Drum machines

[bob the r0bot]

Anyone else like/use them? Do you use them as your main drums or do they play accessory percussion? Which one(s) do you use?

[Wes Mantooth]

Since I can't find any like-minded musicians to play with, I plan on using EZ Drummer or Superior Drummer for drums and such. I'm guessing you mean physical drum machines but my experience with EZD has been great.

[Dr. Sherman Sticks M.D.]

my only friends are drum machines

[musiqueer]

I've had one of these: http://www.vintagesynth.com/korg/etr.php for some time and we've somewhat started to use it lately with the band.

[Gone Fission]

Adrenalinn? Rumor has it that the samples are very closely related to the classic Linn Drum samples.

I have one and need to get serious about using it for sampled drums unless my wife get serious about drumming. Maybe getting the computer editor set up would help. Neat thing to know -- you can apply the effects section to the drums, even without an instrument input.

[kaeth]

I have an Alesis HR-16B with pitch bend knobs, and a circuit-bending patch-bay installed. It's pretty far from real drums, but if you don't care about realism, there's no limit to the sounds it can produce. Simple as could be too! The only thing I don't like about it is that the real-time editing can be frustrating. When I make a complex beat, mess up on layer #7, and have to start over again for the 5th time, the urge to throw it at the wall gets difficult to resist.

I used to have an Alesis SR-16, but the thing was trash. It sounded bad, and was more difficult to use. It was slightly more realistic sounding, but not in a good way. It was neither fully realistic, or charicteristically non-realistic: just some awkward spot in between. The HR-16 beats it hands down, even though it's much older.

I also recently bought a Yamaha RX-5. Again, no realism, but it's nice and aggressive for industrial music, and compliments my TX-802 perfectly.

To be honest, I don't actually use them much, unless I want to add some outboard effects. They're both sampled extensively on my computer, so I usually use Fruity Loops to actually make the beats.

[the Life Aquatic]

just bought an akai pro mpk mini the other day, ive been using it in reaper with a free drum vsti, have made anything to use while playing yet but its simple and effective enough to

[theavondon]

I dug my SR-16, but I only ever used the "rap" toanz, cowbells and snaps/claps.

EDIT: the only video I've ever posted to youtube.

[univalve]

ipad apps i use:
funkbox
ilectribe
(love both of them)

i would like to get an electribe emx1 for years but it is quite too much to justify it - getting new stomp boxes instead

[adrianlee]

Pretty interested in this thread. I will keep watching.

[dubkitty]

I program stuff a lot, because i don't have a band and when i'm writing/producing stuff i want to have complete conceptual control--it's my voice after all--and bringing in a drummer will inevitably bring in another person's interpretation. I have an ancient HR-16, but i haven't used it for ages. i keep it around because i suspect that at some point in my projects it will still be useful, because it has some pretty characteristic sounds (e.g. you can hear it all over the Arrested Development record) and i'd rather program the original than sample it and tweak it digitally...i'm just persnickety that way. the most recent programming i've been doing is in GarageBand, which is much better than i expected for writing drum tracks especially if you use my favorite resolution-increasing trick of doubling the tempo and halving the note values to double the ability to adjust the timing of individual percussion events. i.e. take a 120BPM track, write it at 240, and write e.g. the quarter-notes as half-notes. since you've set the tempo to 240, each 120BPM bar is now 2 240BPM bars and thus you have twice as many locations to which you can adjust each individual percussion event. result: you can achieve a more natural feel, especially on complicated cymbal parts.

[grindonomicon]

I used to have a Yamaha RX8... Those looked pretty sweet to have cicuit bent. Hey, wait!

I use EZ Drummer a bit, and I have friends send me drum mixes when they're done in the studio, and I chop those. I prefer chopping and assembling stuff from recorded drumming rather than using the loops from EZD. Part of it ease of use, and part of it is using stuff your friends are sharing with you instead of programz.

[Officer Bukowski]

This thread inspired me to download a drum machine app for my iPhone. It's just a cheesey sounding free app, but I feel like if I run it though my pedals I can get it sounding pretty awesome.

I need an adapter before I can do that but just looping along with it is pretty cool. I can't wait to record a fuzz laden drum loop under my regular El Cap loopage. Should be pretty awesome. I'm goin to radioshack.

[univalve]

This thread inspired me to download a drum machine app for my iPhone. It's just a cheesey sounding free app, but I feel like if I run it though my pedals I can get it sounding pretty awesome.

funkbox works also on my iphone. if you are into electro/disco beats this is the shit.

[lorez]

just bought an akai pro mpk mini the other day, ive been using it in reaper with a free drum vsti, have made anything to use while playing yet but its simple and effective enough to

i just started using reaper and I'm really lost with it and can't work out how to get anything out of the free drum vsti. any tips on how to do it please?