Recording / drum machine recommendations

[LesPaulCustom]

<font color="yellow">I saw Shawn's post regarding the Boss DR-880, and while it looks awesome, it is way more than I need at this point in time.

I currently have a Boss DR-550 which is driving me insane!! It is hard to program and has a lot of different sounds/percussion that I will never use.

All I am really looking for is a good, reasonably priced ($250ish, can be used), drum machine which sounds good, is easily programmable, and doesn't have a lot of extra stuff which will never be utilized.

What are your recommendations??

I've heard that Boss and Alesis have good models, I don't know about Roland.

Thanks. </font>

[jgcable]

Re: Recording / drum machine recommendations

DR550MKII
Alesis SR16
an older Roland R8 Rhythm Composer (they are excellent). It has a human feel control that really makes the drums sound real.

[Mordor]

Re: Recording / drum machine recommendations

Take a look at the little zoom (mrt3 iirc) too.It should be very easy to program and dirty cheap.

[srommes]

Re: Recording / drum machine recommendations

I stated in Shawn's post that I used the DR660 for years. I'm not sure how different the interface is from the 550 to 660, but I thought the 660 was pretty user friendly. I know alot of people use to use the Alesis SR-16 also. You might want to look into something a little newer though if you want more realistic drum sounds.

[Jack Napalm]

Re: Recording / drum machine recommendations

I have a DR5 that I used to use. It wasn't easy to program until I found DR5 Edit. Once I had it I mainly just downloaed MIDI files of songs and converted them.

DR5 Edit

[Newc]

Re: Recording / drum machine recommendations

You will not find a drum unit that sounds good and doesn't have the extra stuff you won't use.
That's why those instruments are part of the General Midi spec [img]/images/graemlins/poke.gif[/img]

The SR16 is good for starters, but it really doesn't sound any better than my SB Live soundcard using a 4MB General Midi soundfont.
Of course, the SR16 is what, 10 years old now?

But like I said, it's good for starters.
They can be had on Ebay for about $120, and are worth that much at least. I paid almost $300 for mine new.

If you're willing to go higher for better sound, get an Alesis DM5 or DMPro. You'll have better sounds, but also have more programming to do to get a good sound (unless you find a sysex patch somewhere that has a great kit already set up), but it's worth it.

My ex-drummer had a drum kit that was modeled after Eric Carr's kit - the big double-bass kit with 13 toms, 12 cymbals, and four 24" long kicks that were bolted together in 48" long pairs. This thing sounded huge.
I rebuilt that kit in an Alesis QSR.
Obviously you'll need to run it from a MIDI interface, but a cheap soundcard-to-MIDI cable adaptor and a program like Guitar Pro is all you need.

[pro-fusion]

Re: Recording / drum machine recommendations

$250 gets you pretty close to used Boss DR-770 territory. I had one of those for awhile and got some decent stuff out of it. I have a DR-880 now and love it, but you obviously won't get one of those for $250--though the sounds are far and away the best I've ever heard in a drum machine.

[quiksilver]

Re: Recording / drum machine recommendations

Hey LPC, I am in the same, Shawn-initiated quandary. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

I would be willing to spend around $300-450 for a drum/bass machine that would let me practice, write songs, & create backing tracks.

I was going to get an M-Audio Black Box, but it has no bass. The Digitech GNX2000 looks cool, but I don't think it has been released yet. I saw an ad for a Zoom MRS-8 that looked interesting, and Shawn's post is putting a fire under me to get going on this acquisition. I have a Mac, so the Windows-oriented solutions wouldn't work for me.

So far, it's looking like the GNX2000, as I think it's geared toward guitar players who want simple solutions, and I think it's going to be pretty cheap.