drum machine

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xtfalcon

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no doubt that this has been asked a thousand times but being new I must do so "what is good in moderate priced drum machines?"
 
I'll sell ya my Yamaha QY70 for $250. It's way better than a drum machine. It has 8 pattern tracks and 16 linear recording tracks with more sounds than you will ever know what to do with. It also has tons preset drum patterns in every style.

Check it out in the free ads section.
 
Drummachine

Good machine are:

Boss DR660/670/770
Roland R8mkII
Yamaha RY20/30

All of them are pretty affordable.

My personal favs are R8mkII and RY30 (got realtime parameter controller for filter pan etc).
 
thanks people for your advice and offers,
have read that the alesis something a rather 16 is a good little machine, basic perhaps, any opinions out there on that
 
Alesis

The Alesis is basicly a good sounding straight forward machine BUT IT"S KNOW NOT BE VERY RELIABLE!!!

No Alesis for me.
 
Good sounding?!?!
It sounds like a toy. You know it's bad if I can ALWAYS pick it out of any mix.
 
I'm halfway to seconding the downers on the SR16. Kinda obvious these days, and some of the presets just plain stink - it has power-ballad pie all down its autumn sweater.

So anyway.

Try hearing the Boss DR202. I hear they're phasing it out, but you can still get 'em. I ain't got one yet but did spend a good hour fiddling with it in the local E-Normo Chain the other week. Very impressive, imnsfho. Sure it has its fair share of garbage rawk presets (those metallic snares and awesomely bad clicky kicks - each with their own terrbile reverb), but one thing it beats the SR16 on is groovey, trip-hoppy, funky type snare and kick preset kits. These are easily the most convincing sounds on it, but even if they don't necessarily fool the ear, they're still hot sounding. And there's no reason why you couldn't use these dancier type sounds in a rock or indie-schmindie context. Certainly that's what I'm going to try anyway. Demo one if you get the chance - they're definitely worth looking into, and I never hear anyone mention them. About $200-300 new I think.
 
I always recommend a little sequencer rather than a drum machine. The Yamaha QY20 and QY70 are great little fully featured sequencers with tons of editable patterns. If you don't like the verb on something you can change it. In fact there is very little these machines can not do. I tried many drum machines before coming to this conclusion. Plus a sequencer has many other uses and can record in linear fashion and pattern...in fact you can use the two types of recording together.
 
ok, there goes the alesis idea, no guessing I am new at this and just setting up, well Jakes got me thinking sequencers, great, would not know what they are or do, if someone would like to have a crack at letting me know how to use one please go for it,

Have any of the portable keyboards got any credible drum beats and sounds on them?
 
A sequencer is a device that records MIDI notes. So you could use it to control your favorite synths or drum modules. Most include some onboard sounds. A 16 channel sequencer could control up to 16 MIDI devices or just playback 16 channels of MIDI info. Sequencers can be used to control stage lighting of even for recording and playing back assembly robot movements.
The QY series sequencers include a pattern section that can play 6 different patterns (intro, part a, fil ab, part b, fill ba, ending) in any order you program it to. You just choose or program your own patterns and record a part track that changes the pattern in a time scheme. That makes it a great drum machine. The QY70 has tons of onboard patterns and sounds with every type of popular music availible.

Kinda funny side note. In the presets as you scroll through there are many songs that sound just like modern radio music, Metallica, Coolio, the cars..ect...it's really fun to hear them.
 
jake-owa said:
A sequencer is a device that records MIDI notes. So you could use it to control your favorite synths or drum modules. Most include some onboard sounds. A 16 channel sequencer could control up to 16 MIDI devices or just playback 16 channels of MIDI info. Sequencers can be used to control stage lighting of even for recording and playing back assembly robot movements.
The QY series sequencers include a pattern section that can play 6 different patterns (intro, part a, fil ab, part b, fill ba, ending) in any order you program it to. You just choose or program your own patterns and record a part track that changes the pattern in a time scheme. That makes it a great drum machine. The QY70 has tons of onboard patterns and sounds with every type of popular music availible.
Click to expand...

I've got the cheesy little brother, the QY10. I've also got a DR550.
Even though I can loop record beats on the QY10 and quantize them into place if they are off, I much prefer the DR550 (and 660, etc.) interface for programming drum beats. I really like it, its a neat little box. Maybe the QY70 is much better in terms of acting as a drum machine (I think it has more drum sounds) but I prefer curling up with my drum machine and making beats- something about its interface I just find friendlier.

But the QY's are far more versatile. Even a modern drum machine with a SmartMedia card or computer dump capability can't beat a Sequencer/keyboard. Infact, the QY can control the drum machine through MIDI. If you are willing to spend time with it and get to know the QY they are great little machines.

But if you just want drums, you may be better off with a drum machine. However, a QY (which can dump data to computer) will cost about as much as most drum machines. Choose wisely, young grasshopper!
 
Yamaha QY20

The qy20 is nice for demo's but has no professional value.

Good stuff for beginners or musicians on the move.

I got one.
 

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"young grasshopper" lol, I only wish, but thanks for the advice fella's, mikefoundahobby hit the nail on the head when he said "nice for demos for this is exactly what I wish to do, my recording gear is cheap and nasty by most standards in the forums, for example 1/ yamaha mt8x cassette multitrack, but with a 1964 fender blonde bandmaster for guitar and hiwatt for bass with musicman I am doing quite well for that type of gear, now get this, I am thinking about getting yamaha psr 225 keyboard and dumping the drums into the computer then to mt8, ok ok I know this sounds cheesy bigtime but a small budget is driving all this and my ears actually dont mind the drums on this keyboard

If you would like to comment on the keyboard please do as your opinions are appreciated
 
drums

i have an Alesis HR 16 that I love. I think I got it in 1988. Very realistic -sounds are programmable- and it's very reliable. it's your basic Rock n Roll "Ringo" kit, but I'm not into a lot of drum sounds so it's perfect for what I do. Gives that "Thud -Wack" like early Crazy Horse sound that I love. I like to bury my drums to the point that you don't realize there's a drum track on it, you just feel it.
 
agreed gmas 32, drums should be there but not too obvious, I believe this is the trouble with digital recording and especially digital drums, that tick tick bloody tick of the hi-hat even on professional recordings drives me bonkers, recording drums on to tape albeit a cheap setup certainly tames that annoyance.
 
Good point gmas32. In my early recording days I had the drums from my SR16 to far upfront but I didn't know any better. Now I don't use it very much but when I do I like to bury them a lot more and can sometimes fool the NON musicians.. :D
 
Yamaha MT8XII

xtfalcon


I got a MT8XII as well, this is getting very scary LOL
 
Keyboards

Ok i forgot to comment on the KB part of xtfalcon.

Some KB's sound very well (as long you shut off the speakers).

Friend of mine had a KN2000 (Technics) that really impressed me.

I am not a KB guy but some sound very good.

I prefer synths for editing (no offend).
 
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