What is your personal most favorite hardware drum machine?

[darkriver]

What is your personal most favorite hardware drum machine?

Korg Electribe ER-1, Roland TR-808/909, Linn Linndrum, Sequential Drumtraks/Tom, Oberheim DMX, Jomox Xbase 09/999/888, etc?

[wavecircle]

Tough call.

Machinedrum or 808.

[Scaff]

Octatrack

[Peik]

606

[oozitron]

808

Drew

[Just me]

Dr707. RX5 comes in right behind.

[metallum]

Machinedrum combine with octatrack for programming drums.
MPC for playing drum ...last machine for playing drums.

[greydominion]

I just got a 707 and love that style programming. But the ultimate for me would be an 808 because of its functionality.

[mhtones]

ER-1, but that's because it's the only one I've owned. Want to try a 606 some day, but prices are just too high these days.

[jessem]

Jomox 999

[Spanningtree]

Machinedrum UW MKII

[Popski]

808 all the waaay

well, also Oberheim DX

[Babaluma]

606 hats, 808 kick, 909 snare

[mckenic]

ER-1... Want to try a 606 some day, but prices are just too high these days.

Im almost exactly the same!

Er-1 - so bloody simple! Saying that my DCM8 is getting closer to being a fav but I STILL cant get my head around my MD. I WILL spend the needed time to fall in love with it - just have not YET.

EDIT - meant to add, I imagine a 606 and modular is just too much fun and INSTANT! Some day perhaps...

[sydilaxe]

RS7000 + Airbase 99. Not exactly one item, but love the combo.

[noobyscooby]

LinnDrum LM-2. Everything about it and mine's been JL Cooper MIDI'd, extra bank of ROMs bla bla bla.

[vmgas]

i really love my 707. i like the programming style and the individual outs are great

[Bryan B]

I love my TR-808 for it's electro analog flavor, individual outs, trigger outs, tweakability and quarky bass kick that adds together if you have multiple hits in a row or sounds different when you have accent on it. The Kick , snare, hi-hats, cymbal and toms are amazing. This is the most synth sounding drum machines, not for realistic sounding drums though.

I also love my TR-909 for it's bangin' techno flavor, individual outs, trigger outs, midi in triggering with velocity, midi programming out for synth lines, tweakability and the hardest hitting sounds (noticed most at high volumes). The Kick can be tight or loose, the snare and clap can be punchy and the hi-hats are classic. This box sounds the most realistic of the analog drum machines. I really enjoy mixing the clap with a snare sound for a crunchy clap!

If you have one of the above, you want the other. Together they form Voltron! Add an SH-101 (clocking the arpeggiator) and you have a sweet team with some fun live possibilities.

The 606 is great to program and sounds nice but the kick is too wimpy for it to be an only child.

The 707 can fake out a lot of people and sound like a 909, but it doesn't have the tweakable parameters so it ends up being a one trick pony on it's own. The individual outs allow some effects fun which can bring it up to full on awesome.

The 626 (extra sounds and individual outs) and 505 (slimmed down version) sound pretty good and allow pitch shifting of digital samples but lack the umpff I want.

The DX is a sweet little box. It sounds great and if you have midi it is easy to program. I never liked the tap into a metronome approach to writing beats but some people like it I guess. Be prepared to have a 96ppq or tape clock if you want to sync it to other hardware. The new Silent Way Din Sync plug-in might do the trick.

The ER-1 is kind of a toy compared to the rest. It has great sequencing and editing in it though. The sounds are pretty thin in my opinion.

I haven't played with a Linn Drum or any of the Sequential or JoMox Drum machines.

I think if you mention the 707, you should also include the 727. It has a lot of great additive percussion and can be had cheap. They are almost identical other than sounds.

[Cat-A-Tonic]

Does a modular synth count as a hardware drum machine?
That's what I use for the majority of my rhythm programming and percussion sounds.

Jomox MBase11 is my favorite kick.

Samplers and digital drum machines like the more recent Alesis and Boss ones are better for realistic cymbals and other complex sounds that are beyond the modest analog palette.

The Korg Wavedrums are fun to play,
but somehow I haven't built up the nerve to buy one yet.

I have no desire for an 808, 909, 303...

606 does seem nice for programming triggers.

[skipperdean]

i love my 606. might i suggest the roland r8? it is a cheaper, under the radar piece of kit. it doesn't have trigger outs like the 606, but it will give you the big drum sound the 606 is missing. you should be able to find one for around $100 if you look, possibly with an 808 card. its one of those instruments who's price will probably be ~$500 soon(like the 606)

i really like the machinedrum, er-1, monotribe and the hr-16 is cool, especially circuit bent.

i haven't had a chance to play, but really like what i've heard from the mfb-503 and 522, jomox 888/999, tempest, miami, linndrum, drumtraks, dmx, and of course cr78, 808 and 909.

there's so many different kinds of hardware drum machine's that fulfill all sorts of needs, if i could have 3 right now i would probably do:
888 for analog flavor
606 for triggering and instant flashback
machine drum uw for electronic tones and triggers

[Joe.]

Es-1.

[mecanikill]

Metasonix D-1000.

[haven]

Right now its a Machinedrum UW mk2 controlled by a Cirklon. Cirklon gets past the limits of the Machinedrum sequencer but unfortunately pattern locks are not as easy to program thans to Elekton's weird decision to cram the parameters of 16 instruments into 4 midi channels. Why didn't they just use a channel per drum?

I gotta get a instrument template from one of the other Cirklon users for the Machinedrum...

But I have this feeling once I experience Maschine in person the Machinedrum will fade away. I am really liking the acoustic percussion sounds people have made for Kontakt lately.

[subbasshead]

606 (via Ebb und Flut)

[Funky40]

octatrack



not knowing much other i must admit.