Drum Machines

[noble savage]

Hey guys,

I know a lot of you are into home recording and I was wondering if you had any ideas on a good, first drum machine? I have been considering the Boss DR-880 because they are going for about $150 under list price new on Ebay. Anyone have experience in this area?

Thanks!

 

[Meedleyx10]

I've messed around with the cheaper model...the DR670 (i think). I thought it was pretty decent, really good for low-key recordings and practicing. If you're looking at any serious programming or recording, I'd reccomend going the software route instead, as the quality of some of thsoe blows away any machine I've heard.

 

[Kenneth R.]

I'm in agreement. EZDrummer is miles ahead of any hardware machine you can get at that price.

 

[noble savage]

I'm reading about EZdrummer now and it seems pretty interesting. I would definitely like to try it before I drop $350 for it, though. I have also heard that Alesis makes some excellent drum machines.

I'm not really looking for something of immaculate quality, I just noticed that when I have an idea for a song or a phrase 9 times out of 10 it involves some strange rhythm and I don't have anyway to really get it out before the pattern slips away.

 

[Marwen]

I found Addictive Drums to be pretty nice too. My advice is: Whatever you choose, make sure that the drum machine or VSTi you get has the feature of playing various (at least 2) samples/recorded hits of the drum parts (ESPECIALLY the snare and the bass drum) at each velocity layer.
This is to avoid any machine gun effect-related issues etc.

 

[Kenneth R.]

also keep in mind that with artificial drums, to make it sound NOT artificial, bear in mind the limitations of human playing.

 

[CantoX]

Are you going to be using these drums for recording material? Or just practicing? If just practicing you can check out Fruity Loops which is $50 for express version and $99 for reg. edition. It is a beat sequencer and is very very powerful if you know how to use it properly. Google it and check out the demo. Its very easy to use and you can achieve decent sounding stuff.