hello


whats your favourite drum machine /-s or programmers for laying down beats.

MPC 3000, sampling, triger for reasons, Stylus. And I have a 10 year old library assembled on floppy and zip drive....lol

And it runs my entire midi studio set up ( most of the time) when I sequence

I find reason's Redrum and Fruity loops very quick and easy for drum programming. I don't have too much experience with the MPC side of things though.

MPC 4000....there's another thread talking about a new program called "Guru". Looks interesting.

I use Frooty Loops, Reason and Acid. If you mix all 3 together you can have some pretty interesting results.

Elektron Machinedrum

love at first sight.....will soon be mine !!

with the new 12bit sampling option, guess won´t never need a SP1200 or MPC60 again....

jomox xbase09

a pain to learn
but fatter than anything
easily

also EMU Mp-7
Korg ES1

My favorite... probably the MPC60II, or the 3000....

Fruity Loops rewired in PT - I also use an MPC as a door stopper in my Studio... heh

That's funny...you're not the only who uses thier MPC for that same purpose. This used to bug the hell out me. Just couldn't understand it. Lots of cool options these days though.

Hey Tony, what's the deal with the MPC60II and 3000. Many cats just won't let these units go. Am I missing out on something here?

For me, even though I don't really use it anymore, it was the cornerstone of the beats I made for a good 8-10 years. I just can't seem to part with it. The MPC60II was just so easy to sequence with and I fell in love with the sound of the sampler. I tracked all my old drum sounds into PT through Neve's/ API's and good converters... I captured all of those sounds that I had and loved and have them on my hard drive as wav files now. And, while I love the sequencer, I am so ITB now it's a waste to even turn it on. It will just slow me down.

Redrum

A lot of people are moving from MPC's to software.....that's cool....Yet I still don't feel software delivers when it comes to drums. First of all...feel. The feel of the sequencer on the MP is tight!! I mean really tight!! The time it takes for midi data to travel internally to its sampler is fast to say the least...no complex OS...complex GUI...multiple dataports i.e. usb etc...no complex processing...just tight drum sequencing! with a no bull**** interface and a great swing feel....all designed by Roger Lynn! Second, the envelopes....damn!! the MPC60/3000 envelopes are in my humble opinion the absolute best for drums...they are simple yet designed by Roger Lynn to sound just right on kicks, snares, hh and any perc sound....they really work, I have yet to find another device with envelopes that were so well suited for drums. You can take a long grimey snare an turn it into a snappy short snare keeping all its body in a way no other envelope can. Third, the sound...now that's debatable, with proper processing and if you know what you're doing I guess you can get hot drums outta anything...but for the record the MPC60/3000 sounds phat!! To keep things in perspective...even though it has been surpassed by a lot of other software/hardware in terms of technology its still commonly used by some of our favourite producers to this day....Dr.Dre....etc....By no means am I trying to come across like if you don't use the MP you don't know what you're doing...its just a matter of personal preference.....'cause at the end of the day, its all about making a hot beat...regardless of what you use.
Anyway...just my .02 cents

Yeah, after all these years, I'm really kicking myself for not getting into one of these long ago. There's tons of options today, but I'd really like to try one out. Be nice to get a good A/B comparisson vs. the 4000. I'm hittin' the east coast the winter....maybe we could hook up on some comparisson tests....Just a thought.



BTW-good post kwilliams...

I've owned:
Linndrum, Linn 9000s, Studio 440, MPC 60, MPC 60II.
I currently own (3) MPC-3000s. For me nothing faster than a Linn based machine.

NI Battery and Stylus RMX via Protools RTAS.

Thinking about getting the new "Trigger Finger", though I am very adept at using a keyboard.

My favourite drum machine is EMU's SP1200.Always fun and creative.Perhaps a little low on capability in a modern setting but that is also a strong bonus as I can forget everything else and just get into the beat for a while.
My one is a little old and the faders mis behave but it is still a vintage bit of beat box.
Logic+EX24 is just the best for general sampling and sequencing duties for me!!

I will also give some love to the sp, my favorite aswell, sounds really rugged and is a joy to program.

I recall DJ Muggs (Cypress Hill) using an SP12 with an ASR.
Not a bad return on his investment.

yup mpc 3000 here... one of the best purchases i ever made...

it quickly told my computer "move over son... i'll handle the drums..."

FWIW Roger Linn (a guitar player) is in the history books for creating the Linndrum, Linn 9000, MPC 60 series and the 3000. BTW he was not invlolved with the MPC 2000 which was actually based on the Akai 2000 series sampler.
These days he's creating guitar pedals and FX i.e AdrenaLinn.

I would venture this is the reason those units are so popular.

The AdrenaLinn 2 he makes is really cool - filter sequencing for guitar from Pluto, amp and FX sims as good as the POD. There are some priceless videos of him out there with a guitar, demoing the unit, going thrugh presets "this tone really rocks!!" .... hilarious.

I like:

MPC3000
Emu XL7
Gigastudio
Ableton Live 5

I use 2 mpc2kxls, S750, ESI4k, Drumstation, TR606, TR505 and a RY10.

On software its; FL5, Logic (audio no sequencer), EXS24, RMIV and since recently I got back on tracking with Madtracker2.5.

FWIW, i started off doing all my stuff in the box, and finally decided to go and buy an MPC to do the better part of my sequencing. I got the MPC1000, and also use the 60 and 3000, and i hooked my 5080 and TR Rack up to it. For me, the ease and speed of use with the MPC is a lot more conducive to my working than trying to build kits in the EXS24 within Logic and playing drums on a keyboard. And the timing and feel of the 60 and 3000 units are unmatched by anything, software or hardware (just my opinion). I just love the MPCs!!! Plus i would say 80-90% of hip hop records that i love were done with an MPC at some point, so you can't argue with the results.

MPC all the way. I have a mpc 1000 and planning to get either a mpc 60 or mpc 3000.also i like the raw 12 bit sound of the asr-10 and the sp 1200 is a beast

ahh the sp12, instant Wu Tang!!!! lol

seriously though, the timing on the SP12 is great too.

good post thumbsup im particularly interested in the grooves ppl talk about in the mpc series... anybody know if the new 1000 still has the lynn grooves? or is that exclusive to the 3000+4000 series? curious to know...also curious...if ableton live had mpc' groove templates, or more selectable templates would you guys use that for itb stuff,, i really like live for its on the fly programming approach, ive been practising all summer doing this on the fly composing/improvising thing... mainly practising in front of friends to get comfortable but soon i want to use this method live. thing that always gets me is the straigt up quantize or even the stock groove template.. its more of a 2 step groove than a hiphop or funk groove... i dont know how to do a beat i like step time with reason or fruity loops to me its not funky enough and sounds more like triphop or hop, only thing i can do for now is turn the damn quanitize off and go with my own feel.. then that sounds like proper timing..reason, fl, any sequencer with a normal grid quantize sounds like slowed down techno to me..
im not saying its wrong but i dont know how to make it sound good.. do you guys that use fl or reason move the start position of the samples around to make up for no groove? just curious

the only MPCs that had Linn's grooves are the MPC60 and the MPC 3000

I use my MPC3000 LE exclusively these days.
Along with a Prophet 2000 & Fatman synth.

Used to also have an SP-1200, Studio 440, Roland W-30, Emu EMAX Rack, Akai S950, Casoi RZ-1, Sequential TOM, plus other random units.
Needless to say, it all came down to my beloved MPC 3000 in the end & I sold off all the other gear.

Far as sound goes, SP-1200 & Studio 440 are my favs.
The 440 while very advanced for it's time & powerful, was just too klunky & buggy to really be my core unit, plus beats are a bit robotic on it & the pads sucked.
As much as it hurt to sell it, I had to... But, I replaced it with a Prophet 2000 (same sampler, sick filters galore, keyboard version, no sequencer).

The SP is a classic & by far the easiest to bang out beats with, but I can do much more with my MPC these days.
I miss mine.

I am seriously considering adding an Elektron MachineDrum (with sampling) to my setup though.
Or, possibly an MPC60ii with the upgrades to make it a 3000.

I want to keep my 3000le in the studio as my recording MPC & use a 12 bit combo for the preproduction.
So a 2nd machine would be nice.
I've never used a MachineDrum/Elektron, wondering how it is to make sample based beats on.
Far as I know, it's a step programmed sequencer only right, no velocity sens pad programming?
Or am I wrong - if I am wrong, then I'll really be tempted.
I'm also a bit skeptical of it sounding more lo-fi than an SP-12/1200, but man that'd be great if it does.
Keep in mind the original Emu EMAX rack units sound very similair if not more grimey than the SP's. That was a cool rack sampler.

who does this and how much $$ are we talkin???