Do Any Of You Use Old Drum Machines Because They Don't Sound Like Real Drums?

[rolandjuno6]

I do. I reckon if I am going to use a drum machine I might as well use a drum machine that sounds like a drum machine rather than real drums. Most of what I record I record by myself on my own recording equipment. I play guitar, lap steel, bass, organ, electric sitar, and synthesizers. But I don't play drums. Early on I didn't use drums. Instead I played percussive patterns on my guitar to take up the space of drums. I found that acoustic archtops work well for that.

I have an Alesis SR16 that I don't use very much because it sounds too much like a drum machine trying to sound like real drums. But it does trigger the arpeggiator on my Juno-6. Sometimes I use an overdrive or fuzz box with the SR16 to make it sound nastier. Mostly though I just use it to trigger my Juno-6.

Over the past few months I have been collecting older drum machines when I can find them and they don't cost a whole lot. The first one I got was a Casiotone 501, an early wood panel Casio keyboard with a particularly old school sounding drum machine. I like that one a lot. The keyboard isn't bad either.

Another favorite is the Electro Harmonix DRM-15 Digital Rhythm Matrix which not only doesn't sound like real drums but sounds rather robotic. Unfortunately it does not trigger the arpeggiator on my Juno-6. I also dig the Space Drum on it.

The Super Drums on my Casiotone MT-205 are pretty cool too. Surprisingly the drums on the MT-205 trigger the arpeggiator on my Juno-6.

Lately I have been messing around with my newly acquired Korg PSS-50 Super Section which also does bass lines and chords. It is pretty cheesy. But I dig it. Unfortunately it does not trigger the arpeggiator on my Juno-6. But it has a lot of interesting sounds.

My Roland MC-303 Groovebox is pretty craptastic. I usually set it to 808 or 909 drums and use the tap tempo to get it in time with things I have recorded. Sometimes it works in a very musical way and sometimes it doesn't. It has a few sound effects that I use sometimes.

Any day now I should be receiving a Korg DDD-1 in the mail.

[Diametro]

Free your mind ... Focus on the concept of PERCUSSION ...

[JonDose]

ez drummer brah

[pr0gr4m]

This being the Electronic Music section, I'd venture a gues that most ppl here use drum machines (new or old) because they don't sound like real drums. I know I do.

A couple of my favs are the Akai XR-10 and Roland TR-505.

[shadowfac]

I love drum machines but I don't have the money or space to have a decent collection, so I bought an MPC-500 and loaded it with thousands of samples from classic old machines and that works fine. It takes a bit of time to set up kits and stuff, but 95% of the sounds are there and it's very easy to combine sounds from different machines.

[Kerzwhile]

Absolutely!! I don't necessarily use it for drums though! I consider them for their unique percussion qualities! Kinda like how the Prophet 5 brass sound doesn't really sound like brass but more of an audible orgasm out of a machine!!

[AJ Reynolds]

Do Any Of You Use Old Drummers Because They Don't Sound Like Real Drum Machines?

i like real drum machines and fake drummers.
software drum machines do have the same punch and it's hard to control real drummers.

[herokiller]

Dunno about the rest of you but I've been trying to crank out ultra-realistic drum sounds from my 808 for years now. Just what am i doing wrong?!?!

[fanriffic]

Originally Posted by herokiller

Dunno about the rest of you but I've been trying to crank out ultra-realistic drum sounds from my 808 for years now. Just what am i doing wrong?!?!

cheap converters..not enough analog in them..try running it through some 48bit analog MIDI....and tell me they're not the realisticist drums ever!

[networkacid]

Originally Posted by herokiller

Dunno about the rest of you but I've been trying to crank out ultra-realistic drum sounds from my 808 for years now. Just what am i doing wrong?!?!

Mic it up, hit it on the side with a drum stick and presto! You got your self a rimshot :D

[alexp]

Between the classic 606 808 909 machines, I use a couple old drum brains and a Pearl Syncussion, and I can pretty much get any amazing old sound I need!!!

ps whats a drummer?? Is that someone that programs a drum machine?


alexP

[rolandjuno6]

I didn't necessarily start using older drum machines specifically because they don't sound like humans playing acoustic drums. But I think that my Alesis SR16, which kind of sounds like acoustic drums, lacks character. And I don't think I have enough of a drummer's mind to program it in a way that it more closely resembles a human drummer.

I started exploring the world of more robotic sounding drum machines after I started messing around with various keyboards and synthesizers. I bought a Yamaha YC-20 combo organ. And as I got more into it I started looking around for other keyboards I thought I would have some fun with. One of the things I got was a particularly cool looking wood grain Casiotone 501. One of the nice surprises on the Casio was its drum machine which sounds a lot like the drum machines on home entertainment organs. This led to seeking out other older drum machines. And I just found myself more attracted to the drum machines that sounded more electronic and/or robotic. And I think that those more electronic sounds fit more with the kinds of goofy shit I record by myself.

My thought is that if I am going to use a drum machine it might as well sound like a drum machine rather than an imitation of a human drummer. When I play live I almost always play with a human drummer. But for the more electronic stuff I record at home I prefer more electronic and somewhat old sounding drum machines.

[Reptil]

Originally Posted by Diametro

Free your mind ... Focus on the concept of PERCUSSION ...

+1

[rachel]

The main difference between a real drummer and a drum machine is that
you only have to punch the information into a drum machine once.


I used to try to go for the realistic drum sound when I first started music back
in the 80's and now, retrospectively realise it was a waste of time. Synth drums,
drum synth, it doesn't have to sound real just good....


rachel

[GrantB]

To the OP, you should be able to get some unrealistic sounds out of the SR-16 by radically detuning the samples. I haven't used one for quite a while now, but this works on most rompler drum machines.

[nofi]

yeah, from what I've seen it's all about the options and the incongruity of mechanical/organic aspects that you can make happen when you're not stuck to a single way of working.

TR-808 has been my favourite drum machine for years, it's totally awesome in a non-drummer kind of way, both in the amazing sound quality of all the instruments that fit together so beautifully as a whole, and the rock solidness of the beat grid (even a swung beat grid when you feed it swung dinsync). But what makes it really work is when this is happening alongside the natural and organic drift in how the drums (kick especially) sound from hit to hit.. I've never really liked sample based machines because they are right on the beat like an 808 but sound exactly the same every time. seems to get a bit tiring or something.


but on the other hand, Just this week I had my eyes opened by a friend of mine who is an electronic producer but also an amazing drummer - I got an mpc3000 the other day mostly because he uses one, and does some amazing work with it, and I wanted to get me some of that action...

Anyway, he came over to have a play with my new machine and show me some tricks, and the one really cool thing I learned from watching him is that even though the mpc is using static samples and loops exactly the same from loop to loop, he was playing in beats by hand at max timing resolution, and rather than something I'd do that would rely on quantising to a grid and then using a swing setting to make things swing, he just managed to play stuff in funky way and built up the most amazing beats in a rigid loop with rigid samples that still breathed because all the parts had their own swing amounts and swing positions. Was very humbling to watch.

so yeah... now I gotta get me some of that spot on pad playing coordination, and talented drummer rhythmic feel stuff. unfortunately it's not available anywhere on ebay. Does anyone know where I can buy some??

[shadowfac]

Originally Posted by nofi

I've never really liked sample based machines because they are right on the beat like an 808 but sound exactly the same every time. seems to get a bit tiring or something.

Some drum machines and samplers let you add random variations in pitch/level/cutoff to each hit. Others have a sample&hold LFO that can sync to the clock and give you those variations.

Or, you can also modulate stuff with velocity, and then play everything by hand instead of just making a 2-bar loop. Even if you quantize later, the slight variations in velocity will make the result less static. To make it even less static you can assign different samples to different velocity ranges. It takes a bit of work, but it pays.

Also, varying the sample start point at each hit produces interesting results.