Subject:Thinking about getting a drum machine

Posted by: toochill

Date:10/13/2005 6:27:33 AM

I use acid pro 5 and i was thinking about getting this drum machine for like $130 dollars. would it be a good investment to get it or should i just focus on getting more acid loops instead? thanks

Subject:RE: Thinking about getting a drum machine

Reply by: drbam

Date:10/13/2005 6:37:43 AM

You can buy a lot of drum loops for $130!

There are some very good "drum machine" type VST instruments that you can use with Acid 5 as well. Bottom line is that you would have MANY more options available staying in the Acid realm. That being said, the questions I have are: which would you use more? enjoy more? Which would increase and support your inspiration and productivity? The answer to these questions will tell you what to do.

drbam

Subject:RE: Thinking about getting a drum machine

Reply by: DKeenum

Date:10/13/2005 9:12:28 AM

I have a drum machine (Alesis SR), but I never use it. I'd rather just fire up the computer.

Subject:RE: Thinking about getting a drum machine

Reply by: Iacobus

Date:10/13/2005 10:28:41 AM

I was thinking about Native Instruments' Battery 2 myself (which is essentially a drum sampling VSTi). Easy enough to use, even for a non-MIDI person like me. Flexible too, as you can load just about any sample you want in addition to the libraries they give you.

Iacobus
-------
RodelWorks - Original Music for the Unafraid
Buy Instant ACID by JohnnyRoy and mD!
mD at ACIDplanet

Subject:RE: Thinking about getting a drum machine

Reply by: djHSL

Date:10/14/2005 2:35:32 AM

I bought uTonic (microTonic). It is probably a good product, but I'm not clever/creative enough to make good use of it.

ACID loops, or loops extracted from other tracks and modified, have given me more success.

Subject:RE: Thinking about getting a drum machine

Reply by: coolout

Date:10/14/2005 4:24:56 PM

microtonic is unique in that it's a modeled analog drum machine...kind of like waldof's attack with a built in pattern seqencer. it has it's own sound which is a blessing and a curse.

battery is alright but the real business is fxpansion's GURU.

GURU is more of a complete package and can be used as a standalone drum machine or VSTi in acid. it's basically a virtual Akai MPC.

check it out: http://fxpansion.com/product-guru-main.php

Subject:RE: Thinking about getting a drum machine

Reply by: Cheameup

Date:10/16/2005 4:37:48 PM

In my opinon one word REASON . It has a great drum machine and all the other features as well .

Subject:RE: Thinking about getting a drum machine

Reply by: DKeenum

Date:10/19/2005 6:54:54 AM

I use Reason. I use it a lot, and I'd recomend it... but it's much more than a drum machine. Just check out the demo.

Subject:RE: Thinking about getting a drum machine

Reply by: toochill

Date:10/19/2005 7:27:18 AM

Is it easy to use? i tried using fruity loops and i didn't find it user friendly. also what is the latest version of reason and price? thanks

Subject:RE: Thinking about getting a drum machine

Reply by: coolout

Date:10/20/2005 4:54:30 PM

if you thought fruity wasn't user-friendly then you SHOULD NOT get reason.

reason has decent synths and is a good all-in-one package but the redrum module is not the best solution for drums IMHO. it's quick and comes with a bunch of drum samples but doesn't have the features of a dedicated drum machine like GURU...plus it's double the price.

don't get me wrong if you do mostly electronic music, own alot of REX files, or just need to make a track really quick, then reason is a good choice...but the redrum itself is not worth 400 bucks.

Right now I don't think there anything that has the features and flexiblity of a dedicated drum machine like GURU.

it can be used as a vsti in acid or standalone.

has it's own sequencer with groove quantize.

the velocity controls are done right.

you can actually trigger the pads with velocity using just the mouse. the closer you click to the center of the pad the louder the sound.

if you trigger with a midi keyboard the drum pads, transport, and scenes for playing different patterns are already mapped to the keys.

it can automatically slice a drum loop and map each hit to a pad while determining if it's a kick, snare, hihat, or percussion.

GURU pretty much the only REAL drum machine (in the traditional sense) on the market right now. battery is just a drum sample player and the microtonic only does purely electronic sounds.