Drum Machine for live use? (not a Microkorg)

ShriekingSheet

I'm not sure if this belongs here or the D&E&DJ forum so mod, you might want to adjust.

Anyway, looking for a bit of a steer. I play with some mates, we use guitars mostly and usually live drums but are looking at ways of using more electronic-type drums and beats. I'm really not familiar with this whole end of things.

Is this a decent place to start experimenting?

http://www.thomann.de/ie/korg_microk...nikeyboard.htm

fifth

I've a microkorg, first synth I've gotten and I'd recommend it.

seannash

the keys are far too small for playing live

BaZmO*

seannash wrote: »

the keys are far too small for playing live

Irish Band Fight Like Apes would disagree with you.



You can also get the Microkorg XL

seannash

i forgot to add "in my opinion"

but yeah i owned one and it wasnt nice to play.very small keys.

not sure if the xl has bigger keys but the sound out of the microkorg is good

ShriekingSheet

Cheers for the responses.

The XL looks like it's got quite a different set of features..?

We're predominantly looking to use the beats/drum-machine functionality to use with vocals, guitars & bass as well as some live drums.

Is this a little too pianoy and not enough bump-itty-bump-tish for such needs do you think?

seannash

think you should look at drum machines as this is really a synth for making leads,bass's,pads,arps etc.not especially great for making drum hits.

you couyld also just use a laptop to trigger drum samples

BaZmO*

The MicroKorg is no could for beats at all. Has a couple of cheesey techno & trance preset patterns but that's about the extent of it's drum making capabilities

ShriekingSheet

seannash wrote: »

think you should look at drum machines as this is really a synth for making leads,bass's,pads,arps etc.not especially great for making drum hits.

you couyld also just use a laptop to trigger drum samples

Cheers, that's kinda what I was thinkin. Is there a commonly popular type of drum machine? I'm searching around Thoman and there's a variety of them at different prices.

Would shy away from software a bit, in favour of hardware for live stuff.

ShriekingSheet

By the way, if there's anyone who uses this kind of gear and would be interested in playing with a band the below has details.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055647028

fifth

Microkorg isn't good for beats, I've never been able to use it for that. It's keys were fine for me and I wouldn't have the smallest fingers either.

ShriekingSheet

funkyflea wrote: »

Microkorg isn't good for beats, I've never been able to use it for that. It's keys were fine for me and I wouldn't have the smallest fingers either.

Yeah it's pretty much out then - I should have been asking about a drum machine from the outset!

SteveDon

Check out the korg electribes, emx and esx

ShriekingSheet

SteveDon wrote: »

Check out the korg electribes, emx and esx

Thanks - for that - Holy sh*t that looks like a lot of fun!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUCasExN2ZQ

One of em is eu549 on Thoman which is that bit out of my budget. Was hoping to keep it south of 350.

BaZmO*

I picked up a Roland DR670 Dr.Rhythm recently to use when playing the guitar. Great sounds on it and it has some classic dance sounds on it like the the 808 etc.



Picked it secondhand on Adverts.ie for about €40

seannash

ShriekingSheet wrote: »

Thanks - for that - Holy sh*t that looks like a lot of fun!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUCasExN2ZQ

One of em is eu549 on Thoman which is that bit out of my budget. Was hoping to keep it south of 350.

check ebay,gumtree etc.with this recession on alot of people are selling there stuff.
nothing wrong with second hand

ShriekingSheet

BaZmO* wrote: »

I picked up a Roland DR670 Dr.Rhythm recently to use when playing the guitar. Great sounds on it and it has some classic dance sounds on it like the the 808 etc.



Picked it secondhand on Adverts.ie for about €40

Wow, that's cheap...

Could you programme it with a song structure, ie: piece together a track for us to play over?

ShriekingSheet

Yeah there's a few on sale s/h alright.
What are the differences between ESX and EMX?

Edit: it seems the emx = drum machine and the esx = sampler?

Think the emx is what I'd need.

SteveDon

Emx is uses analogue modelling, whilst the esx is a sampler, drum sounds are great on both, personally i use the emx more than the esx, but yeah you can pick one up for near enough 300 these days, i have them both and got them both for 300 on adverts.ie

ShriekingSheet

Are there any older versions of the electribe that would do, given that the whole band isn't gonna hinge on this thing - it's just for experimenting with.

BaZmO*

ShriekingSheet wrote: »

Wow, that's cheap...

Could you programme it with a song structure, ie: piece together a track for us to play over?

Yeah that's the point of it. There's 200 preset patterns with space for another 200 (or thereabouts), that you can program yourself. Each pattern contains a drum fill that you can trigger with a pedal (which you'd need to buy separately).

There's also a Bass pattern (preset & progamable) that you can choose to play along with the drums or on it's own.

thrush

ShriekingSheet wrote: »

Are there any older versions of the electribe that would do, given that the whole band isn't gonna hinge on this thing - it's just for experimenting with.

ya man, get one of the old er-1/es-1 machines. you'll pick one up for about 150 bux. i have an er-1 great little box and you'll get some mad sounds out of it. there's also 2 audio in parts for processing other stuff. grungy! there's only 2 out channels with a small bit of bleed from each channel.

well worth it though.

the es-1 is a sampler drum sequencer. also good craic.

Helix

ShriekingSheet wrote: »

Thanks - for that - Holy sh*t that looks like a lot of fun!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUCasExN2ZQ

One of em is eu549 on Thoman which is that bit out of my budget. Was hoping to keep it south of 350.

youll get them second hand for between 300 and 350 a pop

ShriekingSheet

thrush wrote: »

ya man, get one of the old er-1/es-1 machines. you'll pick one up for about 150 bux. i have an er-1 great little box and you'll get some mad sounds out of it. there's also 2 audio in parts for processing other stuff. grungy! there's only 2 out channels with a small bit of bleed from each channel.

well worth it though.

the es-1 is a sampler drum sequencer. also good craic.

Helix wrote: »

youll get them second hand for between 300 and 350 a pop

Much appreciated guys.

It's actually this thread that made me realize the bleedin' obvious! And that is, to actually get someone into the band who is good with this kind of stuff! So we're talking to a few nice chaps as well as a couple of live drummers and will see what comes out of it.

Essentially, the deal is that we have 3 guys with guitars & bass who all can sing & write. We've done lots of nights in the past such as Pogo (POD), Backlash (POD) and Transmission (TBF), but that was with a fairly stodgey rawk sound that none of us are interested in doing any more. So we haven't quite sold our guitars and bought turn tables but we're going for something less guitar-chordy and more bumpity-bump. All the old stuff is in the bin and hopefully, with some new equipment and possibly one or two new bodies we'll have something pretty cool to do in the clubs this side of christmas. We'll see. But if anyone reading this thinks it might be up there street, just drop me a PM.

Nice one for all the help.

Helix

this wouldve been something id be HUGELY interested in...

but im moving to toronto on monday

ShriekingSheet

Helix wrote: »

this wouldve been something id be HUGELY interested in...

but im moving to toronto on monday

Haha, that's a shame man!

SteveDon

Ill be up for this, do you have a place to practise? ive been thinking about getting something like this together for a while, whats your influences, you can check out my work in my sig

ShriekingSheet

SteveDon wrote: »

Ill be up for this, do you have a place to practise? ive been thinking about getting something like this together for a while, whats your influences, you can check out my work in my sig

Yeah got your PM thanks. We're based around Rathfarnham and have free access to a school where we can play as loud as we like pretty much any evening.

empirix

i got one of these -mthe shizzle
http://www.elektron.se/products/?sPage=overview&sProd=ES_SPS1MK2.uw

thrush

show off!!

ShriekingSheet

empirix wrote: »

i got one of these -mthe shizzle
http://www.elektron.se/products/?sPage=overview&sProd=ES_SPS1MK2.uw

Wow, it's e1159 on Thomann! Looks like a brilliant piece of kit. What kind of music do you make with it? Do you use a lot of other gear with it or is it your main instrument?

empirix

ShriekingSheet wrote: »

Wow, it's e1159 on Thomann! Looks like a brilliant piece of kit. What kind of music do you make with it? Do you use a lot of other gear with it or is it your main instrument?

all electronic my friend, its perfect for it but it could also fit in to other genres - i have the uw version(load samples into it) - its €1600

i use it with more stuff,its not my main thing