Drum machines?

zepp76

What drum machines are people using to make music? (if using them at all). I would like to have a go at getting a couple of songs down that are in my head and am wondering if it's worth getting a drum machine to aid this. I wouldn't have much of a budget, say £250 max, is there anything out there new or used that would be useful (and easy to use me being slow on the tech side of things!). 

Keefy

You can still get the Alesis SR16 very cheap. It is fine if you just want to jam along to presets, but a pig to understand and program. Same goes for the SR18, which I have - it has the benefit of a backlit display.

If you have a DAW, download MT Power Drumkit (free, but a donation switches off the annoying startup message). You can audition and string together various phrases of different lengths, or use it to play back MIDI drum tracks.

Fretwired

What syle of music? What DAW do you use? Drum machines are OK (I have an ancient Zoom and a Boss one) but these days people tend to use plugins that use real samples. They sound better and are easier to use. There are also add-on packs with more loops, styles, MIDI files and drum kits. For example:

Addictive Drums 2 - there's the basic product plus you can buy add-on drum kits.

Basic product:

https://www.xlnaudio.com/products/addictive_drums_2

EZ Drummer 2 - you can try it free for ten days

https://www.toontrack.com/product/ezdrummer-2/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIuN_f7am44AIVTrvtCh0vvwh-EAAYASAAEgKunPD_BwE

BDF3 - another excellent product

https://www.fxpansion.com/products/bfd3/

zepp76

Thank you for your replies, I don't have a DAW at the moment as I am new to all this so any advice (put very simply please as I'm a simpleton when it comes to these things!) on what I should get/be doing will be greatly appreciated.
would it be worth getting a cheap 4/8 track system to practice with? As I said I'm an absolute beginner when it comes to recording so if you kind people could possibly list the bare essentials that would be most welcome, thank you.

Musicwolf

The problem, when you are starting out is that you don't know where you will end up so we all waste time, and money, buying and learning to use gear that we subsequently outgrow and discard.

I don't know your budget, or what you may already own in terms of a PC / MAC / IPad etc, but I would strongly recommend the DAW route and use a plug-in for drums.  The learning curve may be a bit steeper but the sounds / capabilities are far superior.  I started out with drum machines (this would be back in the 80s) and I'd already upgraded before I got to the SR16 mentioned previously.  I could programme it, and I got some ok results, but these days I use Superior Drummer 3 and I can put together a convincing drum track in the fraction of the time that it would take programming a machine.  Being able to pull in grooves from a library is also a great way to start / try different styles (it's like having a real drummer there who does something that you weren't expecting but which improves the track).

If you already have a fairly up to date PC then you just need an audio interface and some DAW software.  Many of the audio interfaces are bundled with a cut down version of a DAW and many of the DAWs come complete with drum plug-in.  There are DAWs such as Reaper which good and very cheap.

Fretwired

zepp76 said:

Thank you for your replies, I don't have a DAW at the moment as I am new to all this so any advice (put very simply please as I'm a simpleton when it comes to these things!) on what I should get/be doing will be greatly appreciated.
would it be worth getting a cheap 4/8 track system to practice with? As I said I'm an absolute beginner when it comes to recording so if you kind people could possibly list the bare essentials that would be most welcome, thank you.

Do you have a PC? I'd get a DAW. There are people on here that use Reaper which is free but can be upgraded at a low cost. If you buy a low cost interface, such as a Steinberg UR unit you get a free cut down version of Cubase. What can you do with it? There are tutorials online which show a whole track being created. Looks daunting but it's quite easy - you can then join in the music tasks on the forum ... first video

zepp76

I have a laptop with 1tb of memory but only 2gb of RAM, will that be enough for my needs?

Musicwolf

The RAM could be a bit of an issue depending upon the DAW / Drum plug-in.  Generally, the more RAM that you have the more plug-ins (either effects or instruments) you can run.  I upped my RAM from 8GB to 16GB shortly after installing Superior Drummer 3.0 and it made a huge difference to the way that I work (this was a desk top machine so installing the RAM myself was very easy).

Freebird

Since we are talking about drum machines, D16 do some decent Roland software clones

 https://d16.pl/products

And Behringer are releasing some cheap (but highly anticipated) hardware TR-808 & TR-909 clones.

If you are looking for accoustic drum software, here is a cheaper option that hasn't been mentioned ($150)

https://theperfectdrums.com

Personally, I use Superior Drummer 3, which is on another level. I like the Roland software emulations for synthetic drums, and I also have a NI Maschine hardware unit. Addictive Drums and EZdrummer are quite handy for prototyping songs, so lots of choice out there!

Modellista

zepp76 said:

What drum machines are people using to make music? (if using them at all). I would like to have a go at getting a couple of songs down that are in my head and am wondering if it's worth getting a drum machine to aid this. I wouldn't have much of a budget, say £250 max, is there anything out there new or used that would be useful (and easy to use me being slow on the tech side of things!). 

One way to go might be to get a cheap obsolete drum machine and a stereo looper.  This would be a decent solution for jamming out a few songs.  Plug the drum machine into one channel of the looper and guitar into the other.  With an octave pedal you've got drums, bass and guitar.  With a bit of finger drumming practice you should be able to loop the drums and then layer stuff on top.  Not the same as a proper recording setup but you could still record even if it's just phone in front of amp.

Basically it depends if you want a proper recording setup or a live jamming rig.  The former better if you've got full songs all planned out, the latter better if you've a few musical ideas that you want to try and and see where they take you.  Also it's a lot more fun than clicking a sodding mouse all over the place.

You could go Boss DR-550 into Ditto Stereo.  With patience you could get both for £100.

zepp76

Modellista said:

zepp76 said:

What drum machines are people using to make music? (if using them at all). I would like to have a go at getting a couple of songs down that are in my head and am wondering if it's worth getting a drum machine to aid this. I wouldn't have much of a budget, say £250 max, is there anything out there new or used that would be useful (and easy to use me being slow on the tech side of things!). 

One way to go might be to get a cheap obsolete drum machine and a stereo looper.  This would be a decent solution for jamming out a few songs.  Plug the drum machine into one channel of the looper and guitar into the other.  With an octave pedal you've got drums, bass and guitar.  With a bit of finger drumming practice you should be able to loop the drums and then layer stuff on top.  Not the same as a proper recording setup but you could still record even if it's just phone in front of amp.

Basically it depends if you want a proper recording setup or a live jamming rig.  The former better if you've got full songs all planned out, the latter better if you've a few musical ideas that you want to try and and see where they take you.  Also it's a lot more fun than clicking a sodding mouse all over the place.

You could go Boss DR-550 into Ditto Stereo.  With patience you could get both for £100.

@Modellista  Thank you for the suggestion, it sounds like it could work. Basically the less time I spend on a computer the better, I really am not very good with computers so a simple set up would be perfect for me. 

Fretwired

If you want a drum machine I have a Boss DR 880 if you're interested. It is all all in one unit .. it can handle drums, bass and guitar (it has Boss COSM amp models).

https://www.boss.info/us/products/dr-880/

zepp76

Fretwired said:

If you want a drum machine I have a Boss DR 880 if you're interested. It is all all in one unit .. it can handle drums, bass and guitar (it has Boss COSM amp models).

https://www.boss.info/us/products/dr-880/

Thank you for the offer but I've ended up going with the Alesis SR18.

Fretwired

zepp76 said:

Fretwired said:

If you want a drum machine I have a Boss DR 880 if you're interested. It is all all in one unit .. it can handle drums, bass and guitar (it has Boss COSM amp models).

https://www.boss.info/us/products/dr-880/

Thank you for the offer but I've ended up going with the Alesis SR18.

No problem .. enjoy.