What was the best drum machine ever made in your opinion?

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Linn-9000 ( I mean Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis used this thing to death )
Linn LM-1
Simmons Drum
Roland R-8
Akai MPC-60

― The Startrekman (Startrekman), Thursday, 5 October 2006 06:46 (nineteen years ago)

sequential tom
yamaha rx5
emu sp1200
tr 606
boss dr55
sequential drumtracks
yamaha ry30

― frenchbloke (frenchbloke), Thursday, 5 October 2006 06:58 (nineteen years ago)

Linn 9000
Tr-808
Whatever John Foxx used on Metamatic
Sequential Drumtracks

― Jay Vee's Return (Manon_69), Thursday, 5 October 2006 07:19 (nineteen years ago)

Foxx used the Roland CR-78 on Metamatic, can also be heard on "In The Air Tonight" by yer man Collins.

I'll plump for an Oberheim DMX, although the Sequential Tom is a fine drum machine.

― JohnFoxxsJuno (JohnFoxxsJuno), Thursday, 5 October 2006 07:27 (nineteen years ago)

Tr606 for me every time... Nothing comes close...

― Jack Battery-Pack (Jack Battery-Pack), Thursday, 5 October 2006 08:12 (nineteen years ago)

sequental tom with additional cartridges.

― frenchbloke (frenchbloke), Thursday, 5 October 2006 08:17 (nineteen years ago)

(xxpost) Aha. Thanks for the info, John's Juno. I thought it may have been the CR-78.

― Jay Vee's Return (Manon_69), Thursday, 5 October 2006 08:21 (nineteen years ago)

808 forever. I dig Korg's little collection of oddballs, though (& have one of each)

KPR77 - odd little rinky-dink analogue drum box w/pattern & song modes
DDD1 - sub-linn 12bit digital sample drumbox w/huge library of alternative sounds on pcm cards
S3 - halfassed drum machine/sequencer, drum sounds are made by combining a stick/beater impact sample with a shell ring sample.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Thursday, 5 October 2006 09:17 (nineteen years ago)

http://rolandclan.info/media/images/dr-110.jpg

I used to use this thingy a lot!

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 5 October 2006 09:19 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.harmony-central.com/ProductPix/4811.jpg

Then upgraded to this (If anyone here has vol2, "Have you seen this cat" uses this.)

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 5 October 2006 09:20 (nineteen years ago)

i have this one

http://www.machinedrum.com/img/showroom/p_1_top.jpg

― Good Dog (Good Dog), Thursday, 5 October 2006 10:02 (nineteen years ago)

and it is awesome

― Good Dog (Good Dog), Thursday, 5 October 2006 10:03 (nineteen years ago)

wow- a machinedrum! Those things are pretty dear, no? Can it do linn/80's-style sounds?

― JohnFoxxsJuno (JohnFoxxsJuno), Thursday, 5 October 2006 10:20 (nineteen years ago)

Yes, it cost 1000 euro. And it emulates the linn pretty well. There's a second gen model which has a sampler in it too, but it was way too expensive (1500 euro?) The best thing about it is it remembers the tweaks you do on the fly, or you can control effects/tweaks via midi. Is that common with other drum machines?

― Good Dog (Good Dog), Thursday, 5 October 2006 10:32 (nineteen years ago)

Man, I'd absolutely love one of those things, they look awesome.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Thursday, 5 October 2006 10:37 (nineteen years ago)

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/rhythm_ace.jpg

― Edward III (edward iii), Thursday, 5 October 2006 12:06 (nineteen years ago)

the Zack Hill 5000
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e386/trainsmoke/Zachhill.jpg

― J. Grizzle (trainsmoke), Thursday, 5 October 2006 14:25 (nineteen years ago)

Love the Acetone Rhythmace. Unfortunately, I've had to settle with the sample set that was provided by Akai for the MPC.

A friend of mine has the CR-78. It is a fantastic machine!

― Brooker Buckingham (Brooker B), Thursday, 5 October 2006 14:35 (nineteen years ago)

Emu SP1200

― Disco Nihilist (mjt), Thursday, 5 October 2006 15:36 (nineteen years ago)

808 the bass queen.

― struttin' with some barbecue (jimnaseum), Thursday, 5 October 2006 15:42 (nineteen years ago)

I suppose we should mention the Rhythmicon first:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhythmicon

My picks

Roland CR-78
LinnDrum (all of them)
Roland TR-808
Oberheim DMX
Roland TR-909

http://www.drummachinemusic.com/

DRUM SAMPLERS SHOULD NOT COUNT (Emu's SP series, MPCs, etc.)[if so, the SP1200 wins for sequencer, and needless to say, the mpc3000> series wins for universality due to sampletime, hi-bitrate, midi central, everything machine)

The Roland R-8's sequencer, which I began my so-called career on, punches like a tulip picking girl. And not being able to intergrate sounds from one kit to another makes it seem pointless compared to actual drum samplers.

― The PappaWheelie Story: Half Brain, Half Soul, All Mouth (on sale now) (PappaWhe, Thursday, 5 October 2006 15:47 (nineteen years ago)

(I've remained undecided about the E-mus's Drumulator for years)

― The PappaWheelie Story: Half Brain, Half Soul, All Mouth (on sale now) (PappaWhe, Thursday, 5 October 2006 15:49 (nineteen years ago)

fruityloops?

― Period period period (Period period period), Thursday, 5 October 2006 15:56 (nineteen years ago)

That Rhythmace is awesome looking! Lots of different ones here:

http://www.keyboardmuseum.org/pic/a/ace/ace.html

The one Wall of Voodoo used was supposedly a "Kalamazoo Rhythmace," but I've never been able to find anything on it.

― Daniel Peterson (polkaholic), Thursday, 5 October 2006 16:00 (nineteen years ago)

Actually, this is the best drum machine of all time:

http://www.drumbuddy.com/

― Disco Nihilist (mjt), Thursday, 5 October 2006 17:00 (nineteen years ago)

yamaha's ry30 is great to play with due to the pitch bend wheel.
sequential tom is also great due to the insane things you can do in step programming and stacking the sounds (you could have the same sound 4 times on the same note - ie 4 note polyphony. works best with bass drums at different pitches. you could use volume changes during step programming to change the length of the sound.
the dr55 was great in a limited way due to it's note space programming. (like a 303) - great for schaeffel !
drumtracks - hell, funkhadaffi era front 242 !
the rx5 has THAT snare sound - meat beat manifesto's early songles, bomb the bass' beat dis and so on. and you can have a lot of fun midi'ing it up to a sound module to play tunes instead.

― frenchbloke (frenchbloke), Thursday, 5 October 2006 18:52 (nineteen years ago)

DDD1 - sub-linn 12bit digital sample drumbox w/huge library of alternative sounds on pcm cards

i picked one of these up cheap ($20) off of craigslist recently. is it possible to find these pcm cards still? what kinda of other sounds can you find?

― Ben H (Ben H), Thursday, 5 October 2006 18:57 (nineteen years ago)

I guess the 808 is the icon.

I really like the usability of my Alesis SR-16...I think it was discontinued a few years ago, it was a mid-late 90s type model. Lots of good sounds and it's been real easy to use.

― M@tt He1geson: Real Name, No Gimmicks (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 5 October 2006 18:59 (nineteen years ago)

xpost Is the Rhythm Ace the really old one that Sly Stone used and Shuggie Otis on "Inspiration Information"?

― M@tt He1geson: Real Name, No Gimmicks (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 5 October 2006 19:07 (nineteen years ago)

I second Good Dog's pick of the Machinedrum. I have the sampling version and its godly.

Apart from that I'd pick:

808
606
RY-30

Oh how I love drum machines.

― jng (jng), Thursday, 5 October 2006 22:42 (nineteen years ago)

The Machinedrum is a modern classic. I couldn't live w/o mine.
The Vermona DRM1 MKII is also a beauty - lacks modulation capabilities (which is probably my favorite thing about the MD), but the sounds themselves are killer.

I'm awaiting delivery of a Sequential Circuits Tom this week... very excited.
Lost an eBay auction for a Jomox XBase09 last night... very disappointed.

― philip sherburne (philip sherburne), Thursday, 5 October 2006 23:24 (nineteen years ago)

Trevor the Drum Machine.

― Arno Oliver Bedder (noodle vague), Thursday, 5 October 2006 23:27 (nineteen years ago)

(xpost) Phil - you making music now? EXCELLENT. If so, I want to hear...

― Jay Vee's Return (Manon_69), Friday, 6 October 2006 00:11 (nineteen years ago)

i didn't say that.
maybe i'm just buying machines to use as doorstops...
very expensive doorstops.

― philip sherburne (philip sherburne), Friday, 6 October 2006 00:42 (nineteen years ago)

don't bullshit us dude

― a name means a lot just by itself (lfam), Friday, 6 October 2006 03:34 (nineteen years ago)

mr sherburne, you will love the tom. did it have any cartridges with it? it was my first drum machine, and by far my favourite. oh, and best check the internal battery works too or you'll lose your patterns.

― frenchbloke (frenchbloke), Friday, 6 October 2006 06:01 (nineteen years ago)

(re:DDD1)
i picked one of these up cheap ($20) off of craigslist recently. is it possible to find these pcm cards still? what kinda of other sounds can you find?

There's loads of them, I think about 50 in Korg's own range, which cover various regular kit sounds, latin sounds, electronic sounds (mainly simmonds drum orientated, sadly), ethnic sounds, sfx, ad about a further 10-15 made by a company called Metrasound, which were mainy Linn and 808 sounds. They appear quite commonly on ebay, probably the best source for them really. Picks of the ones I have are India 1, (5 tabla sounds) japan 1, handclaps and fingersnaps, the Latin ones. Bad ones are the talking drum one and the rock(ambience) one. Sound effects ones are likely pretty useless. the one I want, which I've never seen is the drum box one.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Friday, 6 October 2006 07:19 (nineteen years ago)

I tried posting this yesterday during poxy fule...

I want to give props to the Boss Dr-660...for a long time it had the most bang for it's buck, tons of sounds, drums and otherwise, basic 808/909 type stuff c/o roland, bass/synthy sounds with basic editing, I wrote a whole song on one once...and these were around during that dry period before all these neo-analogs came around.

Personally, I own a DMX and a Drumtraks, but have always lusted after a 909, being the detroit techno fied I was for years.

But the best ever drum machine? The preset one built into this rack DJ mixer I borrowed from some guy in high school. If you held down two presets at once, say Rock and Bossanova, you got the best stuff.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Friday, 6 October 2006 13:12 (nineteen years ago)

I don't think it has any carts besides the standard (not sure, still awaiting delivery), but I see that Wine Country Sequential sells them... anyone ever deal with them? They look spendy, but intriguing...

― philip sherburne (philip sherburne), Friday, 6 October 2006 17:36 (nineteen years ago)

I feel like my entry vs. the direction of this thread makes me the HIp-Hop Gier...

― The PappaWheelie Story: Half Brain, Half Soul, All Mouth (on sale now) (PappaWhe, Friday, 6 October 2006 17:40 (nineteen years ago)

In theory, 808
In practice, 606 thru effects

― Dr. Alicia D. Titsovich (sexyDancer), Friday, 6 October 2006 17:47 (nineteen years ago)

the contemporary cartridge for the tom is great - if you're familiar with the shamen vs bam bam's transcendental - that cart is all over it as well as the hats. special effects is hysterical - you can have fun with playing with the tuning. tip with the bass drum - detune it -16 in continuous 16's it sounds like a drill. also endless fun with abusing the auto-repeat. it's disappointing if you use it via midi as a sound source but fantastic if you use it as a machine.

― frenchbloke (frenchbloke), Friday, 6 October 2006 18:26 (nineteen years ago)

I almost bought a Prophet 2000 rack sampler from Wine Country. Sequential had already gone under and they were carrying the remainders, and the Prophet sampler seemed years ahead of it's time, at the time. For those who didn't masturbate to issues of keyboard magazine...Sequentials R&D division went to Yamaha though some people went to Korg, which is why a few years later Sequential's VS (vector synthesis) tech showed up on the Korg Wavestation and the Yamaha SY-22(and TG-33). However, Yamaha shelved their sampler for their own, which was a huge failure.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Friday, 6 October 2006 18:29 (nineteen years ago)

woops, I mean Prophet-3000.

http://www.winecountrysequential.com/3000.html

sorry to derail.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Friday, 6 October 2006 18:30 (nineteen years ago)

speaking of sequential, not drum machines, sequential alum dave smith's evolver is, like, the greatest toy ever. i mean, it's hardly a toy - pretty effing powerful little monster, really. but at $500 it's practically priced like one... sure wish i could afford me a polyevolver w/ keyboard!

― philip sherburne (philip sherburne), Friday, 6 October 2006 18:57 (nineteen years ago)

that evolver keyboard looks nice...just saw a Pro-One at Main Drag in Williamsburg, serial number 36..for 1000 dollars.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Friday, 6 October 2006 19:30 (nineteen years ago)

seven years pass...

Linn Lm-1 and Tr808 , nothing else for the best , in second position of course the Linn drum

― analogsynthmuseum, Sunday, 31 August 2014 13:33 (eleven years ago)

dmx all day and all night

― clive facepalmer (electricsound), Monday, 1 September 2014 09:24 (eleven years ago)

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