stupid question but serious-drum machines

[sgray]

We lost our drummer a few months ago and have not been able to find a replacement as of yet so I purchased a drum machine (Boss dr-3) to try and keep the timing and related sharp.

My question is this. I am a smart guy but trying to program this machine for our set list is next to impossible. Is it me or these things really hard to work with? What are my options? seriously...did I pick the wrong drum machine? etc.. [img]/images/graemlins/scratchhead.gif[/img]

[diablomozart]

Re: stupid question but serious-drum machines

umm...i use a dr 660...but i also use an old atari 1040st with a sequencer built in to program the damned thing...step by step programming is a royal pain in the ass...d.m.

[Ninja Guitar]

Re: stupid question but serious-drum machines

Instead of using your drum machine live, you could record it playing each song, convert those to MP3, and just use a decent MP3 player live.

Step programming does take a while to get used to, but once you get used to it you can move quite fast. It does help if you understand music theory.

[pro-fusion]

Re: stupid question but serious-drum machines

Jeez, I almost never step program on my drum machines anymore--what a drag that is! Even with 'real time' programming, though, it's a bitch to do, because every little fill that a drummer would just toss off casually has to be carefully programmed if you want it to sound decent.

Basically, programming a drum machine is like anything else, you have to practice in order to get good at it. I highly recommend real-time programming--you'll get a much better feel to your patterns.

How much do you know about drumming? I've gotten a lot better with programming since I spent some time studying exactly what drummers do. Especially with the cymbals, which I find to be hardest thing to program well, since that's where a lot of drummers put in the subtlety that makes their drumming unique.

Currently, I'm using the new Boss DR-880, which is the Godzilla of drum machines. Far and away the best-sounding one I've ever owned, and you can really put in a lot of the subtleties of real drumming (accents, ghost notes, etc.) if you are patient enough.