Drum Machine

[GocartMoz]

Hello,

I am somewhat a novice at recording. I tend to record demos with simple guitar and vocal tracks. I use a Tascam 8 track recorder. I want to include drums on my demos, but have absolutely no experience with drum machines, nor do I play drums. Can someone recommend a decent, fairly inexpensive drum machine that is also easy to use. A brief explanation as to how to use these machines are greatly appreciated as well. For those of you that use these machines, do you record the other tracks first and then lay the drum track? Is it difficult to set the appropriate rhythm on the drum machine and how would fills or changes in the rhythm be accomplished? Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Prometheus]

I use a PC based drum sequencer called Fruity Loops. The big advantage to it is that you can bounce each track, kick, snare, et cetera separately and treat them separately in the mix as you would with live drums.

The best piece of advice I can give you, based on what I was doing wrong at first, is not to over do it. I found myself making drum beats that no human could play in real life, and the situation was instantly improved when I started just making simple, solid, rock drum patterns.

The other thing I would say about drum machines, and this is just a personal thing, I used to try to make the drums sound as human as possible and it never worked. I found that the Sisters of Mercy approach of making the mechanical feel of the drums an integral part of the sound is the best way to go.

[Jim622]

Ive been using loops from Cakewalk - Sonic Realty or Groove Monkey

[Gabriel De Giacomi]

one way to make drums easy is to use some middi patterns...then playthrough a good drum vst..like ezdrummer or battery....this will give you cool and good drum sound!

here www.batterybeat.com you can find some full drum tracks to use in your songs!

Hope this help you!

[Gabriel De Giacomi]

Tunesmithth...i apreciate your concern of my position about publishing the site at all cost....you are right..i am pusshing it..and i apologize....i think that my website can help people who want to record over drums beats...that are dificult to make...today i made a video of how to custom the drum tracks because you are right about playing around a drum track that is static.....again...i apologize....hope you understand that i am not earning money with my site....i am loosing it...because y paid the hosting and the soundcloud subscription....hope the ads help me recover the loose (still 0$ of incomes)..but i am far far away of recover the amount of hours i spent doing the tracks and tacking the site online....again i apologize...and i`m not going to push my website again.....

to contribute in the topic...

i think that using midi patterns and then modified at you own taste..can allow you to make a personal drum track.....it consume lots of time..but with practice you can have nice results!

have a nice day!

[Prometheus]

Tools such as this one come with the implication that the drum part should come first and in my mind......that's simply NOT a good habit to get into.

Just to give a couple of counter examples, The Sisters Of Mercy and Underworld have both done very well with automated drums. Instead of trying to hide the fact that the drums were artificial, the Sisters of Mercy made the machine drums an integral part of their sound.

[Guest]

I just stumbled upon this thread ---six weeks later--- and decided to add my two cents.

I think it's apparent that the original poster is not using any software-based recording gear, so all the recommendations involving software-based solutions miss that person's needs.

GocartMoz, I'd steer you to a Roland/Boss product first, such as the Boss DR-880. Then again, I think you might be even better served by an Alesis SR-16. It's been around forever and is VERY inexpensive AND straightforward. Recommended... Or ---for a bit more--- the SR-18.

It's been ages since I shopped for a hardware drum machine, but I have a bunch and I love 'em. I currently own a Linn LM-1, an Oberheim DMX, and a Linn 9000. So I've been around these things since the early 80's.

All the best!

Edited February 3, 2013 by Skylark

[Prometheus]

The great advantage to drum machines is that they have very small egos and demand very low wages.  I don't like being dependent on other musicians, and the drums are the one instrument I've never learned to play to a decent level myself.  They don't sound anywhere near as versatile as a human drummer though.  They probably never will.

[KateSmith]

Fruity Loops will definitely help! Try it.  It's not difficult to know this program

[Ryan Halsey]

I offer drum recordings online and in my opinion a drum machine can never truly replicate the feel of a drummer but saying that you can achieve good results using samplers like superior drummer and addictive drums. If you needed any advice please get in touch.

 

Ryan

[Rudi]

Ryan & Tom,

 

Human drummers are the first casualty in home recording (then bassists), and I use sampled drums & loops too. But I value drummers above any other band component.

 

Sometimes, you cant find the right drums, and sometimes I cant program them either (not well anyway). So I'm glad I know a drummer or two.

 

On here, I'm glad you fellows are around too.

[drumguy4all]

I agree with Ryan, I am also a studio drummer that offers online drum tracks and you just can not program "feel" a non human played drum part sounds just like a non human played drum part. I understand you can adjust velocity and other settings to TRY and emulate the sound of a real drummer but you will never come close. If you buy some pre-made beat then you are bound to that beat and not really starting your song fom an original point. There are many great online drummers that provide quality drum tracks at a reasonable price so my suggestion would be to forgo buying pre-made beats or a drum sequencer and shop around for a real drummer. That is the best choice in my opinion if you want to make your song sound the best it possibly can.

http://www.drumsnpercussion.com

Edited February 27, 2014 by drumguy4all

[MikeRobinson]

Logic Pro X has some interesting "synthetic drummers" which are good at least as a placeholder in a recording – as are drum loops – but, of all the parts that are "most critical" to a recording, I would say that "drums are first, and the bass player is a close second."  These are the two performers who are going to provide the groove and the time.  They're also the ones who know how to watch you, and to adapt their performances to yours in real-time such that you always look good.

 

Try this sometime:  take an actual, live-performance recording, and set a metronome to it.  (Note:  this automatically excludes The Spice Girls as well as anyone who's actually playing "live" (sic) to a CD ...)  Sure, bands nearly always speed-up slightly on choruses and such, but, if you listen even to a song with a "driving, mechanical" beat ... it's not locked to that metronome.  The performers are cuing off of the drums, and the drummer is cuing off the performers, and the bassist is watching them both.  A drum machine can't do that.