Drum Machine?

Cease

New Metal Member
Jun 9, 2005
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Roanoke, Va
I know that this comes up all the time, and sorry for sucking at navigating forums and having to bother you guys with the question again, but...

Anyone know a good place one could nab a drum machine that is solid in tone and usability? I'm really looking for one that can fool the untrained ear (at least) into wondering if they hear drums or a machine.

I'm after both free ones as well as ones that cost a wee bit - I'm trying to get my shit together setting up a home studio of sorts (for homemade recorded bits) and I know one of these will only help...

Anyway, thanks.

Cease
 
Well, i dont use a "machine" per se, but rather a drum sampler instrument. Check out what it sounds like in samples of my music here: www.myspace.com/hauntedera . (all samples use it, although 'ex cathedra' has different drums)

I got the drums from www.sonicimplants.com . they have several drumkits, i recommend the blue jay large ambient series, the blue jay small are also good although i don't have them. Each pack is about 20-30 bucks only, comes with about 7 drumkits (2 breakbeat kits, IE snare turned off). They also have some other good instruments available there for cheap.
Of course they're not drum machines, so you have to program the drum track yourself.

If you need any help getting them set up, just ask and I'll help you out.
 
Haunted Era... Some creepy shit man, I like it. It fits the name well too :headbang:
But yeah, thanks a ton, this is exactly the stuff I'm looking for, I really like the amount of options they have available.
Do they play by themsleves, or is there something that they need to be "implanted" into?

Again, thanks, I can't tell you how much this has/will help me.

Rock on,

Cease
 
Cease said:
Haunted Era... Some creepy shit man, I like it. It fits the name well too :headbang:
Thanks! Did you check out all the samples? The album will be done soon as well...

Cease said:
Do they play by themsleves, or is there something that they need to be "implanted" into?
They come in many formats, as you can see on the site... you need a sequencing program, anything that can do MIDI sequencing and load up soundfonts, EXS samplers, Kontakt Instruments etc. I use Logic Audio, which is now a mac-only program, but there are plenty of other programs like Reason, Cubase, a bunch of others... Very expensive to buy but I found a way around that :headbang: ... :saint:

Cease said:
Again, thanks, I can't tell you how much this has/will help me.
No problem! My pleasure... I had the exact same problem as you not too long ago, and I kind of discovered that site by accident. Before that all I could find were drum "machines" that cost WAAAY too much for me.
 
If you want killer drum samples, you should check out the Drumkit From Hell series or the new one BFD drums is cool too. Both are a bit on the spendy side at 100 to 300 dollars, but if you are looking for realistic sampling, you cant beat it in my opinion. If you want to check out what the DFH sounds like, go to www.floodlineonline.com or www.myspace.com/floodlinemusic (all of the drums are done with the first DFH and Battery (a good drum program) recorded into Cubase SX 2.0.
 
Nick,
Hell yeah I checked em all out, and you have some seriously well made and scary sounding tracks...
I needed a better program to record with that's able to use sequence implants anyway, so thanks again for pointing me to the sonic implants

And Floodline,
damn, DFH sounds damn awesome, but its just too steep for myself atm. The Floodline tunes are damn solid though, and that's some damn good work.

If you guys ever need a guitarist to record anything let me know, I'll see what I can do for ya.


Anyway thanks again guys, and rock on

Cease
 
Cease said:
If you guys ever need a guitarist to record anything let me know, I'll see what I can do for ya.
:worship: Thank you! although it might be difficult to set it all up now, but thanks for the offer in the meantime... I may come back to you on that, and share the album profits, however small they may be...

I've already seen Drumkit from hell, but yeah, its also too expensive for me, so i got the sonic implants drums. They do the job quite well anyway! I don't like the sound of DFH's snare anyway... I'm sure it's customizable but from all the samples I've heard I'm not so into it...

If you don't want to shell out a few 100 bucks, don't forget to check out kazaa, limewire, and torrent sites for good sequencing programs... However, I NEVER SAID THAT TO YOU. :)
 
Nick_Perrin said:
I may come back to you on that, and share the album profits, however small they may be...

Sick. The guitar part I can record no problem, and have a mesa boogie F50 tube amp, and a Schecter C-1 classic w/ standard duncans, and an ibanez w/ Dimarzio X2N... these together can get a nasty crunch, so yeah, I'd be happy as hell to throw in some riffs.

Nick_Perrin said:
However, I NEVER SAID THAT TO YOU. :)

Said what? That bit must have not gone through :loco:

Seriously though, thanks for all the help, and have fun writin that scary shit :headbang:


-Cease
 
all good advice here, but one bit i would add: if you aren't familiar with drums or drumming yourself, it might be daunting at first trying to program them hit by hit. this is where people favor drum machines, because they can quickly set up a beat for you, add some randomization, and export your whole drum track a lot faster. Others prefer the attention to detail of going hit by hit. Its all up to you really
 
You bring up a very good point. Also, to help this, you can search for pre-programmed midi drum tracks or samples, and simply import them into whatever sequencer you're using and then put them into your good drum track, making small changes where necessary (like adding fills and other changes).

I personally program everything myself, now that I've gotten good at it. It's still tough to make a REALLY convincing drum track, but it's always important to pay a lot of attention to real drums in songs you listen to so you can successfully reproduce a realistic drumming style. The advantage with programming drums is that you can have the most insane drummer ever, who can pull off almost any drum move :headbang: ...

For some tips on drum sequencing, check out this link, good stuff:
http://www.jrsmoots.com/drumsequencingtips.htm

I actually copied all the text on that page and printed it out just for a quick reference, can come in handy.

Cease, Good luck sequencing! And now I will probably take you up on that offer for sure. I'll send you a PM or an email sometime, I just have to finish writing everything first so I don't make you play & record something that won't end up being used, forcing you to re-record etc... not a good situation.
Thanks :)
 
be carefull with what you program! remember: even a drummer has only 2 arms and 2 legs! so that limits the amount of things he/she can hit at the same time

I also programm everything myself on my own stuff. it probably helps quite a bit that I used to be a drummer myself some years back (actually had 6 years of lessons)