I’m looking for a small drum machine to accompany my current setup. It needs to be pretty small, have some kind of sequencer and shouldn’t be too pricy
The Volca Beat seems as a pretty obvious choice, but I just wanted to check if there are other options.
The LXR and and an MFB drum machine together would cover a lot of ground (Digital drumsyth and tight analog sound from MFB). You can’t go wrong with either way because both have sequencers and sync up perfectly- the Nord Drum sounds great- but why would would anyone get a drum module except to trigger pads? Externally sequencing drum machines isn’t a replacement for triggering one yourself, and if you have to hook it up to your computer to get the most out of it…why not just use a computer? Nord drum plays samples, after all…
The Nord Drum does not play samples, it is a drum synthesiser and an extremely capable one at that. Both the ND1 and 2 are astonishingly vast in scope and sound great. They are extremely simple and fast to program and the ND2 in particular has great potential for designing traditional synth sounds and it’s eq per channel plus overdrive is very nifty to get your sounds sitting just right without external processors and mixers. It is my one and only drum, percussion, fx and hit synth, it does the lot. Plenty of people use a drum module without pads, the lack of sequencer is a pain but what other hardware drum synth fits in your cargo pocket and kicks serious frequencies about the place? It’s a drum synth, not a drum machine. Pair it with an OT and you can forget it…
