Hello everyone - first post from me! I know that there have a been a couple of posts over the past 8 months on those three drum samplers (yes I did do a search!) and people seem to like each of those tools for various personal reasons.

I am looking for one of the three to buy and right now the RMIV looks the most appealing to me. What I do not understand is why it appears that Battery can import AKAI files but not DR-008 and RM-IV. Or am I mistaken in that? I have some old AKAI sample CDs I would like to load in.

BTW, I assume the reason people buy a drum sampler and not simply use Kontakt etc. is because its just more straightforward and obvious (in terms of it having just the specific task of creating beats)?

Thanks all!

Len

DR-008 cannot by itself import AKAI, but what you can do is get the 30 day free trial of AWave Studio from www.fmjsoft.com and convert all your AKAIs to a format DR-008 can read (DR-008, LM-4 or Battery formats).

Keep an eye on FXpansion's NAMM announcement next week for news on the future of DR-008.

Angus_FX wrote:

Keep an eye on FXpansion's NAMM announcement next week for news on the future of DR-008.

I like DR-008 because, since it's "purpose-built" for drum sampling and synthesizing it's easy to throw together a kit in no time.. and it comes with a shedload of excellent kits "out of the box" as well. RMIV looked good.. I own RMIII.. but DR-008 is a little more flexible in the "drum synthesis" section. Downside of DR-008.. it's MASSIVE! Bazillions of pads and options.. but once you wrap your head around it, it does everything I can imagine a drum synth/sampler could ever do.

If you don't need/want the complexity, RMIV is an excellent choice as well.

I can only comment on battery and dr008. dr008 by a long shot, much more flexible, nice drag and drop, excellent new synths with the recent update, and a lot of community interest which makes me think that angus will continue already excellent development (as opposed to battery).

Thanks for the responses - yes its a tough call between DR-008 and RMIV - I think I shy away from the DR-008 because it HAS so many options - I am one of those people who thinks having limits encourages greater creativity.

Yes I think Battery is a no-go because there hasn't been a squeak from NI for a long time on that!

Cheers

Len

hi len, welcome to here.

id just like to say that the rmiv is great, sounds great and is easy to use.you wont be let down.

harper

(salesman mode on)

Limitations are all very well, and I agree in some ways having limits enhances your creativity. That's one of the reasons DR-008 has dedicated synths for each type of synth drum (like kicks and hihats) - when developing the DR-008 I used Waldorf Attack extensively, and found it to be a total pain to program because its single synth engine has to encompass all types of percussion sounds, and so is inevitably somewhat complicated with a large number of knobs and controls. Whereas the DR-008 synth algorithms are each optimised for a given sound, so have only half a dozen controls or so (like the original analog boxes that inspired it).

However, when those limitations mean the absence of (to my mind) highly useful workflow functionality like copy-paste and drag-drop - the kind of stuff that you really don't notice until you actually want to use it - then I can't see how that kind of "limitation" enhances anything. DR-008 is the only drum sampler which allows copy and paste between instances, which is a great way of building new kits from existing ones - doing the same thing in Battery or RM-IV is infinitely more long-winded. RM-IV does not even have drag-and-drop

I guess what it comes down to is - do you want to use a machine, or a workstation? If the former, then something like RM-IV or even the CM freebies - SR-202 and CM-505 - will do very nicely, as will e-phonic's Drumatic and many of the other freeware and shareware drum synths. If, however, you want a workstation environment allowing you to manipulate and organise a galaxy of easy to use percussion synth generators and sample players in a variety of ways, the only thing that will do that is DR-008.

Regards,
Angus.

Nice Hat Angus.

Angus - having a salesman's hat on is fine

I've been to the FXpansion website to look up drag and drop but am not sure what you mean. Are you saying that if I have a sound/sample (e.g. WAV snare) in mind I can drag it off my C: drive straight onto the relevant "pad", while the song is playing. And RMIV cannot do this? If so then I agree, DR-008 is more user-friendly in that regard.

Anyone want to jump to RM-IV's defence?

Len

Dr008 is a winner in my opinion too. If you use it with the Musiclab MFX plugins Slicy Drummer and Fillin Drummer it's FREAKIN' incredible! You can then compose your drum sequences right inside Dr008 save them with kits or export them to midi files. Also the Fillin Drummer will do rolls, flams and fills just like a lot of popular drum machines (making my Dr770 absolete damnit!).

Quote:

If, however, you want a workstation environment allowing you to manipulate and organise a galaxy of easy to use percussion synth generators and sample players in a variety of ways, the only thing that will do that is DR-008

hmmm. . . I'll go with the galaxy. BTW Angus, the fmsynth and the space drums are my most favorite drum synths EVER. I could go to the fx thread but when do you expect the next instance of dr008?

I like both DR-008 and Battery. I have a the Synthetic Kits for Battery, and they don't import with everything into DR-008, just the samples it seems, so I still use Battery as well. Both gave me a LOT of good kits to mess with, so I'll continue to use both. I do prefer DR-008 for synthesized kick drums though! MASSIVE!

Devon

Quote:

I've been to the FXpansion website to look up drag and drop but am not sure what you mean. Are you saying that if I have a sound/sample (e.g. WAV snare) in mind I can drag it off my C: drive straight onto the relevant "pad", while the song is playing. And RMIV cannot do this? If so then I agree, DR-008 is more user-friendly in that regard.

Yes, that's right - and the copy/paste allows you to, say, take the sound in the pad on C3, copy and paste it to D3 in a single operation, and make a variation of the sound on that key.

Quote:

hmmm. . . I'll go with the galaxy. BTW Angus, the fmsynth and the space drums are my most favorite drum synths EVER. I could go to the fx thread but when do you expect the next instance of dr008?

We have a very minor update to make to DR-008 in the next couple of weeks (just a bugfix to the v1.19 DXi, and a handful more free sounds). Beyond that... I'll just say, look to our NAMM announcement next week.
It's gonna be BIG

I have Battery, DR-008 and RM4. Of the three I find myself using Battery the most, probably because it was first. It is very easy to drag slices from something like PhatMaticPro and drop them onto cells in Battery. I do that a lot, and then save the kits. It does not bother me that Battery does not have electronic percussion modules. When I want those sounds I use DR-008, RM4, or a real synth to create the part. If I want a mix of real and electronic sounds I use more than one sound source. As far as Akai import, I have tried using the Battery Akai import on four different computers with no luck. If you buy Battery for the purpose of importing Akai samples from CD you may be disappointed. A lot of people prefer DR-008 and I can understand why. It is a jack of all trades that does most things well. There is a utility to import Battery kits but Battery kits seem to work better within Battery. I have both expansion disks for Battery and that is a lot of good source material. Enough to keep me coming back to the original. RM4 is still the newest sound. I like the new synth modules and like DR-008, it comes with a lot of kits.

In my view, the three machines are close enough that you may want to audition the sounds rather than audition the machines that produce those sounds. There is no really bad drum machine in the bunch but there are plenty of kits included with them that I would never use.

Robert

Angus_FX wrote:

DR-008 cannot by itself import AKAI, but what you can do is get the 30 day free trial of AWave Studio from www.fmjsoft.com and convert all your AKAIs to a format DR-008 can read (DR-008, LM-4 or Battery formats). .

RM1V can also read LM-4 format so you could do the same thing with your AKAI cd's if you bought the RM1V.

Unfortunately it doesn't have drag and drop which is a shame, but I can live with that.

Hi
I have Battery and RM4 and would always suggest trying out demo's as a first port of call.
I had a look at the DR008 but was initially concerned at its cluttered interface - there is obviously a lot going on there!
To me there is a certain sound that Battery seems to impart on files that gives it a graininess to its sound whereas the RM4 to me has a somewhat smoother sound.
I had some stability issues with Battery i.e. random crashes but this is not unusual is it?
To its credit the drag and drop feature is time saving.
The RM4 can be somewhat CPU intensive for MY use but
other users dont appear to phazed by it.
I have found the RM4 to be very quick at file transfer even though you cannot drag and drop files in and it has been a reverlation to my recent push to produce a range of drum and perc kits for a project i am currently working on.
Just to confuse you I will probably revisit the DR008 at some future point ;in this business you cannot afford to let a good product go untried.
The moral appears to be this ; Battery is good but showing some age and further development unsure.
RM4 new kid on the block , current and capable of providing for most needs.
DR008 would appear to be very flexeble and continues to be supported/developed.
Flipper.

Hmm - so it looks like DR-008 may be the easiest functionally with drag n drop (although the GUI does look kinda cluttered to me), RMIV has some real hot sounds (saw some post on that) (and their "Variazer" is intriguing) and Battery is, well, old!

Thanks all - I will have to try DR008 and RMIV then.

Cheers

Len