Drum machine help

[jagajaguar]

Im a huge noob with drum machine. I just want to make simple beats much like cocteau twins, tropic of cancer, beach house. Vintage machines aside what is something analog and current I can use to make a simliar sound. I really dont want an overly complicated unit.

Would either of these be any good?

http://www.amazon.com/Akai-Professional ... ai+tom+cat" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.amazon.com/Korg-Volca-Analog ... N208XJ7SBS" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Larry Mal]

They both look good to me.

One seems to be a little more pad-oriented than the other, that is, you could tap out the beats and "play" the drums. That's one way to get something going, otherwise, you can use it as a step sequencer, where you enter a kick on the one, snare on the two, and so on, and then it plays that.

[jagajaguar]

They both look good to me.

One seems to be a little more pad-oriented than the other, that is, you could tap out the beats and "play" the drums. That's one way to get something going, otherwise, you can use it as a step sequencer, where you enter a kick on the one, snare on the two, and so on, and then it plays that.

Yeah i think i want something more tap oriented. Its just hard to tell if im buying too much all the reviews are techno people

[COLLIDES]

Maybe more than you want to spend, but have you checked out the TR-8 from Roland? It approximates the old TR-808 and 909 classic drum machines.

http://www.roland.com/products/tr-8/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Larry Mal]

Yeah i think i want something more tap oriented. Its just hard to tell if im buying too much all the reviews are techno people

If it doesn't sell with the techno people, or the hip hop people, then it's a bad product. This might just be a scratchpad for you, but for those genres, it's the backbone. So, if they like it, good.

I'll take a closer look later.

[BlixaFan]

i'm going to agree with COLLIDES' suggestion. However! if you were to go with one of the two you posted, i would go for the Korg rather than the Tomcat. The Tomcat isn't the greatest sounding machine IMHO, and comes across a little flat to me.

[eggwheat]

I love the TR-606 for this kind of thing..and they are still in reach for most people price wise.

[COLLIDES]

I love the TR-606 for this kind of thing..and they are still in reach for most people price wise.

An absolute classic.

[cestlamort]

Saw a band from Austin (Pale Dian) a month or so back. They nailed the Cocteaus across the boards, and I started shopping for a TR-8 the next day. Really really faithful.

But the Volca Beats is fun and can be found for around $100. I hate the snare though.

If you have an ipad, the Korg iElectribe is pretty great. I guess there's an iphone version, too.

[jagajaguar]

Maybe more than you want to spend, but have you checked out the TR-8 from Roland? It approximates the old TR-808 and 909 classic drum machines.

http://www.roland.com/products/tr-8/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ha! yeah TR-8 I had my eye on as well. I'd love some of the older machines but thats living in the past I am sure I can get simliar sounds off newer gear just have no expierence with drum machines!

Have any of you see this app? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oH81SM3dl8k" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Might get it to try out and the new features are really great because I work in logic.

[Larry Mal]

I use Maschine, which is much more expensive than you've been talking about, but it comes in a few hardware packages that all use the same software. Something to consider.

[FightingPlankton]

My only experience with a drum machine was an Alexis hr-16 I purchased at value village for $15. It was fun but seemed to take too long to program IMO.
iirc corgan once said the hr-16 was the 1st drummer for the pumpkins.

[Francer]

My only experience with a drum machine was an Alexis hr-16 I purchased at value village for $15. It was fun but seemed to take too long to program IMO.
iirc corgan once said the hr-16 was the 1st drummer for the pumpkins.

I use an SR-16 for demos at home, and I aim to make it sound as human as possible with lots of little fills and rolls, for a non-drummer it gives reasonable results but I do find it takes forever to get right, and I seem to be endlessly tweaking the patterns.

[shadowplay]

I love the TR-606 for this kind of thing..and they are still in reach for most people price wise.

Yeah. I think it's quite a personal thing, it depends how minimal you want to go, I've had a DR-55 since Jesus was a boy and while many boxes have come and gone, the DR is still here. I remember saving like fuck for a 505 (which was as expensive as I could go at the time) and hating it.

I still hear people using DR-55's, Korg KR55's and Roland CR-78's to good effect. Folk sneer a bit at the poverty model 55 but if it was good enough for Chris Carter...

Obviously a DR dictates a certain direction but the Tropic of Cancer part of the equation is more than do able.

I think the OP could probably get by with a DR-55 for at least a couple of albums before he tapped it out.

It's not all DR-55 (I'm pretty sure there's a good amount on it) but I guess the OP would enjoy Mushy - Breathless which is IMO a brilliant wee record with super simple drum patterns, that just gets 'it'.

P.S. Btw it's not one of the 'sung' drum machines (but neither is it nor the cards for it expensive) but I have some fondness for the (sample based) Roland R-8 Human Rhythm Composer (which was definitely used on some later Cocteau Twins tracks). I'm sure I hear this used on some of the more crunching modern post punk influenced techno tracks and it's all over Warp releases through the 90's and 00's.

D

[UlricvonCatalyst]

I think the main problem, or pitfall - if it's not a problem for you - with older machines is the fact that tempo is often selected by a rotary dial. This could make it harder to integrate with a setup that's following a different clock source, meaning you'd have an extra step or two to go through - i.e. doing a MIDI dump (if poss.) of your pattern(s), using intelligent software to divine the tempo (so you can copy and paste bars/measures easily), then setting up the drum machine to be 'played' by your clock-source sequencer, possibly +/- a few cents to round the tempo up/down to something more sensible than 120.31415 BPM.

Not a problem at all if you're just using the drum machine to play along with live, but worth considering if you think you might want to throw in some synth pads or whatever at some point in the future.