Drum Machines

[Tadpui]

Anybody here play around with hardware drum machines much? I remember we had the recording challenge a while back where a few of us procured some convincingly unconvincing fake drums, and I loved that.

I've had this little DIY kit drum machine from Bleep Labs for years now, and I keep coming back to it often enough that I'm wanting something a little more versatile for my occasional bouts of electronic inspiration.

I've been looking at some of the offerings by Behringer, Korg, and Roland, and I'm really intrigued. Behringer has knockoffs of the original 808 and 909 units, Roland has their own that combines a few of their old classics into 1 machine, and then things get way too space-aged for my tastes after that. I think all I really want is to be able to tap along in real time, and maybe occasionally use the 16-step sequencer that they all seem to come with.

But the manufacturers assume that what I really want is every feature from every drum machine ever conceived all jammed into a single box, and all of those features being buried under multiple layers of irritating menus and button combinations. Yuck. I just want to go tappy tappy and have it go bonky boingy bangy.

Just on the off chance that any of you guys have messed with any of these, here are a few that pique my interest:

Korg Volca Beats - $169.99 - Simple and relatively cheap. But maybe too simple? Only 1 kit, but it's a good kit. 1/8" analog outputs only

Behringer RD-8 MkII - $329.99 - Knockoff of the original 808. I love that it has 1/4" outs for each kit piece. It's just the 1 kit, but it's a classic one.

Roland TR-6S - $399.99 - This is my favorite so far. Includes kits from the 606, 707, 808, 909, plus allows user samples. And the menu system doesn't look too deep, there are dedicated buttons on the face. But it only has master analog outputs. Can function as USB interface and do multitracks that way, but that's not a feature that bodes well for a Windows user with an existing ASIO interface.

Just typing this out while browsing Sweetwater, I think that I've convinced myself that the TR-6S is the one for me. So maybe this post was pointless. But I'd be curious if anybody has any input anyways.

*edit* I just watched a demo of the TR-6S and I think it's way too complicated for what I'm wanting. Love the features, but I was mistaken that the menu system was simple and shallow. Looks like way too much scrolling to accomplish anything.

[vomitHatSteve]

I've got a friend who has a volca beats. He seems to like it. But it has been a little complex. He's in prison, so getting him a decent manual was like pulling teeth

[Tadpui]

I've got a friend who has a volca beats. He seems to like it. But it has been a little complex. He's in prison, so getting him a decent manual was like pulling teeth

Cool, thanks for the input Steve. I guess "simple" was a bad choice of word on my part...none of these are "turn it on and go" but relative to some of the space-age stuff that's out there, the Volca looks like one of the simplest, with most of its functions at least in plain sight on the face of the unit. But yeah, there seems to be a lot of "hold this button while pressing this other button" to accomplish most things.

And I hope your buddy is doing OK on the inside. You've mentioned him a couple of times over the years. I can only imagine what his life is like, but at least he's making some music.

[vomitHatSteve]

Y'know, he's in a state penn in ohio. Since they let covid run roughshod 1 months back, it's mostly been very boring.

I also have the othermusician friend who was in prison, but he's been out about 4 years now

[Tadpui]

Good luck.

I was so excited by VST drums a few years back that I gave away my Boss Dr Rhythm for nothing. Good riddance.

If I still had the recording machines, I'd go back through everything I've done previously and replace anything done via drum machine (Alesis HR16 before the Boss) with VST drums. Alas I can't find the individual .wav tracks for most of it, so won't bother.

I'm definitely after "conspicuously fake" drums. I've got VSTi FX that sound real, and I've got a real drum kit that sometimes I can make sound real

But for a drum machine, I'm after the undeniably synthetic sounding ones.

My very first gear purchase when I was in 8th grade or so was a Boss DR-550 Dr. Rhythm. I used the heck out of that thing until I got bored with it and sold it to a friend. I remember having to save off my programming for Crazy Train onto a cassette tape so I could make room to painstakingly map out Metallica's One. That was a heck of a project.

But the Dr. Rhythm was trying to sound like real drums (and failing pretty miserably). I guess that goes for the older-style ones that I'm looking at too, but their spectacular failure to sound like real drums is what charms me. I like the texture they add either on their own, or when mixed with an acoustic kit.

[rayc]

The Roland 505, I have two, is a conspicuously fake machine - it's a simplified version/combination of the two predecessors.
I have two becasue one started to die & I replaced it then realized how to save the original. Oddly their tempo wanders slightly.

[Tadpui]

The Roland 505, I have two, is a conspicuously fake machine - it's a simplified version/combination of the two predecessors.
I have two becasue one started to die & I replaced it then realized how to save the original. Oddly their tempo wanders slightly.

Cool, I'll take a look. A quick search didn't turn up any currently in production, except one that's integrated into a DJ controller. That may be a bridge too far

I do see a couple of them on Reverb. Ooh, interesting...Reverb has a free download of the sample pack from the 505. I might grab that real quick and see if I can plug those into ReaSamplomatic5000 and trigger it with the pads on my MIDI keyboard. I'll report back

I might just end up settling for a VSTi solution, for less money but more hassle. But I did see the Arturia DrumBrute that looks attractive.

[vomitHatSteve]

Good luck.

I was so excited by VST drums a few years back that I gave away my Boss Dr Rhythm for nothing. Good riddance.

If I still had the recording machines, I'd go back through everything I've done previously and replace anything done via drum machine (Alesis HR16 before the Boss) with VST drums. Alas I can't find the individual .wav tracks for most of it, so won't bother.

I'm definitely after "conspicuously fake" drums. I've got VSTi FX that sound real, and I've got a real drum kit that sometimes I can make sound real

But for a drum machine, I'm after the undeniably synthetic sounding ones.

My very first gear purchase when I was in 8th grade or so was a Boss DR-550 Dr. Rhythm. I used the heck out of that thing until I got bored with it and sold it to a friend. I remember having to save off my programming for Crazy Train onto a cassette tape so I could make room to painstakingly map out Metallica's One. That was a heck of a project.

But the Dr. Rhythm was trying to sound like real drums (and failing pretty miserably). I guess that goes for the older-style ones that I'm looking at too, but their spectacular failure to sound like real drums is what charms me. I like the texture they add either on their own, or when mixed with an acoustic kit.

I get that. Distinct is so often more important than realistic

[Lt. Bob]

I have one of these ..... pretty fake sounding ... want it?

https://soundprogramming.net/drum-machi ... land-dr-5/

[Tadpui]

I get that. Distinct is so often more important than realistic

Exactly what I'm after here

I have one of these ..... pretty fake sounding ... want it?

https://soundprogramming.net/drum-machi ... land-dr-5/

Thanks so much for the offer, LT! The funny thing is, that's the direct successor to the DR-550 that I had. I love that they added more instrumentation to it to make it a whole rhythm section. But I think that it still falls into the category of "trying hard to sound real, and not failing hard enough for what I'm after". If that makes sense

I think that I've made my decision, after shopping for a few days. I'm going with the Arturia DrumBrute Impact. It's going for that old school 80s vibe, and it's got a few features that have me pretty much sold on it:

- individual analog outputs for kick, snare, hats, and the FM instrument (even though they're 1/8", ugh)
- built-in distortion that can be applied globally or per-instrument
- everything is on the face of it, no deep menus to scroll through with a buttons or a jog wheel
- old-school vibe that I desire

[Tadpui]

A couple of things to top off this thread:

- I did end up going with the Arturia Drumbrute Impact, and I'm liking it so far. Still trying to figure out how to integrate it into Reaper to open up some possibilities for MIDI syncing, but otherwise it performs as expected.

- As I was looking for possible software alternatives, I did come across a couple of things that could be used together to get all sorts of old-school drum machine goodness in Reaper. First, Reverb.com offers a complete collection of one-shot samples from all of the old Roland drum machines:
https://reverb.com/software/samples-and ... collection

And Reaper has a built-in one-shot sample trigger/player that can load 1 sample at a time:
https://reaperblog.net/2016/03/reasampl ... -tutorial/

You can string together several instances of that plugin, assign one MIDI trigger note to each, and come up with a DIY drum machine like Kenny illustrates here:


That's kind of a pain in the butt to set up, but you can save it as a track template and recall it with just a couple of clicks. And it's all totally free! Just in case any of you are itching to express your inner hip hop star

[vomitHatSteve]

A couple of things to top off this thread:

- I did end up going with the Arturia Drumbrute Impact, and I'm liking it so far. Still trying to figure out how to integrate it into Reaper to open up some possibilities for MIDI syncing, but otherwise it performs as expected.

- As I was looking for possible software alternatives, I did come across a couple of things that could be used together to get all sorts of old-school drum machine goodness in Reaper. First, Reverb.com offers a complete collection of one-shot samples from all of the old Roland drum machines:
https://reverb.com/software/samples-and ... collection

And Reaper has a built-in one-shot sample trigger/player that can load 1 sample at a time:
https://reaperblog.net/2016/03/reasampl ... -tutorial/

You can string together several instances of that plugin, assign one MIDI trigger note to each, and come up with a DIY drum machine like Kenny illustrates here:


That's kind of a pain in the butt to set up, but you can save it as a track template and recall it with just a couple of clicks. And it's all totally free! Just in case any of you are itching to express your inner hip hop star

I've got a bunch of kits I've built with that technique. you can get some very interesting results that way!