Drum machines

[Dino Gino]

New guy checking in!

First of all, I'm not a DJ, I actually play electric bass. A friend of mine suggested I check these boards out to get some help with a question I have. I wasn't sure what forum to post this question in, thought you guys over here in DJ Land would probably be able to help me out with this. So here it goes.....

I'm basically looking for a little feedback on table top drum machines. I'm looking to spend no more than $4-500. I'll be using it to practice my bass playing and also craft some rough draft 4-track recordings. I've done a good deal of research on what's out there but I'm sure I must have missed a few. The one that caught my eye the most was the Roland DR-770. It seems to have everything I need while not breaking the $500 mark. (400 Preset patterns - Rock, Pop, Jazz, Latin, World, Standard and more. 400 User program memories. 255 high-quality drum and percussion sounds. 64 Preset drum kits and 64 User-programmable kits. Reverb, Flange and EQ control).

Only problem is that I've heard a ton of comments on how much this unit heats up after very short periods of usage. That's definitely a bummer because besides that this drum machine has everything I need.

So I was wondering if any of you have used this model and had the same problem, any malfunctioning? Or could anyone recommend any other drum machines that have worked well for you. The main things I'm looking for is plenty of good percussion sounds(mainly for jazz and funk), a good ammount of patterns, velocity pads and atleast 12 polyphony.

If any of you could offer some advice I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks.

[distorted]

I had a DR-770, and thought I was a pretty nice drum machine. I got a Korg Electribe Er1 a while back, and never touched the Boss again. It depends on what type of sounds you're after. The Boss has sampled sounds, all the basic drum machine sounds from the 808s and 909s, etc. If you like more spacey, sonic wierdness, and would like to have more hands on control over exactly what each drum sound sounds like, I would recommend the Korg. It's a pretty bad ass little box, and you can get them for 200 bucks on ebay. I think you can get he 770 for the same.

[Dino Gino]

Thanks for the input Distorted. I'm gonna do some reading up on that Korg unit. I'm still open to any other suggestions as well.

As far as sound goes, I'm looking to get as close to authentic drum kit sounds as I can. Real live jazz, funk and rock percussion is my main priority for what I want to do. Being able to tweak out the sounds would be a definite plus.

Did you have any problems at all with 770? Any malfunctioning due to over heating? That's still bugging me the most about that unit, I'd hate to be in the middle of making a beat and have the thing wig on me, or even burn out completely, I've heard Rolands customer service is next to non existant.

[distorted]

I had no problems at all with the 770. I thought it was great. I had it for about a year and never found it getting too hot. Actually, if authentic drum kit sounds are what you're after, that might be a better bet for you. It was a little hard to edit patterns on the 770, creating your own kits (out of their sounds, that is) was time consuming, and the sounds were a bit stale, and hard to tweak to my liking. Those are the only reasons I can think of that I got rid of it. Also, I make tweaked out electro, experimental/idm/ambient stuff, and tech-house, so qualifications for a drum machine are inevitably going to be completely different for the two of us.

[distorted]

I'm sure you know this already, but the MPC 2000 is probably the best bet for getting real drum sounds out of a drum machine type interface with velocity sensitive pads. If you're going to record with it, it might be worth the extra couple hundred bucks. I'm not sure what they're going for now, but the price was dropping for a while. maybe 7-800????

[ae5]

i'd vote for the boss dr. 770

[dr. squane]

Dino, for what you want the 770 is a better choice. I don't have one, so I can't tell you about it overheating or how easy it is to use. But I do have the Korg ER-1. The Korg has sampled open and closed hi hat, crash, clap sounds and the other four sounds are synthesizer sounds and can be changed (pitch, modulation etc) so in this respect it's more of a cross between a drum machine and synthesizer. It doesn't have enough real drum sounds to do what you want it to.

The MPC 2000 is a sampler, you'd have to sample all sorts of drum sounds, then use the sequencer to make patterns. A lot of work to make jazz, funk and rock demos.

[willncsu]

You might also like the korg es-1 its a sampling drum machine and pretty cool.

[joe mac]

drum machines are a waste of money,
they are only SAMPLED drum sounds.
might as well get a sampler.

[Dino Gino]

Thanks for the input everyone, I think I'm going to take a shot on the 770.

[ae5]

Originally posted by joe mac:
drum machines are a waste of money,
they are only SAMPLED drum sounds.
might as well get a sampler.

decent sampler=$1500
boss dr. 770 which does everything he wants=$350

[joe mac]

Originally posted by ae5:
decent sampler=$1500
boss dr. 770 which does everything he wants=$350

you sure about that $1,500?
i just bought a yamaha a4000 for $500 and i also plan to also use reason.
drum machines are a waste of money.

[Travis_aka_Roy]

i used to have 1 untill i thought it was a toilet and peeeeeed on it. live and learn

------------------
boogers

[U&I]

I would suggest you do not overlook these three machines either...
Roland R8
Yamaha RY30
Korg S3
but hey I'm just an electronic muso so what'd I know ..........

[DaCapital]

Trust me on this one, you really want to get the BOSS 202 Drum & Rythm Machine. It fits your budget, its easy to learn, it has bass kits for every drum kit, it has the classic drum machine kits such as the Roland 707, Roland 808, Roland 909 and basically every drum and bass sound you can think of. I own many drum machines and software loops and I still consider the BOSS 202 the better machine,"ESPECIALLY" when you compare it to the price.

[bigsplendor]

Originally posted by DaCapital:
Trust me on this one, you really want to get the BOSS 202 Drum & Rythm Machine. It fits your budget, its easy to learn, it has bass kits for every drum kit, it has the classic drum machine kits such as the Roland 707, Roland 808, Roland 909 and basically every drum and bass sound you can think of. I own many drum machines and software loops and I still consider the BOSS 202 the better machine,"ESPECIALLY" when you compare it to the price.

I own the Boss DR-202 as well and it is a great drum machine for the price.

P.S. Welcome to the forum DaCapital. ;)

[U&I]

An R8 would shit rings around a BOSS 202 in every way imaginable.
Better quality sounds, multiple output, extra waveform cards, velocity sensitive pads, superior midi implementation an far more customiseable interface with a far more professional degree of programming ans sound sculpting etc etc.. The human feel parameters that imitate the skin on a real drum kit alone make it more expressive than a BOSS202. Infact the three I mentioned all have more complex user interfaces but are far superior in kit customisation, sample quality, realtime control, programmabilty and overall performance and pro-end functionality.
That said a good quality sampler and sequencer or the VST Waldorf attack and Native Instruments Battery are excellent for PC use too.
Having used many drum machines over the last 15 years .(I've been doing electronic music since I was 20...yes I am 35 ok) ..... and have used a lot of gear and enough too know that a Boss202 is not pro-end enough for satisfactory long term use. R8's, 808's, 909's, CR78's, LinnDrums, MPC60's,
SP1200's,FORATS,Sequential Studio440 ,RY30's even the Kawai XD5 (module) have all pretty much stood thew test of time. I doubt wether much BOSS gear will in the long term. Alot of it is great entry level to intermediate equipment but you could get better secondhand for less.
I still say track down an R8 (with cards) particularly if kit "hyperrealism" is paramount and you want to program your own breakbeats etc etc... from scratch.
As I said just my 2 cents worth but hey what do I know I'm a muso and not a DJ :(

[CoquitoKing]

Boss SP-505


yeah boyeee!!!