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Hi all,

I'm back with another drumming question. I've decided that I need to get a drum machine. I was hoping someone could tell me what is the best one to get. I need one that sounds really good, acoustic and electronic, and is not a bear to operate. I love knobs and buttons and hate programming but will do what I have to.

What I would like is to be able to select a patch, record onto one MIDI track and then be able to separate all the drums onto individual tracks after I'm finished tweaking it. This will also help me "see" what is going on with the patterns and fills while I learn to program drums myself.

I don't mind if there are layers of depth to the machine, ie, room for growth, but I would like to "go" right out of the box.

I've all of the SOS and Electronic Musician reviews for the last year and have spoken with a few people. I just got an Andromeda A6 and it is so awesome that I figured their drum machine must be also. After reading about the Alesis DM Pro and the SR-16 I was pretty convinced but the guy at Guitar Center said that the Roland Dr. Rythm and Jam Station sounded much better. I guess I'm suspicious of anything named Groovemaker or Dr. Rythm, etc. :)

EDIT:
Well, I may have found the answer. I just saw a post on the Roland xv5050 which is something I'm considering as well and I saw Azure's post saying that he uses the Zoom RT-323 for drums, something I've never heard of. What do you think about this one?

Cheers,
Sioux

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dabmeister music Mon, 08/04/2003 - 07:04

Hey Sioux, take a look at the Akai MPC2000XL. It features a SCSI port so you can load your sounds from a HD, CD rom & etc. I have the MPC4000 w/ the internal 60 gig HD. The drum sounds are crisp & tight. I also use a Roland R-8 drum machine w/ a couple of expansion cards. The Akai's sound more realistic on the drums and are samplers too. The MPC4000 has a built in CD burner also. Both work very well. Oh by the way, you'll have to find a second hand R-8, they're not manufactured anymore. :cool: