With a sequencer? - Digitakt
Ridiculously easy to use.
Without a sequencer? - Nord drum 3P (Have the first gen, too.)
Makes a lot of great sounds that I sample into the Digitakt. Great combo together! Also just playing it feels really amazing. I have it on a stand with an SPD-SX pretty nuts!
Software - DrumMachine (iPad version is pretty killer, too!) - Just all around a cool piece of software. Sounds great, fun to use, easy to use, it always adds that little extra thing to my drum parts.
Alesis Sr-16 picked this up from a friend for $80 great pairing with my MMT8 and Virus-A, my first Live PA rig…
Sold it 20 years later to a buddy starting off for $60
Jomox Airbase, amazing kick, had it for a few months then had to sell to pay rent, still miss it.
Reason Redrum, used extensively over the next few years primarily ITB except for the old Virus-A
Borrowed an MPC 2000 XL from a friend, had those immediate HipHop DACs, which led to…
MPC-1000 w/JJOS, the DACs weren’t exactly like the 2k but the swing was, and sampling to SD was way more fun than 2”floppy disk. This formed the brain of my next iteration of Live PA adventures until.
MachineDrum, base model as it was $400 cheaper than the UW, used this on a ton of tracks once I figured out the drum synthesis.
OctaTrack, one of the first models, it was confusing af at first, having been used to the MPC, finally after a few months of trial and error it replaced the 1k and became the new center piece for the Live PA, performing House, Techno, and DnB sets over the years.
Nord Drum 2, fantastic sound engine, very compact, wish I’d kept it, like the MD these have doubled if not tripled in price.
Lost my job and sold most everything except the original gangsta OT
Roland TR-8, yes the first model, and stupidly paid an extra $99 for the 707 kits, it was fun and had a quick work flow but wasn’t in the same sonic league as my MD, OT, or MPC
Elektron Samples, nope, went back into the box and back to Sweetwater.
On a trip to LA stopped by Perfect Circuit and check out the Alpha Base, oooh very tasty!
Roland TR-6S I know I just trashed this series above but finding one used and runs on battery power was great! The Audio over USB is quick to multi track too, also had all the classic samples built in.
OctaTrack mk2 30th, more of the same in a clean new shell, <3
Jomox XBase, terrible UI, buttons barely work, but damn that Kick is woofer blowing!!! My favorite sound out of the bunch.
LXR-02, nice dirty digital crunch!
RYTM mkII, finally got on the band wagon, haven’t used it beyond a couple tracks, it will be the primary box moving forward.
RD-9 full size full analog in the spirit of the original, relatively inexpensive, guilty pleasure
RD-8 II, same as above the individual outs are great for effects and mixing through a desk.
Syntakt, nope, too much of a “groove box”, got too hot, the drum were already handled by my RYTM, had no need for the basic synth sounds, sent it back.
That’s it so far, ridiculous I know… there are a couple vintage boxes I’m not mentioning, that have only very limited use on special projects. Gotta keep some secrets
My wishlist would be, auditioning a Tempest, Nord to release a 4th model drum/brain, and in general for more synthesis machines covering world, ethnic, and acoustic percussion instruments rather than rehashing Olde XoX again.
That last bit in particular about more diversity in drum machines — like, other than sample libraries, is there anything much out there at all?
It’s a weird thing because there is diversity but at the same time a diverse sound may not really be usable in a lot of dance music. I make house and techno so for me the Roland machines, Rz1, Rytm are really great for that. I think the Perkons may be pretty great as well, but I am not interested in finding out yet since it’s $2k.
The newest drum machine that sounds unique and also can work for what I do is probably the Model Cycles. 1010 Razzmataz is also pretty solid but very deep and takes some time to learn how to make the sounds you want.
I also have the Rytm and that is another one that has some usable sounds - the kicks are great once you learn how to shape them, so is the percussion. Hats,claps and snares I typically use samples there. I can make pretty complex percussion lines on just one track with Sound locks, so that is pretty nice.
Again the Cycles is more basic but it’s faster to develop great sound on, which is awesome. The Rytm takes some time to learn, and I think a lot of us just want to get to work and make tracks. Hence, the success of the TR8s.
So yeah, diversity will matter depending on what kind of music you make. That’s a huge part of it, and why so many producers just use processed 909s. But there are things out there that can deliver - Jomox, Mordor, Perkons are examples of machines that are on releases or will be.
I also think the cycles will be on a lot of releases too since it is more affordable and still sounds great. If I had to guess though, probably the modern drum machine on the most releases is the Tr8s. So whie diversity is cool in concept, sometimes going with what works is the best option.
Excluding full-scale grooveboxes (e.g., MPC Live II, Maschine+), below are my present top 3 favorite drum machines in no particular order:
A few honorable mention drum machines include the following:
The listed drum machines cover about 85% of the drum sounds presently used in my studio. However, I am planning to add a Erica Perkons HD-01 in the coming months, which will surely be added to this list after some hands-on experience.
how do you find the Alpha Base? i liked the look of it but i’ve seen terrible reviews, and it’s not exactly cheap…
I am assuming a lot of the negative feedback was attributed to software bugs, which have been resolved. Also, if I recall correctly, the 888 and 999 were deprecated with outstanding software bugs, which caused customers to be upset when the Alpha Base was released. When I was researching the Alpha Base, a lot of the negative feedback I found in Alpha Base threads were from 888 and 999 users. That is not to say that the Alpha Base did not have its own warts when released, because it did. However, the product is presently in a stable state.
My biggest complaint about the Alpha Base is its inability to nudge notes off the grid, but the issue is resolved with a secondary sequencer. The workflow is not as refined as Elektron products, but not major issue. Otherwise, it is a great drum machine for electronic music.
thanks. what’s it like for live use? that’s what drew me back to almost repurchasing a RYTM, but i just don’t get on with the sound
I’m more of a studio nut, but the Alpha Base should suffice for live performances. Several artist use it (i.e., Ben Damage off the top of my head). That said, I would lean towards the TR-8S if live performances are the primary use case.
Alpha Base because it sounds like a good Detroit vinyl
Gotharman Spazedrum because it sounds so weirdly organic and spits out the most unique patterns i’ve ever heard from a drum machine
would love to add a ARmk2 but i hate the file system. Can’t somebody just write an alternative OS with a simple great filesystem like an Electribe has?
Flux looks like an interesting departure from the XOX paradigm
…but… modular…
it’s “just” a sequencer, but FriendlyNoise produced some videos with some incredible human sounding beats.
Yeah, quite striking - no pun intended - first time I heard those demos
Haven’t owned an Alpha, but I’ve sync’d my Jomox XBase to OT sending master/midi for a couple of live shows, worked fine, esp since some of the old pots and buttons on the XBase are a bit squirrely after 20 years of age and use. Alpha Base has apparently been much more stable since its subsequent OS updates, I’d love to get one at some point, but it’s far down the GAS list. Going to focus solely on the RYTM for awhile, maybe the LXR-02 a bit for the next set of tracks. Perkons looks really fun too, the price is brutal though
oh god, the GAS is back. i really really need a new laptop for work. but i could have an Alpha Base. thanks guys
Just searched this topic and got no results for “Kimura Taro” so I’m obliged to link to these amazing Analog Four preset packs.
I think my favorite drum machine is an A4 with those drum sounds loaded up, especially the FM drums.
In practice, I end up using the Digitakt or Rytm more often (more tracks available, more versatile sound palette with samples, can retrigger, etc.) but man, I really love those A4 drum sounds.
get a second hand laptop and a second hand AB.
Was thinking about this for pulsar but not sure the voltage is right. Looks really interesting and Some of the examples are pretty cool.
i’ve had half a bottle of wine and decided that the Jomox Alpha Base is the one purchase that will make me happy, truly happy, for ever. no this really is the one
