New drums vs Old drums?

[sioux]

Hi,

I have a question for you. I've been investigating drum machines. I just got an Andromeda A6 - love the analog sound. I am looking for a good drum machine of acoustic drums to go with it. I've been looking at 80's drum machines as well as new ones. All of my friends say that the older drum machines sound so 80's and that I should get something with a current sound. To be honest, I couldn't tell an 80's drum sound froma current drum sound so I'm wondering what the difference in sound is??

Cheers,
Sioux

 

[falkon2]

Best advice I can give is to listen to a lot of modern rock, then listen to a lot of 80's rock... The difference is quite apparent after a bit, especially the snare.

A good exercise is to try to emulate those sounds with whatever you have on hand - get a bunch of samples, play with EQ, reverb, gating, etc and see if you can get them to sound closer to the stuff from popular records - That might teach you to learn what to look out for in drum sounds as well.

 

[sioux]

ok. Thanks. I was just curious really. I thought maybe someone would say, "the 80's snare sounds muffled and the new ones sound brighter" or something like that.

Good suggestion though.

Sioux

 

[Dave Nyberg]

My favourite all time drummachine is the Alesis SR16. It might be 80's but i love that sound. And with a bit of editing and some juicy plugins these sounds can really get very interesting. The sounds on the SR16 were made by Jay Graydon. So that kind of tells enough about the quality of these sounds

 

[sioux]

You are not the first person I've heard say that! I'm really drawn to that direction, and loving the A6 like I do, I figure the SR16 must be equally as good. Jay Graydon...sorry, I don't know him or very many drummers for that matter.

Thanks for that !

Sioux

 

[chrisperra]

if you have a drum machine already, that can trigger midi, maybe consider an alesis d4 or d5. you can use this to stack sounds. the d4 and d5's have great drum sounds with velocity layered samples.

chris perra

 

[sioux]

Thanks for that idea. I will look into that as soon as possible. I do have a drum machine already. And I love Alesis!!

My internet got creamed last night in a storm and I may not get it back all week. I'll be back here when I get my internet back.

Thanks everyone for your great ideas, thoughts, and suggestions!!

Sioux

[ August 18, 2003, 10:16 AM: Message edited by: sioux ]

 

[falkon2]

If you have midi out, channel that into the computer, and try http://www.nskit.com

Really nice, unprocessed sounds for you to do whatever you like to. Totally free, too.

Only thing I don't dig is that the crashes sound a little thin.

 

[sioux]

Thanks everybody!

Hey Falcon....I actually did download that kit, except one of the files gives me an error so I'll be checking that out. Thanks for the suggestion.

I think I'm going to start off with an Alesis SR16 or the d4 or d5. Later, I have another drum machine in mind - MPC 2000XL - about $2394.00 with extra memory and stuff. I'd also like to get the Electron MachineDrum. Before I'm done, I'll have an arsenal of drums!

Cheers,
Sioux

 

[Bryson]

Originally posted by sioux:
Jay Graydon...sorry, I don't know him or very many drummers for that matter.

He's a guitarist. A hot session cat in the 70's (solo on Steely Dan's "Peg"), and quite a notable producer songwriter.

[ August 22, 2003, 03:06 PM: Message edited by: Bryson ]

 

[sioux]

Thanks for that info! Interesting that he is a guitar player!

Sioux

[ August 22, 2003, 04:18 PM: Message edited by: sioux ]