Drum Machines are impossible!
 

I'm trying to programme the simplest of drum patterns in but do you think I get it to sound like anything other than a, well, a drum machine? Can I fuck!

drum machines'll do that... y'know, sound all drum machiney.

It's possible to make it sound good. The drum machine on Melt Banana's Cell-Scape was pretty real sounding

I pretty much have to use a drum machine but I try not to make it sound drum machiney.

But no matter what, drum machines can't groove.

Big Black y'all

get a drummer to prigram the drum machine .

yeah, they're better at prigramming.

My philosophy when I had a drum machine (I since sold it since I never use it anymore) was to add percussion but do somethings a drummer couldn't do. So there were some parts in songs where the drum machine would hit the snare so fast it sounded like a power drill.

ha! shit.. i turned aussie there for a second..

sirry!

for real sounding drums, sample a real kit and let the drum machine play that, sounds more realistic. but if you want the real thing do it.

I just discovered this today:
http://www.hobnox.com/index.1056.de.html

If the software modelling is even somewhat accurate, then those things are easy as fuck to dabble around with. I want a real one.

I see what you mean, that's why I rarely use them. There is a way out of that: Download an editing program that is also a flexible sampler for looping, that way you can build up original drum patterns bit by bit with your own peronal trademark on them, and also you get to fuck them up in the frequency department, which means that you can modulate the way they sound for as long as you like, almost like they are real drums.

Sound Forge remains the best for me, but I see Audacity (which is I think is shite) mentioned on here a lot.

It's all about adobe audition.

And again no matter what, drum machines can't groove, that's their biggest problem.

Hmm. not sure. Depends how filter them, but yeah, they aren't much cop most of the time.

my best friend made a sample of lots of farts
and then made it into an awesome beat
it was a truely good sounding hip hop tune but he lost it

I usually play live to a drum machine and it sucks ass. Since drum machines can't make mistakes, you can't make mistakes or you become completely lost. That can be fun too though.

I make beats, riffs etc out of my voice all the time. The human voice is like, whoaaa!

I am searching for some breakcore stuff since Ive visited paris last year. there was this track in that store being played full throttle. the whole track was sounds of, poops, shitting, puking, burping and toilet flushes, but in a really fast AFX/Venetian Snares style

I need a drum machine.

audacity is shite but it is really simple, so people use it for that reason

reason has some good sounding drum patches, and is very easy to programme if you have some midi controllers. it is all about velocity layering though to get the right feel. and rather than writing the parts in the sequencer record it in via midi and you playing. i have used reason very effectively live in conjuction with yamaha dt-20 triggers on my drum heads to really thicken up the sound i was going for in the particular track. but in the end unless you can play the part in, and know how to use velocity layering and velocity cross fading very well, drum machines have no soul. just listen to nailbomb's point blank as an example of souless drum machine....

Genghis Tron drums machines sound like real drums most of the time... a friend of mine actually thought it was a drummer when I made him listen

I used to want a drum machine, because a) I wouldn't have to give up money to the drummer b) I don't know anyone who plays drums and likes similar music.
I've decided I'll learn to play drums myself, or use some Einstuerzende Neubauten style percussion.

No offense, but your friend's deaf or has no idea what a real drummer sounds like. Genghis Tron doesn't sound like real drums in the least. (I don't think they're supposed to though) They use Fruity Loops, by the way.

I don't mind drum machies that much. My sampler (Yamaha RS7000) has got this "swing" feature that can enable give the beats a bit of a human touch. I don't use beats for my music that much, though.

do you got some of your stuff online slavo?

SWING?!?!? WAHHHHHH?!

Try this:

http://casicadaminuto.psychoindustri...by_chlapci.mp3

thanks
btw the second link is dead.
the first one starts a little odd nosdamesque till it goes into merzbow, really dig that, and the third one is beautiful!!!
slavo I love you even more now :)

That's what the feature's called.

thank you. no, srsly, thank YOU. every positive feedback is like a tap on the shoulder.
you rule, mate.

i never heard of a drum machine swinging.

That's awesome!

I'm not making a pun or a play on words or anything, that's seriously awesome... drum machines becoming more human.

check out the elektron machinedrum it got a swing-mode too, which is really really interesting (like the whole damn machne)

by adding that feature you make the beats go slightly out of rhytm, a bit sooner or later than the exact note. that kind of production has been used a lot in old school hip-hop tracks, for example

that's fucking phenomenal.

http://www.machinedrum.com/

this is the most fucked up drummachie you can get. users are autechre and boards of canada and many more.

this thing is sooo badass

_slavo_ - that piece is so awesome, man! Great swinging rhythms and harmonic sounds a go-go. I certainly wouldn't mind hearing more of your stuff.

sweet thanks