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DrumMachines
My old band mate is moving from digital (all synths and software ) to analog where I am doing the opposite. This afforded me a unique opportunity
I was very interested in the Roland T-8 because the S-1 is top class, especially for the price. But I cannot afford one (maybe a Christmas gift if anything) at the moment nor can I justify paying $225 for another physical hardware module when I have so many drum machine apps (at least 5: hammerhead, pulse, beat scholar, glitchscaper ,playbeat). $225 for a single machine vs $25 total for 5 pieces of software is a big difference , especially if I’m not great at using the devices as it is so why struggle with a synth and synth drum machine . I’ve only been at this seriously since February but I’ve tried self production for years on windows (switched to iOS with the m1 iPad)
So my buddy is getting rid of his Volca ($100 obo) drum or he is willing to trade me for my old boss pedal I am not using anymore. A good buddy on here said it’s a good trade, and I agree , it’s totally fair so I’ll probably take it. But I wanted to just ask what you guys thought of drum machines in as far as hardwares goes and how do you guys like the sub $500 machines? Which are your favorite and what about them makes you prefer them over the other. Does anyone use their Volca even with Audio Units?
I was going to make this just a Volca drums vs Roland T-8 thread but I didn’t want to limit anyone’s input on how they feel about hardware vs software drummer and if you use both, or if you dropped one for the other and why as well
But while on the topic , if anyone has played with both Volca and t8, please offer a comparison . I’m curious to know what they share in common, how they differ and what are key differences for each
The Volca is really cool but it isn’t user friendly. From what I’ve seen and experience Roland Aira series is not just feature packed to the brim but it’s also easy to use.
The one thing about Volca I like a lot is the randomizer, which wasn’t common when I grew up with my old Boss drum machine. Also, gravitas made the editor for it in dRambo which is kind of huge because Momo has an editor but it’s not for iOS/iPadOS so not only is it for all OS but it’s native to dRambo made by perhaps the best dRambo artist and user (gravitas). I think that’s having a huge influence because I can adjust the sound and drums from within dRambo (and the automation is saved too).
Opinion side bar: Basically should I just keep the Volca and learn/work with it; or should I just play with it a little , realize my limitations, and go back to my software lol I’m not attached to the pedal but I also don’t want to go down a rabbit hole racking up hardware and the S-1 was a gateway . I swore I wouldn’t buy anything else until I made a full album of good material (but does trading used gear count as GAS?)
Some of you may be saying, “hey Chris, why don’t you stick to your music making instead of this?” And to them I would say “your right, but that’s not your concern” lol j/k, no I would say “your right but I am trying to make my drums better so if this would be a useful and consistent tool, I would like to keep it.”
So any drum machine fans here care to weigh in? Should I stick to my iOS drum machines or should I seize an opportunity for a cool piece of hardware (that’s in really great condition compared to my pedal)?
PS why did korg make it 6 piece kits when almost every drum machine is 8-16 pieces?
Comments
Side note, I’m a Master percussionist
and former pro drummer so the title
caught my eye.
Keep the Volca drum as you’re learning
a lot from getting it to communicate with
the rest of your physical gear.
It is a fun machine but it is a bit awkward.
In regards to the dRambo editor,
I’ve added a few embellishments
since the Patchstorage version
which will include a randomiser
and I have a few dRambo projects
that I’ve been putting together
for drums, more on that later.
My advice?
Get a midi controller such as the
Akai LPD8 mk2 or the Akai MPD218.
It’ll give you the feel of a drum machine
and you can map the notes and controls
to almost all of the drum apps that
you already have.
I personally opted for a Launchpad X
and LaunchControl XL combo because
they almost cover all of what I need.
The Korg Volca was a donation because
of the amount of support and troubleshooting I’ve done for @sigma79 .
And thank you for the compliment.
You got my attention too… but I’m from the era of wooden hoops with metal rims and cymbals and the hi-hat. Roland put us less talented drummers on the breadline and invented Hip Hop.
My advice would be to use real hardware because the audience won’t think you are in the band with a phone or iPad unless you hide it in a slew of hardware buttons like @gravitas does. They need to see you changing knobs and tapping. In general hardware stands up to more live surprizes.
Have you been to a party where the DJ has 2 iPhone loaded with a song player app and a powered PA? The DJ label goes back to the era of the radio music host but without commercials or commentary. Google Wolfman Jack .
Absolutely well deserved
Sorry if the title is misleading but it attracted the right people!
I’m a “semi-percussionist” but not like your level gravitas, nor probably you McD; I just play the Arabic tabla/darbuka. I can do all odd rhythms you can imagine but I can’t call myself a percussionist proper. I just play darbuka in the folk fashion as you’ve heard with my korg pa 500 ORT. I’ll keep it based on your feedback but also the editor lol
Would my midi controller work ? It has 8 pressure pads? The Arturia Minilab? Maybe I can use that meanwhile ; but I’m going to keep the Volca; maybe get the novation down the road if my workflow picks up to the pace?
sigma feel free to weigh in because you’re a very serious force too : you know your stuff . Your posts are parsed weird but you know what you’re doing. Thanks for sharing with iOS and gravitas /dRambo.
Good call; (American graffiti ?) I’m with you; nothin can beat synergy of a guitarist and drummer right!? But that era is gone almsot
You’re right though; there is. Difference in vibe when it comes to seeing/feeling hardware versus all digital performances ….even on social media (starfarer is great)
It caught my eye for a similar reason, although I would say I’m more accurately described as a mediocre drummer.
Maybe update the thread title to note that it is drum machines @dreamcartel ?
You got it
I love drum machines ever since I got a Yamaha RX-21 in the late 80s.
My current main drum machine is an Arturia Drumbrute Impact. I love it.
There’s something very tactile about a hardware drum sequencer with real buttons and knobs and stuff.
You can tweak the sounds as you go really easily and without friction and mute/solo parts, punch in new hits, use the roller turn up randomise per part or globally… it’s fun.
I also like using it to write midi into logic and ‘playing’ the drum machine live and recording the midi and audio at the same time gives lots of options. I recorded this track using the Drumbrute and pretty much played the drum machine ‘live’ as I recorded it in:
Do I need a drum machine? Nah. Not at all. It was a Xmas present which I’d probably not have bought myself but it’s a lot of fun. Hardware synths and drums are a total luxury in many ways but they can also be very rewarding.
The track above could just as easily have been done with samples but I enjoyed making it and that’s all that really matters to me personally. It would have been different, a bit, but nobody would care either way. :-)
The Volca Drum is one of my favorite pieces of hardware I’ve ever owned, even compared to more expensive things. It’s just fun and unique and sounds great. It also pairs really well with the equally fantastic Volca Sample.
Imo for the price the best drum machine out right now is the Roland TR-6S. Has all the classic Roland sounds plus sample import, and an FM percussive synth that can get really weird. The TR-8S has as all this plus 2 extra channels.
That said, a drum pad controller plus DrumComputer (or what you have now) could get you just as far. Honestly overall the iPad is probably the best drum machine you can get lol
Yeah you’re not wrong. iPad + iElectribe is a ton of fun for example and still one of my favourites after all these years. I don’t even care about no auv3 support anymore. I just like playing it like a hardware drum machine.
And dm-1 is still one of my favourites on iPhone for the same reason. Just load it up, forget about songs or daws or anything else, just jam.
I like the ‘proper’ drum machine apps like iElectribe still but when it comes to actually making tracks I tend to just use auv3s. I am loving the new blipbox.
But I’m still glad I’ve got a Drumbrute. :-)
Your right @HotStrange The iPad definitely is the best drum machine you can have.
With that said I love this Volca for just jamming with the S-1 so far. With the sync cables it’s like Ableton sync so it stays in time
Great track @klownshed …you did all that on finger drums? Very impressive . I’m starting to like the korg for the synthesizer drum sound (like blipbox I could imagine or Glitchscaper or FAC)
Actually the Volca drum is sort of like Glitchscaper now that I think about it
It’s like klownshed said, and mcd, just something about hardware physically used is something nice, and reminds me of what I’m used to
How do you records your Volca? 3.5 to dual mono TS splitter /cable to two instrument tracks for stereo? Or is there a better way to record (I can record in mono but this is stereo right?)
“ Would my midi controller work ? It has 8 pressure pads? The Arturia Minilab? Maybe I can use that meanwhile ; but I’m going to keep the Volca; maybe get the novation down the road if my workflow picks up to the pace?”
Yup the Minilab will certainly work.
Requires midi mapping though so you know which shouldn’t take that long.
Faster than tuning a guitar.
“ How do you records your Volca? 3.5 to dual mono TS splitter /cable to two instrument tracks for stereo? Or is there a better way to record (I can record in mono but this is stereo right?)”
Exactly.
3.5mm TRS to 6.5mm x 2 mono gives you stereo.
For sure! I never got around to buying iElectribe but have owned a couple of Electribes and I love them dearly. One of my favorite lines of hardware. DM1 is great too. On that note I think DM2 and DrumLab are nearly just as good. If I want those sounds in AU format I’ll just export the loop into Koala or Sitala. And yeah of course BlipBox. Phase Monkey too, they really knocked those outta the park.
I had an OG Drumbrute for a few years and I loved it. The individual outs is fantastic. And it sounds better than people give it credit for, imo.
Haha no sorry. I programmed an initial pattern on the Drumbrute and rather than chain patterns in song mode I edited the pattern as it played adding/removing hits, muting parts and also tweaked the sounds as it went along, etc. with the Drumbrute synced to midi clock.
There’s something strangely satisfying about adding a run of hi hats by dragging across physical pads
100% it’s so satisfying lol. That’s one thing I miss about having a hardware drum machine. Need to just get me a drum pad controller finally.
It’s the hardware drum sequencer I enjoy using too… which is kinda crazy as the DAW is so much more powerful. But the instant tactile feedback is really nice.
It’s as a luxury. But as with most luxury items, really nice to have.
For sure. I don’t work in DAWs that often and when I do it’s mostly mastering stems. AUM, Loopy Pro, Drambo, etc plus hardware jams is so much more fun and inspiring for me.
I spent a few hours doing tutorials ; one old and one newer deep dive ; this drum machine is truly unique. It’s something that iOS should have a built in editor for years (but glad Gravitas made one/Momo made one too,but it’s only PC, hopefully he makes it for surface builder so I can use on iOS iPadOS and macOS too)
It’s extremely fun, oddly powerful for its initial impression to me, and it does almost all I could ask for as Klownshed so aptly described and mcD pointed out: the physical part of this drum machine is super fun. I thought the keypad was messed up only to find out it’s just light touches, holds and swipes (not pressure pounding lol). It is a mini computer drum machine really, and the LCD panel is super high quality.
I had a lot of fun jamming with this . Between the slicing, accents, choking, muting, and step jumping, there is a lot to do rhythm wise with this , particularly in a live performance. I know I said I didn’t want any more hardware but it works so well with the s-1; they are like a better pair to me than the T-8. Korg is equal to Roland but Korg is a little “more elegant “ which is so weird that a $150 drum machine that’s 4 years old is a little more sophisticated than the Roland t-8. The t-8 is $200 because it also has usb C, built in battery, and it also has the 7th track for a bass line, but idk with the layout of the Volca drum and how to use or operate it, I kind of am glad it fell into my lap when it did otherwise I would be obsessed with the t-8 till Christmas
This pair is ACTUALLY making me want to make music again, and without a screen for once, which I missed. Meaning, I can just turn on these two units and no iPad and work for a while ; if I need to record I can do that ofc. However unlike my usual workflow of turning on the iPad first; the iPad or iPhone only come on if it’s time to record something
One question: does anyone record their Volca drums (TRS to split mono) whcih takes 2 input channels in mono or stereo; and do you do in tandem with aSynth ? That would take 4 inputs at once…do many of you have the ability to record 4 inputs on your interface? I luckily can with my overpriced interface (that doesn’t do MIDI!)but I don’t know how others do it so i wants to ask
Thanks for all’s your feedback. I told my friend keep the pedal ya filthy animal.
PS I used a stereo cable for sync and it worked!
Talking of Roland and the T-8, I have a JD-Xi keyboard which is almost brilliant.
The drum machine part of it is better than most Roland stand alone drum machines and it sounds great.
It also works as a MIDI/Audio interface on desktop and if it was just class compliant it would make a great controller for iPads as well. But alas not. It does work for Midi though.
It’s got 2 digital synths, a one VCO+sub analogue synth, drum machine and also has a vocoder. If it was class compliant and had battery power it would be a killer keyboard for iOS.
Every now and then (usually when I’m not feeling particularly inspired or have nothing I’m actively working on) it makes a brilliant sketch pad.
As does the Novation Circuit.
I got one of the originals after the tracks came out for less than £100 and I love it. I came up with an idea that made its way into a finished track in no time - the sequencer in it is really fun and unique.
The circuit ‘only’ has 4 drum tracks but as you can switch sounds per step it works out much more useful than it appears at first. I loaded it up with TR samples and it’s a fantastic drum machine. The circuit sequencer is brilliant for coming up with new ideas. The built in fx are fairly limited at first glance but in practice work to make the circuit much better than the sum of its parts. Spending a while Programming my own sounds and putting my own drum samples into it transformed it.
I like using them both on their own to get away from screens and just jam.
The circuit is particularly good for that. No screen at all. Which I love!
So yeah. All of which to say hardware can be great (for me at least) to get away from screens and option paralysis and just jam with no ulterior motive. When I’m using the circuit I’m not distracted by the million plugins I have in iOS and on my Mac and it’s just so instant.
And the circuit makes a fantastic MIDI controller for the iPad too. You can use it to sequence or just as a controller. Great for keyboards with the scales modes and also obviously for drums.
A circuit comes highly recommended by me but is much better if you can use the editor which isn’t so great if you don’t use a desktop.
Yes me too
My korg pa orientalist is the best drum machine
Yes exactly.I just want to get away from screens sometimes. It’s also great fun for a polished or rough jam.
I find with the Volca drum+ dRambo sequencing+ auv3 bass and extras + Roland s-1. , it’s a fairly complete 4 track even!
But you sound like your way more into it and advance than I am
What do you do for patterns ? Do you make your own? When you edit the pattern does it retain the “meat” of the best while being able to change up….between probability , accents, jump skipping and muting, you can use this like a live drummer . More or less I’m curious on pattern creation since synth drum is its own little world isn’t ?
The studio I worked in years ago had a TR-707, and programming it and recording different sections for songs and committing them all to tape and getting the timing correct if someone wanted to change a previously recorded pattern was so frustrating.
Every once in a while there would be a drummerless band come in to record who had no clue how to program it, and often they would play it manually.
I always liked the immediacy of a real drum kit, and never really liked programming drum machines. iPad drum machines are a different matter though - programming is so much quicker, and digital recording makes edits so much easier.
Yes. Hence my only quandary. Editing isn’t immediate or quickly correctable (no undo button)
(I guess sequencing them is one way too)
Can you play drums? If you can, have you ever considered an electronic kit?
Not at all
I wish
I tend to like to make a pattern from scratch then as it plays tweak the sounds (make the decay on the snare shorter for fills, or increase the decay in certain sections for example) and it's also fun to use the randomise dial on the DrumBrute which can work globally or just for one sound.
As for the pattern I like to add or subtract hits or even copy a pattern, queue it up then add it say a bunch of hats which I then tweak as they're playing rather than work out in advance what all the parts are going to be.
From there I can refine things and work out a structure and either programme it all in or just chop up the loops as audio in Logic and build the drums from there and then use the DrumBrute to overdub extra parts where needed.
But effectively just muck about. I can also run it through a mixer rather than plug in straight into the audio interface and use the separate outs with old effects units such as my old Boss SE-70 and I also like to use a Korg Monotron Delay thing which is fantastically lo-fi and hissy and has a nice bitey filter.
Just running it through the desk and overloading it slightly brings a lovely level of old school grit.
Too many toys not enough time :-)
Thank you for the tips. It’s weird we have almost similar picks (I have an me-50) in toys
One last question before I kind of get back to the business of tinkering until it makes sense:
When you load/make a pattern, and you hit the randomize pattern button (at least on the Volca drum?) does it “smart randomize” when you hit the button ?
like does it recognize what the “essential beat is” that you programmed in, or does it kind of wipe the slate and make its own decision on the randomization
Does the question make sense (basically will randomize retain anything the way let’s say hammerhead mutates a pattern where it just sounds like a variation)?
Thanks again Klownshed ! Your a positive influence and I appreciate the support
np
The randomise feature on the DrumBrute Impact is a knob. As you dial it in you can go from 0 to Max but it doesn't alter the pattern you've programmed at all.
So say you have a snare on 5 and 13. Dial in some randomise and you might get the odd hit hire and there, or you can go full on random but the programmer always just shows hits 5 and 13. Set it back to 0 and nothing has changed from your original pattern, it just randomises on the fly as you play the machine.
What happened to me: I wanted a hardware drum machine, so I got the Behringer TD-3 2 years ago. Great fun playing around with it, but after a while I started just sending midi to it from iPad sequencer apps and recording the pattern in the TD-3. I became more interested in the sounds more than programming it. Manual programing can take forever depending on what beat you are making. And if you are using their software to program the drum machine, then what’s the point.
My 2 cents: If your main goal is to make and perform music, then don’t buy the hardware. Just 1 or 2 midi controllers to map everything to and you’re golden. I have LaunchPad Pro and Launch Control XL like many others. They work great and cover many use cases, vs just controlling your iPad drum machines. Stick with iPad and you’ll be much happier. If you want to play around with hardware for the fun of it, then buy a hardware drum machine.
I agree to a large extent . I mean it’s one thing for “fun” use and another for efficient production. Two different worlds within the same universe for me. I’m trying to make them continent’s and not worlds apart. Oddly enough the Volca has a lot to teach if you are willing to invest the time
I am working in dRambo so I get your point and I had the same thought (if using software to program why use the drum machine)…and to that I sort of also agree. But also having gravitas editor like the s-1 editor sort of bridges the gap for me. Like having a sequencer to rely on is awesome while I tweak knobs, whcih I can’t really do on a touch screen with tactile satisfaction
To put it another way I felt similarly with the S-1. Why get a physical synth when I have like 8 amazing , best of synths for iOS??. But having it made me appreciate and understand synths more, and it also is helping take out the mystique so I can view it as an instrument rather than a sound effect
I guess curiosity got the better of me and pedal collecting dust was a reason not to take a trade but no your right, because i wanted to get the T8 for Christmas or birthday but using the Volca combined with your take on it is definitely making me confirm my choice that hardware ends with this happy trade, I’m going to rely on my apps for expected and consistent results and I’ll use this for fun, jams, and for when I don’t want to use the iPad/screen
IDK I like it a lot. I don’t think I would’ve bought one brand new , this was a little bit of a happy experiment; it also has oddly taught me more about midi. I guess it fell into my lap because the universe felt I needed to work on something and get some results lol I’m surprised it’s not a more popular machine (unless I’m just old and didn’t notice it was)
W/e… I have a couple days left before my final answer. But is it not a popular machine for some reason ? I think it’s pretty cool, like the waveguide alone would have people on here doing backflips I think ($150 MSRp brand new is pretty good, maybe because there no charger included)
Not a drum machine per se, but if you enjoy Drambo, you can’t beat the Digitakt. It’s so fun and rewarding. The form factor, the knobs… it’s almost perfect.
Dude, are you the beat scholar expert? Or is that someone else ?
Yes that is an awesome machine, I just looked it up. You literally can’t beat that. I also have NO WAY or desire to beat that unless someone wants to trade for my Volca (second owner gently used lmao jk;$$$ if I had it man!)
The Digitakt is one of my favorite sampler/grooveboxes ever. This plus the Digitone is a match made in heaven. Miss both of mine dearly. I’d love to get them along with Syntakt eventually.