General Music Chat

I'm having no luck at all find a band, let alone people to jam with, so I'm moving on to a new project. I need to get a drum machine, and I know nothing at all about them, so I need some advice on what I should be looking for. I want to go for a melodic industrial sound. Advice please.

Brandon

I'm having no luck at all find a band, let alone people to jam with, so I'm moving on to a new project. I need to get a drum machine, and I know nothing at all about them, so I need some advice on what I should be looking for. I want to go for a melodic industrial sound. Advice please.

Brandon

I'm Alan from Madison - I'm in the same situation. I was also thinking of getting a programmable drum machine. Something that sounds real.

Hey those drum machines are expensive plus you dont get the authenticity of an actual drummer. Keep looking.

I have the Boss Dr. Rhythm-3 and it works pretty well. Doesn't replace a drummer but is great for jamming at home and even some recording. It is about 200 bucks.

Check out the Boss Jam station

I use Reason drums, listen to my music that is what I am using on the song I have here. I have more on garageband.com under the same name, Beyond God.

I have owned a Boss DR-5 for about 7-8 years. It sounds pretty good by itself. It can sound GREAT with a little EQing and a good reverb setting. (trying to get some sound clips on my profile) The Boss DR-880 is their newest one and it sounds AWESOME, but I think it costs about $500. Try ebay for a DR-5!

I'm having no luck at all find a band, let alone people to jam with, so I'm moving on to a new project. I need to get a drum machine, and I know nothing at all about them, so I need some advice on what I should be looking for. I want to go for a melodic industrial sound. Advice please.

Brandon

This is basically what happened to me too years ago, finding a band was tough but all this music needed to come out. Have you considered building yourself a nice DAW? I use to have the SR16, but around the turn of the century I went from a hard disk recorder to using my pc. Now I'm basically unlimited in my writing and playing. You can hear some songs at my page and in the interview section you can read what I use.
http://www.soundclick.com/eminantdomain


Some notes after making the changeover...first most drum machines sound like drum machines, I always figured that it was just temporary until I found a drummer, but in reality even if I did find a drummer to play the drum parts on my songs the logistics would be costly and difficult (having a place to mic a kit, having a large enough board and having decent mics).

I discovered Drumkit from hell...it comes in small, medium and large to put it simple...DFH 1&2 (small around 100-125 bux), EZ Drummer (medium, but I'm not sure of the price) and DFH Superior (Large, 35 gig of samples, not loops..about 300 bux)...I have DFH 1 and Superior...Superior is quite amazing (can be heard on my songs Azimuth and Aint got much to say).

You'll need a decent host and a good soundcard...a really good forum for such is KvR ( http://www.kvraudio.com/ ) you'll get a lot of help there in choosing. Basically you can start at about 50 bux or spend a fortune. But there are many apps in between and you'll find yourself addicted quickly I'm sure. I would suggest getting the demo for Energy xt (eXT), which can be found on their forum on KvR (just scroll down the list of forums)..it's a great host at 50 bux, if you go to a more expensive host it will work with them nicely..if you read my list of gear you will see I have invested a lot.

At a turning point in my life, doing my own thing was the best thing that has ever happened for my music. Sure my wife would like to have a livingroom again, but we are getting use to our living room being a studio. One of the best parts is you just keep learning new things and saying "wow"...and it never stops. Developers are coming up with new things so fast it's awesome...many free (not cracked, freeware). I can't say enough about how much fun I have and how much I've learned. IMO learning is the greatest gift of all and when you start off in a new direction so many new doors get opened up for you. I am willing to help anyone out on such endeavors, so don't be afraid to ask....or stop by KvR which has over 100k users and some really great minds (I'm a well known regular there, so don't hesitate to ask questions).

FWIW I did not get my first computer until this century and only four songs on my page were done on my pc (I have way too many "close to finished" songs, but I need a better singer than me)...besides the two mentioned "The Whisper" and "Pour me another" are the other two...the rest are songs with an Alesis Sr 16 so you can compare the two (The Whisper and Pour me another are DFH1 not DFH superior). So this shows that anyone can learn how.

Obviously you have a pc, so why not give some demos a try....

Days of the drum machine are pretty much over...unless it has sampling capabilities, a normal drum machine really isnt necessary. The sampler I have is roland 404/drum machine and the electribe series drum synth. You can buy the trigger finger from m-audio and use a lotta plugins to virtually make your own one man show. With as many samples as your hardrive can hold. SO I plan on purchasing the triggerfinger or the Akai drum controller. Midi is built in to my KORG machine and thats pretty much the only thing I use now.

I am getting a Boss Dr. Rhytm 880. I can do arrangements on that one, tempo and meter changes as many as I like within a song then if not all the sounds are up to snuff I can use midi to record to the PC (Cubase) and substitute with some other sounds either from my keyboard module or old Alesis SR16 drum machine or just through a sampler like NI Battery.

You can also program drum within your recording program and just get a software sampler and load drum sounds onto that. My favorite is Battery but you can also get some other programs like BFD or Glaresoft iDrum.

I have to agree with chemicalresidue - drum machines have been made really obselete with the advent of computer based synth technology. I use Cubase with a bevvy of VST plugin instruments, among them a great drum program called Battery. With the Fruity Loops VST's I have are so many drum kits that it's just sick. More choices than you could ever possibly use.

I used to have stacks of modules and synthesizers before the plug-in revolution and now, I only use one module - a SuperRoland JV - for performance. All other synths I use are computer based. They take up no room, are super clean in the recording realm, and can be easily edited per song.

Come to think of it, the last actual drum "machine" I had was an Alesis H-16 module and that was abouteight years ago.

1) go to a music store and check 'em out..get an idea of what's put there
2) then go to ebay & price used ones
http://instruments.listings.ebay.com/Dr ... ngItemList

look...if you have a computer you don't need those drum pads...or machines. Just use synth style drum machines w/ global midi or w/ sampling capabilities. MIDI interfaces start at like 20 dollars by M-audio or Roland. You can even make your keyboard into expansion drum sounds w/ the midi inputs. Trust me, there are limitless capabilities w/ a computer when it comes to making beats and patterns. Download VSTi = FREE or 20-300 dollars.... Buy drum machine=150 -3000 dollars for each unexpandable instrument...why? If you are a drummer by heart go for ALESIS but if you are lookin for back up beats for your guitar riffs then go MIDI/VSTi. No contest.