TR808. With a studio's worth of additional sound generating and manipulating equipment you can get closer, but it's not exactly easy. However the Roland TR-8S will leave it standing in terms of sounds and user-friendliness.

[Beedster]

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

I would have thought the Roland TR-8S ought to fulfil that need. It might not be cheap compared to the competition, but it appears to be the best all-round for sounds and pattern/song memory. 

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

[Al Krow]

30 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

But the Behringer is essentially a TR808 which isn't much cop for creating realistic sounding and feeling drum parts. I know because for the best part of the 80s my band had an actual Roland TR808. With a studio's worth of additional sound generating and manipulating equipment you can get closer, but it's not exactly easy. However the Roland TR-8S will leave it standing in terms of sounds and user-friendliness.

Lol! I've now got drum machine GAS for a replacement TR-8S, once I've got up to speed on the basics on my RD-8. Ah well, at least a decent incentive eh?

Drum machine GAS, is that even a thing? 😁

[Beedster]

34 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Exactly this! I thought I was being a bit Neanderthal in thinking this, but apparently not  

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

[Beedster]

2 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Drum machine GAS, is that even a thing? 😁

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