How many drum machines do you have ?

[RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE]

Also , do you need more than one ? 
I have an old boss dr 202 . I have one on my zoom B3 if that counts, plus one on my Roland bass cube which is gathering dust. 
 

Agood friend of mine is repairing the boss . I have been using the various drums on GarageBand , and some great sounds on there.

Having said that , I do think about getting a cheap desktop drum machine . . Something simple to use that sounds decent . Possibky with midi socket .  Possibly behringher ? 

[BigRedX]

I currently have one hardware drum machine, as the Linn Adrenalinn has a programmable drum module, although I've never actually used it. My current DAW (Logic) has more than enough programmable drum kit and drum machine sounds and options for my needs, and because I've got 30+ years using to program drum parts I find it far more versatile than any stand-alone device.

 

However in the early 2000s I went through a phase of buying as many of the 70s pre-set drum machines that came up at affordable prices on eBay.

 

At one point I had the following:

 

Bentley Rhythm Ace FR-6

Casio VL1

Electro Harmonix DRM16

Hammond Auto-Vari 64

Hillwood HR2

Rhythm Ace FR-2L

Roland TR-33 Rhythm Arranger

Roland TR-55 Rhythm Arranger

Roland TR-77 Rhythm 77

Roland CR-78 CompuRhythm

SoundMaster Rhythm 1

 

That includes nearly all the "classic" preset drum machines that could be heard on records from the late 70s and early 80s. I also soon discovered that many of these drum machines were re-badged (and occasionally re-cased) Roland devices so there were a couple of duplicates in terms of sounds and patterns in this list.

 

The purpose of this exercise was to record the different patterns and turn them into REX files which would allow them to be imported into a REX player plug-in in a DAW and be played back at any tempo. It would also produce individual samples of each "step" and a corresponding MIDI file of the pattern that would allow the playback of the preset rhythm in conjunction with a hardware or software sampler, but would also allow the production of new patterns by editing the MIDI file within the DAW. I was then hoping to sell the results as sample CD, as these were popular at the time, and I figured having both preset and editable versions of the patterns along with individual samples of each "drum" sound from the various devices would be a winner.

 

However, after having spent a considerable time sampling all the patterns from two devices and slicing them up to produce REX files, I discovered that someone else had already had this idea and was selling the REX files from all the drum machines I had, and some more that I didn't, for a total that was be a lot less than the cost of a typical sample CD. Some sets they were even giving away for free. The only device they hadn't sampled was the CR-78 which was supposed to be in progress. Therefore I started work on doing this myself and soon discovered why there were no REX files for it. In order to be able to replicate what could be done from the front panel controls of the drum machine, the number of patterns, variations and sounds I would have to sample meant that it was going to be a massive undertaking, and in the end I abandoned the idea. All the drum machines were sold - mostly for quite a bit more than I originally paid for them and used some of the money to buy the REX files instead.

[sammybee]

Currently I think I have six

 

Isla Instruments S2400

Akai MPC Live 

Akai MPC 2000xl

Behringer RD-9

Behringer RD-8

Behringer RD-6

 

(there maybe a couple of others in storage)

 

In the past I've owned the following

 

Roland TR-808

Jomox X-Base-09

Roland TR-606

Roland TR-707

Korg - DD1

Yamaha RX 15

Yamaha RX 5

Boss DR550 Mk1

Boss DR550 Mk2

Akai MPC 3000

Akai MPC 2000

Ensoniq ASR-Pro

Novation Drum Station

Roland R-5

Roland R-8 

 

And probably a load more that I've forgotten about - the ones listed were the most memorable and ones I regret letting go. They all had very different sounds, whats called nowadays 'workflow' and vibe!

 

Do you need more than one... probably not - I could live with just the Akai MPC 2000xl .. But I like variety, and I'm really into my rhythm boxes  If you ask a guitar player 'do you need more than one bass' - they'll probably say 'all you need is a precision', ask a bass player - well we all know the answer to that!

 

Lots of people are really happy using software drum machines, which is great; but I prefer the hands on approach that a dedicated instrument gives you

 

If I was in the market for a single machine, it would depend a lot on the style of music I'm trying to create - what kind of music are you trying to make with it?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Skinnyman]

I have the Uno drum which is great for noodling. I’m permanently tempted by an Alesis as a cheap’n’cheerful accompanist and the elektron model cycles has an appeal because of the sequencer capabilities they have. Oh, and I really fancy an original Drumbrute. 
In fact, I’m a complete tart for drum machines but I’m managing to stay strong.

 

 

For now, anyway

[Cato]

Not sure if it counts because it's not programmable but I got this a couple of months ago for home practice.

 

 

 

 

To be honest I wouldn't have much of a clue with programming my own rhythm tracks so the presets on this do the job I need them to do.

 

It's mostly 4/4 stuff but there's couple of more unusual time sigs in there.

Edited February 6 by Cato

[Al Krow]

9 hours ago, RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE said:

Also , do you need more than one ? 
I have an old boss dr 202 . I have one on my zoom B3 if that counts, plus one on my Roland bass cube which is gathering dust. 
 

Agood friend of mine is repairing the boss . I have been using the various drums on GarageBand , and some great sounds on there.

Having said that , I do think about getting a cheap desktop drum machine . . Something simple to use that sounds decent . Possibly with midi socket .  Possibly behringher ? 

 

If you want something cheap, worth also checking out the Zoom B1-4 multifx which has a decent selection of pre-programmed drum patterns and is getting used on a live set for a few numbers on Friday, as part of a 3 piece outing for my band where we don't have a drummer.

I've also a Beat Buddy and an Akai MPC One, but it's the simplicity of live use of the Zoom that has won me over.

I previously had an Alesis SR18 - a complete PITA to program!

And a Roland TR707 in the long distant past before these became "vintage" collector's items.

[RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE]

Thanks for the feedback 👍

It is easy to get into a drum machine rabit hole ( who would've thought ?😂) 

With my drum machine , it has a certain sound which many like/ dislike . Shall we say, it is of its time .

I have the dfam , and would love a linn but that of course is not going to happen 😂

The mini drum brute appeals , and I lost out to someone on fleabay for the akai tomcat 🐈‍⬛

 

Tbh, I want something independent and not another zoom box ( although that was a good shout 🗣️) 

I just want something easy to use , compact and not expensive . Any more ideas appreciated ..

[sammybee]

1 hour ago, RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE said:

The mini drum brute appeals , and I lost out to someone on fleabay for the akai tomcat

 

Tbh, I want something independent and not another zoom box ( although that was a good shout 🗣️) 

I just want something easy to use , compact and not expensive . Any more ideas appreciated ..

 

A lot of people don't get on with the Drum Brute(s) - which is why you see so many for sale - same with the Akai Tomcat/Rhythm Wolf (they are really marmite pieces)

 

What's your idea of not expensive, and what style of music are you creating? Those two bits of info would help the suggestions

[BigRedX]

How effective a drum machine will be for you and which one you decide to go for will depend very much on how you work, whether it's studio only or if you expect to use it live, and what sorts of sounds you want.

 

How do you work? One song at a time and once it's complete and recorded you'll never come back to it? Or do you need to be able to put together a set's worth of songs with different sounds and patterns available for each one? 

 

I've been using programmed drums in one form or another since 1981 when my band bought a Boss DR55 Dr Rhythm. Despite the small number of patterns and the fact there was no way to automatically join them together to from a song; we were able to make it work for us live by creative programming using the A/B rhythm and Hi-Hat switches along with the trigger outputs for controlling the synths and the fact that we also had a live percussionist and our set never had more than 10 songs in it. However it was quite a complex set up for gigging and the home-brewed devices we used to connect everything together would often go wrong.

 

My next band in 1983 had a Roland 808 when they were still relatively new and expensive. The only way this could be used live was to record it. While composing the individual patterns was easy there were only 32 one bar patterns available, and even if you could fit more than one song in that, there was only one song chain which had to be programmed in real-time a process which was almost impossible to edit and generally it was easier to wipe and start again if you made a mistake. Backup consisted of hundreds of photocopied sheets on which we could mark which beats fell where for each pattern and another A4 sheet showing the structure of the song on relation to these patterns. While the drum sounds were editable to a degree, we nearly always supplemented them with triggered synth sounds for more variety.

 

Next we got a Yamaha RX11. While this boasted a 99 pattern and 99 song memory, the reality was that it was dynamically allocated and even with fairly simple rhythms you would run out of memory long before you reached pattern number 99. At least this drum machine had a tape interface for back-up. However in retrospect the photocopied sheets could be used to program any drum machine with suitable sounds whereas the tapes are only any good for loading into another RX11.

 

After that I had an Alesis HR16. This actually got used at gigs, although only for about 5 songs in the set in conjunction with a standard drum kit and drummer. This was my last hardware drum machine for a long time because it was replaced by an Ensoniq EPS16+ sampler which had a built-in pattern-based sequencer. This was for me far more versatile than anything I had previously. I could sample any drum (or non-drum) sound and use it for my rhythms. I could also sample loops off records so the only limit was my imagination. Everything loaded off 3.5" floppy disks, and with the expanded memory I could get all the drum sounds, sequences and songs loaded in simultaneously for a complete live set.

 

Then in the early 90s I got my first computer and DAW (although back then it was just a MIDI sequencer program) and upgraded the Ensoniq to an Akai S2000 with 32MB RAM and 16MB of Flash RAM which meant that all my samples were available as soon as it booted up. No more time spent loading samples from disk(s). Sequence programming was done on the computer and saved as MIDI files for each song which could all be loaded into the Akai. I used this system live for about 6 years until I joined a band that was live instruments only.

 

Currently one of my bands uses programmed drums instead of a drum live. Everything is done on a Mac using Logic's drum kit designer and drum machine designer plug-ins as well as the only 3rd party instrument plug own which is an emulation of the Simmons SDSV, because I found the samples I had made when I used to own the real thing weren't versatile enough for our current requirements.

 

Before settling on this route, I did look at several hardware drum machines. Several were dismissed almost immediately because they just didn't look robust enough for gigging use. In the end I didn't think any of them were simple enough to be able to use live when it came to selecting songs on stage. One of the things I wanted to avoid was lots of fiddling about with gear in between songs. I could get away with it in the 80s (just) but nowadays I want a slick flowing set of songs. My current system is controlled by two footswitches one for stopping and starting the songs and another which runs a macro which closes the current song, selects the next on in the list and loads it up, a process which takes less than 5 seconds and which is complete before the applause for the song we have just finished playing has stopped. Plus it means that we can change the set order simply by changing the number at the beginning of each song name, something that can be done just before we play if necessary. The computer also sends MIDI patch change information to my Helix and when I get around to adding a decent MIDI Thru box to the rack will be able to do the same for the live synths too. I've yet to see a drum machine that's a simple and versatile for me as my current set up.

[bartelby]

I've had:

Boss DR101

Boss DR220A

Roland TR-707 and 727

 

I sill have:

Alesis SR-16

Roland R-8

 

At one point I had a Ultimate Percussion K2-X module and some Simmons pads, one I regret selling...

[tauzero]

I have an Alesis SR-16 which I occasionally use, though when I program drums now it's generally in MIDI - only for studio use, not live.

[RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE]

8 hours ago, sammybee said:

 

A lot of people don't get on with the Drum Brute(s) - which is why you see so many for sale - same with the Akai Tomcat/Rhythm Wolf (they are really marmite pieces)

 

What's your idea of not expensive, and what style of music are you creating? Those two bits of info would help the suggestions

Good points about the drum brute and tomcat . I do like the tomcat nevertheless , but no cowbell 🐄 .

Price wise , not more than £200 if I can help it . I did consider the volca kick , but not sure . 
My creations are only recording at home onky on GarageBand ,  one day I may be brave enough to use logic .

I use moogs , Waldorfs and a few iPad apps when I'm in the mood . Bass guitars of course , playing along to drums with various effects etc . More often than not I go for ambient stuff like tangerine dream / klaus schulze etc . Then the inner headbanger in me makes me play bass and drums etc . I also have a couple of boss sp samplers ..

[sammybee]

45 minutes ago, RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE said:

Good points about the drum brute and tomcat . I do like the tomcat nevertheless , but no cowbell 🐄 .

Price wise , not more than £200 if I can help it . I did consider the volca kick , but not sure . 
My creations are only recording at home onky on GarageBand ,  one day I may be brave enough to use logic .

I use moogs , Waldorfs and a few iPad apps when I'm in the mood . Bass guitars of course , playing along to drums with various effects etc . More often than not I go for ambient stuff like tangerine dream / klaus schulze etc . Then the inner headbanger in me makes me play bass and drums etc . I also have a couple of boss sp samplers ..

 

Could you stretch to an Electron model samples? (£285 at Andertons) They get a lot of love & it's a sampler too

 

Have you thought about the Behringer RD-8 (TR-808 copy) or RD-6 (TR-606 copy)? nice analog boxes with a lot of hands on control and some modern embelishments? Both easily within budget for a mint used one. With the rest of your gear I think the RD-8 would fit in quite nicely, esp for ambient type stuff

[RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE]

12 hours ago, sammybee said:

 

Could you stretch to an Electron model samples? (£285 at Andertons) They get a lot of love & it's a sampler too

 

Have you thought about the Behringer RD-8 (TR-808 copy) or RD-6 (TR-606 copy)? nice analog boxes with a lot of hands on control and some modern embelishments? Both easily within budget for a mint used one. With the rest of your gear I think the RD-8 would fit in quite nicely, esp for ambient type stuff

Well....you're pointing me in the right direction .infact, I think you've more or less made my decision 🙂

I looked at the Electron , and the RD-8 . I will be getting the RD-8 mk 2! 
I watch Bad Gear channel every week , and he did a great review of the electron. Having said that, audiopilz always makes anything sound good . I prefer the look of the Behringher , and it sounds great imho . I hope it's easy to use . I'll check on YouTube to confirm .

Thanks for recommendations . 😼👍

[sammybee]

9 minutes ago, RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE said:

Well....you're pointing me in the right direction .infact, I think you've more or less made my decision 🙂

I looked at the Electron , and the RD-8 . I will be getting the RD-8 mk 2! 
I watch Bad Gear channel every week , and he did a great review of the electron. Having said that, audiopilz always makes anything sound good . I prefer the look of the Behringher , and it sounds great imho . I hope it's easy to use . I'll check on YouTube to confirm .

Thanks for recommendations . 😼👍

 

I'm sure you'll love it! It's not that difficult to use once you've got to grip with the sequencer functions.. happy twiddling those knobs!

 

[PaulThePlug]

Do these count?.. Got one of each

[BigRedX]

13 hours ago, RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE said:

My creations are only recording at home onky on GarageBand ,  one day I may be brave enough to use logic .

 

I that case anything you like the sounds and user interface of will most likely be fine. Get something that supports MIDI clock, and ideally MTC (MIDI timing Code) to you can run it synchronised to GarageBand or Logic. If it supports MTC it will also pickup at the correct place in the song without needing to run it from the top every time you want to do a drop in. There maybe some delay with the pickup function, but you won't know what it is until you try it.

 

One thing you might want to think about is how your chosen device backs up whatever you have programmed into it. Hopefully it will support something like a SysEx memory dump. Of course the other thing to remember is that a backup is only any use if you can actually retrieve the information at a later date. Just because the backup has occurred successfully doesn't automatically mean you'll be able to do a restore from it. The devices I used to own (see above) that did tape backups also had a verify function which compared the playback of the tape with the contents of the device memory.

 

Having owned a room full of MIDI (and before that CV and gate plus clock sync) gear in the 80s and 90s, it would have to be a very special device that would persuade me to go back to working outside the box. The headaches I and my band use to have trying to get all the devices to talk to each other properly is something I don't miss. Even MIDI didn't solve all the problems: there would be clock glitches that would cause synchronised effects to go out of sync and massive delays on pick-up for timing codes that meant a lot of the time it was simpler to run the song from the start even if all I wanted to do was drop in a section right at the end.

 

 

[BigRedX]

17 minutes ago, PaulThePlug said:

Do these count?.. Got one of each

I won a PC-2 at a Roland/Boss event in late 1984.

 

At the end of the evening they did a draw for a few of the cheaper devices they had been demonstrating and my name came out of the hat. Out of everything they gave away this was the least appealing and after playing with it for 5 minutes at the next band rehearsal it went back in its box and was PX'd for another device they'd shown - the Boss Super Distortion and Feedbacker Pedal.

[Earbrass]

I have a Digitakt, and the XLN XO vst (mainly for the great sample library and sample search facilities). I can't imagine wanting or needing anything else. For a while I was intrigued by the Soma Pulsar 23, but I watched a ton of YouTube videos on it and never saw one where anything I would describe as listenable music was produced using it, and so the fascination faded.

Edited February 11 by Earbrass

[RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE]

I looked at the soma pulsar 23, and love it . However, I will have to wait some time to get that due to cost 🙀

It's messy with the alligator clip type / meccano setup but apart from that , I'm blown away by it . 
Soma make some odd and pricey instruments . The terra may replace the moog grandmother one day . Who knows ? 🤔🙂

[Al Krow]

On 09/02/2024 at 09:49, PaulThePlug said:

Do these count?.. Got one of each

 

You should give yourself a round of applause for spotting the HC-2 😁

[Earbrass]

2 hours ago, RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE said:

I looked at the soma pulsar 23, and love it . However, I will have to wait some time to get that due to cost 🙀

It's messy with the alligator clip type / meccano setup but apart from that , I'm blown away by it . 
Soma make some odd and pricey instruments . The terra may replace the moog grandmother one day . Who knows ? 🤔🙂

Soma are certainly one of the more interesting manufacturers out there. I recently sold a Lyra-8 after I'd owned it a little over a year. Built like a tank. I used it to record weird space noises and textures for use in the space-rock band I play keys for, and it's great for that, but not really for much else. I have many hours of recordings from it that I can sample from to use live, and plenty of weird plug-ins so I can make many different versions of any given bit of the recordings, so it seemed like time to move it on.

[RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE]

1 hour ago, Earbrass said:

Soma are certainly one of the more interesting manufacturers out there. I recently sold a Lyra-8 after I'd owned it a little over a year. Built like a tank. I used it to record weird space noises and textures for use in the space-rock band I play keys for, and it's great for that, but not really for much else. I have many hours of recordings from it that I can sample from to use live, and plenty of weird plug-ins so I can make many different versions of any given bit of the recordings, so it seemed like time to move it on.

Good points here . Glad you got to make good use of it . Yes " interesting " is the way many of us woukd view soma instruments 😹

When I first saw the tree like  terra , I wasn't impressed tbh . After seeing various demonstrations , I am more impressed. It would certainly fit in with the stuff I'm into . I'm trying to only purchase maybe 2 or 3 synth and drum like instruments in total over the next couplle of years ..funds permitting whenever that will be . Living in a small flat determines  a lot also .  Too many synths out there , and being disciplined I know that I can't keep pursuing an ideal sound . It'd cost £££££ 😹
 

I only started properly in this alternative synth malarkey in 2018 , with the purchase of the moog grandmother . I did purchase the boss sp202 and dr202 years before that , but didn't really use them . A couple of Waldorf synths , but my next purchase will be the drum machine ..plus the behringher poly synth that costs about £45 . Can't remember the name of it off my head . 
That'll be enough for a while 😬

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

My first drum machine was a korg KPR-77, later I upgraded to a Yamaha RX-21, then an RX-11 with an RX-21L (Latin) This was in the 80s/early 90s and the hardware machines are now long gone.

 

Now I only use the drummers included with Logic Pro X

[lidl e]

I use YouTube! Just search whatever BPM best i want to play with. 

 

But i have been thinking about a beat buddy. I cant really justify the price currently, but im sure ill find a way too.

 

I didnt realise so many people had a drum machine 

 

Are you all mostlyn using it for recording or practise?