Analog Four
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Not a bad choice!
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Big fan of the Rytm, its huge to have the synths and samples in the same box and individual outs are key for me, that’s what always puzzled me about the Nord drums, they just have the stereo out, right? One of the Nord leads or Nord modulars could be a good bet- those each (except the Nord lead 1 or micromodular) have four assignable outs. The Nord lead 2 has a special percussion mode also!
Also drum machines worth looking at:
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Yeah, I think it’s an interesting discussion and was trying to arbitrarily narrow things down to something like “money was not a question and you wanted to narrow various percussion machines down to just a few, what would be in your arsenal?” based on the preferences of others, not expecting to have one box to do everything or for people to tell me what to buy myself 
There’s plenty of “high end spare no expense” synths, but what that means for percussion is a bit more ambiguous due to the more complicated functionalities and workflows expected over oscillator and filter components (and faithful devotion to x0x legacy among many machines)
Some slight information to provide on my own opinions but hopefully not guiding too much, what I like is less important 
- Eurorack I have some modules for but will likely clear those out but keep modulation sources + a few clocks.
- Rytm is great, Cycles I don’t think I’ll part with even if the Digitone can do most of it without the crunchy gainstaging.
- A4 mkii a strong consideration. I didn’t use it for melodics but think it’d be used well for perc.
- The Nord Drums are awesome for synthesis but not knobby enough for my brain.
- For digital I suppose I can look into the Machinedrum as well, the LXR-02 I didn’t connect with immediately but will put a bit more effort into the demos.
+1 Gotharman SpazeDrum
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a short list of weird and quirky drum machines
AVP Synth ADS-7 Analog Drum Synthesizer
AVP Synth MAD-5
Audiothingies DoubleDrummer
Yamaha RX11
The drums on the Mutable Instruments Anushri
KAWAI XD-5
Yamaha DX-200
Jomox Alpha Base
MFB Tanzbär 2
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I had the same thoughts and this video from Knobs was very interesting to watch, because it is asking the same questions. He is explaining his decision process, which I found very interesting and something that gave me new thoughts. Maybe it is interesting for you too.
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Sure! I’m always up for a rethinking. I doubt I’ll ever give up the Cycles, though having multiple volcas and POs is something I’m trying to sidestep ;p
Spare no expense surely includes modular.
I’m intrigued by IOLabs Flux rhythm sequencer paired with your drum module(s) of choice
Website promises restock soon
https://www.iolabs.co.uk/
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Pulsar is an amazing and diverse bunch of sound sources, but I wouldn’t equate that with flexibility. IMO Rytm is the only one really going after that, or at least successfully, and it isn’t perfect (didn’t keep mine).
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Oh darn you, it DOES theoretically but i’m trying to keep my sequencing either grooveboxy with Elektron style p-locks or kept to syncopated clocks (ala ADDAC403 - ADDAC400 Series - Modules - Products - ADDAC System | Instruments for Sonic Expression )
Modular is too much of a money and time sinkhole to me in general.
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From the Flux FAQ:
If I use Flux, will I be better at making 909 patterns than Jeff Mills?
Yes.*
*Flux may not enable you to defeat Jeff Mills in a 909 competition.
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I have a mkii, some of the voices are more interesting to me than others. I think i probably need to spend more time on what it is after using the Rytm and Cycles for such super varied sounds.
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My “spare no expense drum machine” is actually two drum machines - a Machinedrum UW MKii + Vermona DRM1 combo. This combo lets me do pretty much anything I want as far as drums go and they are both incredibly unique. It helps that I got the MD used right before the massive price increase so the total amount paid for both of them is less than a RYTM Mkii.
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The Tempest is essentially 6 monosynths in a box, each with tons of modulation. It has the ability to save all settings as a “sound” on 1 pad and with two banks of sounds on 16 pads, you have access to 32 presets instantly and can sequence any of them. So if you like the modular approach to making drum sounds, imagine doing that without all the cables. In this regard, the Tempest is truly amazing and really unmatched.
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Sounds like an A4 to me?
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Would love to try one. But prices aren’t really going down:(
Makes sense I guess.
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Right now I’m using an AR2, and overall I’m pretty happy. If I were to start over though, I think I’d buy one of various Akai MPC Live machines, as I mostly tend to use drum samples.