The truth about drum machines.

  • Thread starter Thread starter GT
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GT

GT

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I have a Zoom 123 drum machine.

Most drum machines boast about holding like 100 songs in memory.

The truth: On my machine anyway is I have eight songs, none of which use preset patterns, and the memory is full.

Now I have to figure a way to store the songs, and clear the machines memory so I can start again.

I just thought that anyone that is new to buying a drum machine should know the truth.

Bottom line: Using user patterns on a Zoom 123, and average lenth songs, this machine will hold EIGHT SONGS in memory, NOT ONE HUNDRED.

To those in the same boat.

Where, and how do you store your drum machine patterns?

GT
 
Doesn't this have a slot for a smart media card?

My RT-232 has one. But mine is a much later model.

You might have to find a way to do a midi dump to your PC.

Did this come with any software at all?

Carl
 
Krakit,

The 123, is a great machine, but bare bones.

It only has midi in, not out. I will have to dump from line out to line in.

I was thinking I could line into my computer from my drum machine, then turn the drum machine songs into mp3s, and download to a mp3 player, and store them as mp3s.

I would also have to add precounts to the songs, no problem. As footswitch would no longer be in play.

I think mp3 players with 32mb smart media hold about an hour of music.

This may be a good way to store drum machine songs, and very portable.

This is also why I am going to look into the Tascam Pocketstudio, as it will mix to mp3 without the use of a computer, cool huh?

How do you like the 232, I would think it stores to smart media via midi, that should be awesome. You will never have to worry about running out of memory, you just get another smart media card!! I want one!!

GT
 
I love it!!!

I can't say enough good things about the RT-323.

I shopped for a long time before settling on it. And I got a lot of help while shopping right here at homerec.

It does everything you could want and more. It even has two foot pedal jacks for high hat and kick (manually controlled).

You can also use the foot pedals to change patterns ( I do this a lot while just jamming by myself).

It holds tons internally and takes a 64MB card (but I haven't needed it yet).

Love love love.

:D :D :D :D
 
Consider your self luckey GT. Eight songs shit i wish i had that much. I have 3 songs on my boss dr660, and im a couple of patterns away from being pegged out. The faster and more 16ths and 32nds you use, thats what eats up the memory. All my stuff is blazingly fast with double bass and snare blasts everywhere. So i gotta get like 3 drum machines to complete a 10 song album.
 
The RT-123 is basic and cheap - but the samples are of good quality. Personally, I never bother saving too many patterns on the machine itself - just basic click tracks. I generally program it from a sequencer from my midi out to the midi in on the 123 - you can usually do much more that way (volume, timing, etc).

Has anyone out there gone from the RT-123 to the RT-323? Are the extra features worth it?
 
Yeah Detune,

Looks like Zoom is blazing the path again, say what you want about Zoom, but they come up with some great ideas.

A drum machine with unlimited memory like the 232 is the way to go. Kind of makes all the others obsolete, don't you think?

For the rest of us it's either store or delete. I spent way too much time programming my machine to delete.

So like I said I will have to add a precount to my drum parts, and store them as mp3s, and use a mp3 player as a drum machine extension.

What do you think?

GT
 
I think that it's sad that the 123 wasn't designed for this contingency.

No midi out? That's such a bitch!:mad:

I'm just throwing ideas out there, but do you suppose that there might be a retrofit for dumping?

I mean, the mp3 idea is good, but being able to re-edit your patters down the road is important.

Can someone else think of anyway that GT can have his cake and eat it too?

Carl
 
It sucks, but...
no.

You could export all your patterns as wav files, and save them, then use your multitrack software to recreate the "songs".

I don't really see any reason for you to store the drum files as mp3, keep them as .wav! You're not going to use more than 50-100 MB anyway, and at that point, there's no reason to crush the audio quality.
 
Charger,

Good advice, unfortunately I don't have a computer in my studio.

Stupid question: What is the format of the recording on most multitracks called, is it wav, or can that only be produced on a computer?

I told you it was a stupid question!

I allways thought wavs take up 10 times more space than a 128kbps mp3?

Still learning,

GT
 
I think the pint Charger is making is that converting to MP3 compresses the audio, losing quality in the process. Once the quality is lost, converting back to WAV will not bring the quality back. It's gone.
 
But you said in your original post that you were going to "line in to your computer" and "make mp3's". If you have the technology to get audio in and make mp3's, you have the capability to make wav files. Wav files are uncompressed and will give you the best representation of your original audio. they do take 10x more space than mp3s, but space is cheap.

Even on a cheap old computer you would probably have at least a 4-6 GB hard drive, and you could easily store 500 MB of drum sounds on it (uncompressed as stereo wav files) with no problem. At approximately 10 MB/minute (for a stereo, 16-bit, 44.1 kHz file) you could store 50 minutes of audio in 500 MB.
 
So what do you think?

Wav to cd, instead of mp3? How many wavs fit on a rewritalble cd?

Which would be least distructive, more reliable cd or mp3?

BTW; Made a wav recording of a drum pattern yesterday, it came out great. Except now I am having trouble with my computer.

Skips are being recorded into the wav, and mp3 of my Musicmatch. Anyone no what could be causing this? Help!!

GT
 
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