What is your favorite drum machine for recording?

MG Eddie

New member
Ok I don't use drum machines a lot but I have a yamaha dd65 that I use from time to time and I like it. Most people who hear it don't realize that its a drum machine unless they have some kind of music/recording background.

With that said what kind of drum machines do you like to use for recording?
 
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I have a yamaha DD20 which is basically like a toy, and a Boss DR550 from which you can coax a lot of different sounds and with much effort, can probably get something somewhat real sounding, but ultimately, I gave up on that path and only now use a drum machine for intentionally unreal sounds (pile on the effects, etc.).
 
I've got Superior 2, 3 SDX add ons for that, Addictive Drums and Steven Slate Plat.

I use whatever I'm feeling for the track/ whatever the person I'm recording wants (if we are using sampled drums).
 
I don't think anyone's actually making a decent hardware drum machine these days; that is, one that's easy to program, has good sounds and professional features like individual outs, which you NEED for serious recording. The Boss DR-880 is the one machine left that has individual outs, but I've always found Boss machines difficult to program at best and an utter nightmare at worst.

The Roland R8 mkII, from the early 90's, is probably the perfect drum machine. Tons of great sounds, extensive editing features, individual outs, easy to program. The original R8 is also an excellent choice; it just has far fewer built in sounds than the mkII.

Currently, my workhorse is a heavily customized Oberheim DMX. It doesn't sound anything close to a real drummer, but it sounds so fantastic that I don't even care. I also use my LinnDrum a lot these days. These machines may be dinosaurs compared to even an Alesis SR16, but nothing sounds quite like them and in terms of punch, they're unbeatable. (especially the DMX!)
 
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