I love my Digitone, to my ears it sounds incredible, especially in the drums department. However I can’t stand programming drums on one track. Functionally it’s fine, it gets the job done but it’s no fun having spend ages selecting the sounds I want and adding them to the sound pool and then not being able to tweak the parameters of each sound on the fly (other than tweaking each step individually).
So I want to add a budget drum machine, but main concern is adding something that is of a lesser fidelity to that clean and crisp Digitone sound and won’t sit well in the mix.
So I’m interested to hear what drum machines people have had good experiences with in combination with the Digitone.
I’m thinking model samples or cycles, I’ve owned both before and am familiar with the workflow. Cycles will probably gel well but samples will add new/different sounds to what the DN is capable of - again, concern is around how well the sound of the MS will gel with the FM of the Digitone.
Have you considered a second Digitone? DN1 is super inexpensive right now. Or if you can afford it, I think Digitone 2 would be the next logical step for less constraints with a familiar format and not having to manage 2 machines at once.
On a budget? Depends on your budget.
How big do you want it to be physically? There are huge differences in the footprint of many popular drum machines, so it would be good to know how much table space you have and how much money you want to spend before people start contributing their input.
Also, mostly, if you don’t set a budget people will start recommending NASA space shuttles and Spanish galleons or things of the like, so in that regard it’s good to set an outside number.
For me, I think that pricewise you can’t beat adding an MPC of some sort to your setup.
Should have been clearer. I’m talking models, ep-133, circuit rhythm budget.
Footprint doesn’t matter. I just want something that I can use purely as a drum machine with hands on controls. I don’t want programming drums to be a chore. Immediacy is key here…I think that’s why I’m not sure about the model samples, for me sample management is a pain.
(asking juniper steels) How’s your drumbrute impact in regards to immediacy? Seems like it has simplicity and cost under control.
Maybe RD-8 is an option. Could always go super cheap, I have an old volca beats which is about as basic as it gets but you put it through some effects and it sounds ok. There’s also the Aira, maybe T8, I can’t remember but that should be cost effective. I think LXR02 is out of your budget right now.
I’d personally try and pick up an MPC one for like 350 if that were my budget.
It’s a little unclear what you want. You like the sound of the DN drums, but want to free up some tracks and not deal with sound locks. A DT1 seems like a logical solution. But you also say you want to tweak parameters in which case a sampler might not be the best option. What parameters do you mostly reach for? If you’re just changing things like tuning, decay, or filter cutoff then a sampler is probably fine but if you’re going deeper into the fm parameters then a sampler isn’t going to allow you to do that.
I would stay away from boxes like the M:S, TR6S, or Volca sample that can’t sample but just do sample playback. It’s not a fun workflow imo. It’s fine if you just take a collection of sounds you like and load them up when you first get the machine and then just use it as a simple drum machine, but it’s nowhere near the flexibility and workflow of actually being able to sample from an audio input, or resampling.
Also if you want “clean crisp sound” and you like the DNs FM drums then maybe an analog drum machine isn’t the right way to go either. Plus most of them don’t really have a lot of parameters to change.
This. I’ve owned a few drum machines in my day. The TR-8s seems to be the one that’s settling in to as close to a permanent place in the studio as any kit can. Not only does it sound great and have the traditional Roland sounds, but it also works well controlled by something else. Currently I control it with my Maschine+ and get all the microtiming and velocity hacks my heart wants.
Ideally I’d use the onboard sequencer of the drum machine, but if it was something that sounded great but was a pain to control then I’d use the DN’s sequencer/midi controls.
I was leaning towards the model cycles, or something that can sample and play back the digitone’s own samples without a massive drop in sound quality. For that I was thinking either circuit rhythm or ep-133. Used Digitakt 1 is still a little out of my budget and to be honest I’ve owned one before and felt lacked the immediacy and simplicity I’m after in a drum machine.
If you want to use the drum sounds you get out of the DN, to me you have 2 choices: add a sampler or sell the DN and get a DNII (adding a second OG DN would gonna cost the same or close to sell yours and buy a II)
Or you can use the DN as a dedicated drum machine and couple it with a budget synth, maybe bitimbral like a JX08 or a Micromonsta2
… haven’t found a drum sound I haven’t got out of the DNII yet