need a drum machine - suggestions from guitarists?

[buddythegoldfish]

as stated in the topic, i know this is the guitar forum. i'm a guitarist and have little drum machine experience, i wanted suggestions from other guitarists. (don't move my post!)

think "bedroom shredder." i'm looking for an entry-level drum machine, strictly for home recording use. as i said before, i have little to no drum machine experience, so i don't need a very complicated or expensive unit. the built-in beats on my multieffects pedals aren't cutting it and i want a machine with which i can build slightly more complex beats. again, this is for bedroom recording, just me and my computer. i have recording experience, but mostly with live musicians.

summary - i'm shopping for an entry-level drum machine to accompany my personal guitar recording. suggestions? thanks.

[R Whittington]

The Alesis SR16 is affordable, user friendly and will deliver good sounds and great performance.

[buddythegoldfish]

damn that was a fast reply!

[buddythegoldfish]

i just scoped the sr16 out at musicians friend, seems to be exactly what i'm looking for. thanks!

[R Whittington]

uh...hello Buddy?.....we sell equipment here too...why don't you give us a try? I have it in stock.

[buddythegoldfish]

hahaha, sorry. i completely forgot, i usually just come here for the forums. unfortunately, musicians friend has you beat by $50 :[

[R Whittington]

well...I hope they'll also take an interest in helping you with the product after the sale. Good luck.

[jas]

Buddy,

A Guitarist has to do what a Guitarist has to do.

I appreciate the vision that the owner has had for Sweetwater...lord knows I've literally spent $KK with them...but, they need to realize this is a very "cost conscience" group.

The one thing I've learned throughout 30 plus years is that no matter where you buy the product from...after about 30 - 90 days you'll be referred to the manufacturer's warranty. In that case, the manufacturer will direct you to the nearest warrant center that services their product...regardless if it's Tascam, Mackie, etc. I've gotten quotes from local gear stores that could not come near Mail Order Competition (and that includes Sweetwater). Only once have I had to have a piece of gear serviced under warranty...and guess who serviced that piece of gear...if ou guessed the local shop (with a wonderful Tech Head) you are absolutely correct.

Also, you may want to check out another mail order store...samash.com. They actually give you 45 days return--NO QUESTIONS ASKED. If financing is a requirement, I've seen their web site offer 18 months "Same AS Cash".

To Sweetwater: don't take this as an axe grinding...IT'S NOT. You guys are marketing expertise...musicians in Joe's Garage don't have a lot of cash. They may care less that you build or add this Overhead in to the cost of your product. I remember a local music store owner telling me that I may waltz in 1-2 times a year...lay out $500 - $600 cash, or more...depending...but, the bread and butter is the customers who come in several times a year dropping $50 - $200.

So, Buddy. What gear are you going to buy with the $50?

[DAS]

"...need to realize this is a very "cost conscience" [SIC] group."

While I understand the point, it also seems like a bit of a cop out.

I heard an interesting quote the other day: "Every time you spend money you are casting a vote for the type of world you want." Pretty lofty idea compared to a guy who simply wants a drum machine, but the small things do add up, and if we don't each take some responsibility for it we end up stuck with just what we pay for.

I'm pretty confident those other dealers don't have full time tech support staff either (as well as any of a dozen other things we offer that they don't), but then every individual has their own ideas about what their time is worth. No sweat. Life goes on.

[guitartabbooks]

Try this link for a free download drum machine.
Here is the review. 4 stars.
Drum Box 1.0
DrumBox is a great drum machine which uses .WAV files as the drum hits rather than having it's own presets. DrumBox is a 32 event, 8 channel drum machine in which you can edit the volume pan and shuffle of each channel. The graphical interface is basic, but the core of the drum machine is extremely well written.
Free Drum Machine Download

[Lambo]

I have the Alesis SR-16 and just recently purchased the Zoom RT-323. The RT-323 is more expensive but with it you get very good bass lines to go with the drum tracks which is ideal for a guitarist. The SR-16 is very affordable, easy to use, and sounds very good as others have stated.

[buddythegoldfish]

haha, if you're still reading this, i'll probably buy food or pay my bills with the $50. i'm an undergraduate college student, so i'm not exactly overflowing with cash. many of you have probably been in this situation before, and know that $50 can go a very long way.

[Sinkharmony]

I like the new(er) Boss drum machine, the DR 770. It gives you something like 120 drum sets, the ability to do rolls, etc, etc. I have an old version of the Dr. Beat that I plan on getting rid of for the dr770.

[Preshure]

I'll keep this brief.

Good drum machines for the poor guitarist (is there any other kind of guitarist?) in order of totally sweetness:

5. Boss DR-202 (easy to use, good roland sounds)
4. Boss DR-3 (higher on the list than the DR-202 due to price)
3. Zoom MTR-3 (best as far as money goes, easiest to use)
2. Boss DR-770 (great sounds- good kits and customizing features)
1. Alesis SR-16 (plethora of thick, meaty sounds, cheap and easy to use- best combination of money and sounds)

I have used all of these machines and own 1, 2 and 3. Go with the Alesis if you want good sound. Go with the Boss if you want good sounds and have a few more bucks. Go with the Zoom if you have no dough, but need good samples.

As far as sweetwater goes, they're always chopping the prices to compete. If you have a problem with a price, talk to your SALES ENGINEER-- who else on earth can offer you your OWN sales engineer that will help you with whatever you want-- for FREE?!?!?!

My man Jason Koons is always keeping me informed about good deals and always has sound advice-- not always trying to sell sell sell. The shipping is always faster than they estimate, everything is well packaged and I never ever sweat about reliability or product condition. Musician's Friend is good too, but if I ever need to talk to somebody or need hands on advice, go to Sweetwater. It's worth the extra 10 dollars on the price for the piece of mind you get.

[Eldur1]

I very much agree with the post about the Boss DR770 drum machine. The pre-set patterns are many and varied and with tempo tweaking, seemingly endless. I use the 770 in conjunction with Pro-Tools LE (Digi001) and record the drum patterns in midi, alter them, repeat, and change velocities on the computer screen. I recently completed my second CD using the DR770 on every track, and I've never gotten any comments about the drums sounding un-natural or machine-like. Of course, this process takes a lot of time, but that's what I do.
Also, addressing the Sweetwater issue in previous posts, I would like to say that I really appreciate the personal involvement and care that Sweetwater gives before and after the sale. Sure, I've bought equipment from other sources, but I usually try to buy from Sweetwater first because when I have the occasional problem, the support team is incredible. At one time they had me on a three way call with the manufacturer's tech just in order to get my POD midi'd up to my laptop; not the most important thing in the world, but they treated it like it was.
By the way, I did buy my DR770 from Sweetwater a couple of years ago at my sales tech's suggestion.
Good Luck