Recording Your Drum Machines

Gringo Starr · 11th January 2012

From reading many posts here about drum machines I began to wonder if people use them directly to record with. It seems like whenever I read something about how someone got this kick sound or that snare sound it's always mentioned that many different samples were taken to make one sound. So that made me want to ask you guys how you typically record drums. Especially the people here with hardware drum machines. Do you program the beat on the drum machine and then record it or do you guys just make samples from your drum machines and make hybrid drum sounds? I've always worked with real drummers and have yet to ever record anything with a drum machine. I actually don't own one(well.. a good one) except an SR-16 that I've only used as a metronome and nothing more.

I have an Octatrack and I was thinking about getting a Tempest for the past year but I can't say that I've been impressed with anything I've seen or heard from the Tempest. Does it make sense to spend $1,000+ on a drum machine these days or should I just invest in these sample packs?

Greg_KPX · 11th January 2012

If the final drum sound and "quick result" is most important, go the samples...

If jamming and the creative process takes precedence, or you have the extra time to work with the source instrument then go the drum machine.

djugel · 11th January 2012

I like a little overdrive on a cheap analog Yamaha or Mackie mixer sometimes..

minibof · 11th January 2012

Bit of both worlds here...

I've owned a MDUWmkii since they came out and I use it frequently but it has other uses than just as a straight up drum-tone generator. I find myself using it in unexpected and creative ways quite often (you can't do with sampled-hits what the CTR-AL machine does or the internal resampling machines).

For straight up punchy and tight-sounding drums I like samples, but more often use D16 drum machines, sometimes Microtonic and on the odd occasion Battery.

PS have you uploaded good drum samples to the Octa and how does it sound? MD has a much lower sample rate than the Octa I believe so I'm guessing sampled drums would sound pretty nice on the Octa?

11th January 2012	#1
Gringo Starr Lives for gear Joined: Jul 2008 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 614 Thread Starter	Recording Your Drum Machines From reading many posts here about drum machines I began to wonder if people use them directly to record with. It seems like whenever I read something about how someone got this kick sound or that snare sound it's always mentioned that many different samples were taken to make one sound. So that made me want to ask you guys how you typically record drums. Especially the people here with hardware drum machines. Do you program the beat on the drum machine and then record it or do you guys just make samples from your drum machines and make hybrid drum sounds? I've always worked with real drummers and have yet to ever record anything with a drum machine. I actually don't own one(well.. a good one) except an SR-16 that I've only used as a metronome and nothing more. I have an Octatrack and I was thinking about getting a Tempest for the past year but I can't say that I've been impressed with anything I've seen or heard from the Tempest. Does it make sense to spend $1,000+ on a drum machine these days or should I just invest in these sample packs?

11th January 2012	#2
Greg_KPX Gear addict Joined: May 2006 Posts: 413	If the final drum sound and "quick result" is most important, go the samples... If jamming and the creative process takes precedence, or you have the extra time to work with the source instrument then go the drum machine. __________________ http://soundcloud.com/gregorys http://www.musicgearnuts.com/

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11th January 2012	#3
djugel Lives for gear Joined: Dec 2010 Posts: 2,725 1 Review written	I like a little overdrive on a cheap analog Yamaha or Mackie mixer sometimes..

11th January 2012	#4
minibof Gear maniac Joined: Oct 2009 Posts: 198	Bit of both worlds here... I've owned a MDUWmkii since they came out and I use it frequently but it has other uses than just as a straight up drum-tone generator. I find myself using it in unexpected and creative ways quite often (you can't do with sampled-hits what the CTR-AL machine does or the internal resampling machines). For straight up punchy and tight-sounding drums I like samples, but more often use D16 drum machines, sometimes Microtonic and on the odd occasion Battery. PS have you uploaded good drum samples to the Octa and how does it sound? MD has a much lower sample rate than the Octa I believe so I'm guessing sampled drums would sound pretty nice on the Octa?