Note: I'm not a drum machine "player" in the way a lot of people are. I'm a guitarist and keyboard player for the most part, so I mostly use these boxes for composition and not performance.
Lately I've been G.A.S.'n for a hardware drum machine. Why? Not sure but they're sexy to me. It's not like I'm a drum machine virgin. I've had many though my life, starting with the Mattel Synsonics in 1980 or so. Like so many, I was disappointed with the lack of realism of the early analog stuff, and later came to appreciate it.
At a point in the early 90s I grew frustrated with the sequencers in these boxes and I abandoned them for a "workstation" keyboard. Ensoniq TS-10. Loved that sucker. Fun and fast to work on. All the drums were PCM samples so basically if you couldn't get the sound you wanted with effects (which were quite good for their time)
Anyway, I went though a few other boxes including a E-MU Commandstation and a Korg ESX-1 though at some point all of them bugged me in some way. It was around this time that I was starting to abandon live performance anyway, so I transitioned to a laptop/Live setup.
"So what's your point?" you're probably asking. I'm asking it as well! What the hell is my point? I guess my point is, I still lust after having some sort of drum oriented hardware. I don't care about a sequencer, I'm sure of that, but most have them built in so it's no big deal. Lately, there have been a little flood of boxes that have all initially excited me, then left me cold for some reason.
Vermona DRM1 MkIII: love the sound... no preset memory makes me sad.
Korg Volca Beats: Pretty good sound... except for that lame snare. A bit too limited sonically but this could be the box considering how cheap it is.
DSI Tempest: I was so excited for this one. I'm a DSI fan but man I found the sound demos to really be lacking for a machine that comes in at $2000 usd.
Elektron Analog RYTM: I was also thinking this one might be "The One" until I heard the demos. Unless they're just bad at sound design, all the demos I've heard just sound kind of stiff and lifeless. Maybe they're over compressing it? Also, I hate the Elektron workflow especially when it comes to saving drum and kit patches. This hate comes from owning a Machinedrum, but maybe the RYTM is different.
Nord Drum II: Love the audio demos... seems like the perfect box. I'm not sure why I'm not pulling the trigger other than it's pure digital and I wonder if it'll give me anything beyond what I have in software (see below) I don't feel it's necessary to own hardware unless it really gives a noticeable sonic edge of some sort or has a very cool interface, which the Nord Drum II does not. It's UI isn't bad, but not great.
Roland Aira TR-8: This was kind of a surprise. I knew Roland wasn't going to roll over and give up on their quest to be all digital, but I have to say that I was plesently surprised by the demos I've heard. Somehow they seem to have nailed that classic TR sound. Not sure why people are so surprised that Roland can actually do good VA modeling, but so be it. What bugs me about it the most is that while Roland is busy yelling that this is going to be "the next step" it's just the next step for them. It's as if they haven't looked at the state of drum machines since the 909, including their own machines. So... this one is still a bit of a contender but I find myself thinking, "it's just code running in a box... why couldn't they have gone further with the synth engine?" And, "will this give me better sound than my software?"
... and that brings me to software. I've got a very nice complement of drum synthesis plug ins including xoxo's Bong (80n9), µtonic, Extreme Drum Synth, Drumaxx, Tremor, Breaktweaker, Ironhead and Maschine. I also own Battery and BPM samplers.
So, I guess where all this is going is that every time I look at a cool drum synth box of some sort, I always look at my virtual arsenal and say, "No. They'll have to do better to get me to buy their box!" I've gotten to the point where I'm seriously thinking, "The drum machine is officially over." Yeah, I know a lot of you are still fans and love the tactile feel of them, but to those people I say, "Get a Maschine and a good laptop." (while I don't think Maschine is perfect as a sequencer, it's a hell of a lot better than any dedicated drum machine I've ever used and the included library is quite good).
RIP Drum machine! (or is it?
)
It's a shame as the kick and most of the other voices are pretty nice and the form factor of the Volcas are pure fun.
I have a piezo mic that I like to run through a bunch of pedals. It's great for making crazy out-of-this-world sounds. It's tough to get a good performance but I can always cut up the recording and load the samples into my Octatrack.
