Drum machines? does anyone even use them?

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Postby somebedroomdj » Fri Jun 17, 2011 4:25 am

I love hardware. I use an MC-307 because it has tons of samples from classic drum machines, tons of parameters to edit, turntable emulation which sends MTC to all of my other machines and the potential to sequence 8 tracks of MIDI or internal sounds.

Hooked up to it, I have an ESX used mainly as a drum machine for mangling the shit out of breaks (3 chainable effects, plus resampling) and using single cycle waveforms for a variety of fucked up sounds. I have an SP-808 for sampling loops I play on the ESX and 307 and resampling over and over with the awesome effects it has. Then I also have an ST-224 that gives my breaks a nice lofi, gritty sound plus it's own very useful effects processor and a decent onboard sequencer. And finally, a JP-8000 that is infinitely tweakable, has a separate midi channel for each voice and a ribbon controller that can make for some extremely fucked up sounds.

All three samplers have options for loading samples from the computer.
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Postby Iron Attorney » Tue Jun 21, 2011 12:21 pm

Fucking nice! What are the SP-808, the ST 224 and the JP-8000 though? lol

Despite what I said previously about swaying very much towards the RS7000, I'm swaying back towards the MC909 again. Partially again the loading samples from computer issue, but partially what Ozma said about not being able to load new beats while its going. My two main stipulations i guess are easy access to samples from the computer and being able to make stuff up on the fly. I like the idea of being able to make up some new shit as i play a show. Though you also said about having to manually mute and unmute tracks? Is this a major issue?

Back to bedroomdj, whats the MC-307 like? And how does it compare to the 909? Newer or older? I'm assuming they're the same make. Also from your experience with those many machines you have, would any of yours singularly cover my needs?

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Postby somebedroomdj » Wed Jun 22, 2011 9:16 pm

Iron Attorney wrote:Fucking nice! What are the SP-808, the ST 224 and the JP-8000 though? lol

Despite what I said previously about swaying very much towards the RS7000, I'm swaying back towards the MC909 again. Partially again the loading samples from computer issue, but partially what Ozma said about not being able to load new beats while its going. My two main stipulations i guess are easy access to samples from the computer and being able to make stuff up on the fly. I like the idea of being able to make up some new shit as i play a show. Though you also said about having to manually mute and unmute tracks? Is this a major issue?

Back to bedroomdj, whats the MC-307 like? And how does it compare to the 909? Newer or older? I'm assuming they're the same make. Also from your experience with those many machines you have, would any of yours singularly cover my needs?


SP-808 and ST-224 = samplers, JP-8000 = synth. :)

307 is a few years older but the main thing in comparison to the 909 is there is no sampling on it. The drums are great and probably not much different than what you'd get with the mc909 (not sure, never used it, just did plenty of research). The preset patches are shit, as with most machines, but the synth engine actually runs much deeper than most people will ever get on it, so you can make pretty much any sound you need. It has the capability to use four (fully programmable) tones for each patch. I would assume this is the same on the 909. However, I believe the 909 uses the Fantom engine and the 307 uses the JV something or other engine. 909 has a lot more controls on the face, but the 307 does have four assignable knobs with 10 customizable control sets for easy access to most parameters, plus dedicated LFO and filter sections.

Honestly, I'd avoid an all in one solution and, for about the same price, get something like a 307 or a Rm1x and an ESX. The ESX can load samples easily and can mangle the shit out of anything you put in it. The only weak point I find in it for my purposes is that the sequencer's resolution is only 16 steps. That's why I'd say get something else to sequence it. A 307 would give plenty of onboard potential for creating sounds and has a resolution of something like 96pqm (or whatever it's called) so you could take those killer breaks you've imported and chopped on the ESX and sequence them with plenty of detail. The 307's arpeggiator can do amazing things to a well thought out drum kit! Plus, if you add other sound modules in the future, the 307 has 8 separate tracks for sequencing different machines.
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Postby Iron Attorney » Thu Jun 23, 2011 2:31 pm

Oh my, another option to consider! :D though my eventual plan is to get two sampler/sequencer machines, possibly the MC909 first then maybe add an RS7000 to the set up when finances allow. I'm assuming like this I could do a similar thing with sampling and sequencing on different machines, and would leave options open to bounce from one machine to another while playing live. I've heard very good things about using both these machines together in a set up.

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Postby Ozma » Sun Jun 26, 2011 12:46 am

thats what i've always wanted to do actually, is get a twin set up like that, combo 2x rs7000 or the rs + something else similar. i've seen one other dude in breakcore with the set, go by 'event horizon' or something, might be his name. never got around to buying it, plus now even the one machine is a bit fucked, too much drinkin & drugs in front of it over the years, cigs... buttons are all sticky & kindof a pain. hah, oh well.. does still work!

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Postby Ozma » Sun Jun 26, 2011 2:31 pm

split horizon, thats the guy. just found his myspace http://www.myspace.com/splthrizn

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Postby Iron Attorney » Wed Jun 29, 2011 4:20 pm

sweet as :D that's pretty good man. Anyone got experience of rs7000 linked to another machine? can you transfer samples and loops between the two?

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Postby Ozma » Wed Jun 29, 2011 8:20 pm

don't know, it'd be mainly just to keep them both in time together. but you could always send one through the others fx.
bout getting your sample files on there, you can one way or another, but its no drag and drop thing. i'd assume new machines coming out would be better about that. found some interesting links: http://data.rs7000.org/forums/showthread.php?threadid=2144
syncing up to ableton, old though http://data.rs7000.org/forums/showthread.php?s=7a8bf681668775ae0c044cac4cb8e2f9&threadid=1879 but idk, i don't mean to push the rs7k so much, its just grown on me. you could do just as well i bet with an mpc, probably better honestly. it is yamaha, you don't really think of it as being up there with akai and roland

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Postby Iron Attorney » Wed Nov 09, 2011 12:05 pm

so, after all that I realised that the MC909 seemed to cost about as much as a machinedrum or mpc5000 off ebay/gumtree.... so I've got the machinedrum markII without UW+ but gonna send it off to be upgraded.... unless anyone knows a sneaky way to upgrade it yourself?

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