Drum Machines

[Uncle DJ]

Hey Guys

I'm thinking about buying a drum machine and here's why.. I play a lot of old Soul, Motown, 50's and 60's rock. In other words, tracks that have very little bass and are usually tough to sync because they were recorded without a metronome. To combat the lack of bottom end in the tracks, I use elastic audio in Logic to fit them to a solid grid. To give them that much needed kick, I'll play the newly adjusted track in one deck, and in the other, a simple beat which I've also made in Logic.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I could route the right drum machine into Traktor and set it to run off the software's tempo. That way I would have the flexibility to make and rearrange beats on the fly rather than being limited to ones that are pre-made. This would also save me the time it takes to make, mix and master a beat for every situation, right??

If that IS true, then my biggest question would be what drum machine to go with. The Native Instruments Maschine caught my eye but the price tag of $500 was pretty hefty. I've also heard that Korg makes some pretty quality products. What would be to best piece of equipment to tackle this situation?

Any insights or suggestions?

Thanks for your help,
-Uncle DJ

[dirkd]

In theory, if you use Logic you could just sync that to your Traktor via MIDI sync and play beats on Ultrabeat, that solution costs a whopping $0.

If you have Logic Studio you could also use Mainstage for this I think.

This is however working under the assumption that you have a grid MPC type of controller with velocity sensitive pads. If you do not then you can pick one up for much less than Maschine, however Maschine is a pretty sick all-in-one solution to your problem.

As always with hardware the devil is in the hands on feel. If you can park yourself at a music shop and bang on Maschines, Electribes, and other synthesizers until you find one you like you will be happier with your purchase than if you bought something that someone recommended to you on this site.

[Uncle DJ]

That's really good advice, thanks dirkd! I'll try that as soon as I get a change but I had another thought. would it be worth while to use any kind of drum machine app on an iPod/phone/pad like this one? It doesn't seem like there would be any automatic tempo adjustments unless I'm wrong... As far as i could tell it would have to be manual.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fm_NWO_wdzE&feature=fvw

[TheLion]

alesis sr-16

a studio standard, less than $100 for a used one

[tigerstyle]

i think you're really looking for a controller? i got kinda lost when you brought traktor into the equation... is your goal to play beats live while the song is playing?

[Uncle DJ]

The end goal is to play beats live, with a controller, through deck D as described in the DJTT article posted below. weather this is done with a drum machine or through Mainstage or logic doesn't much matter. I have an MPD 24 and am currently trying to figure out how two use it to route Mainstage into Traktor from the same computer

[Uncle DJ]

http://www.djtechtools.com/2009/11/2...tor/#more-3536

[dirkd]

If you all you want to do is play beats on deck D in traktor why don't you just export your beats as loops for dropping in deck D and assign cues and loops to the beats for cue juggles and such?

You don't even need a designated drum machine or special hardware for this again or sync anything to anything, just export loops (keep them at or under 32 bars so you can have them loop indefinitely)

Only thing you might need to mess with is how to get set it up on your MPD24 to pick between playing your cue points as one shots or loop play.

[Uncle DJ]

yeah I'm doing that now and it's ok... I figured a drum machine would give me more playability and make my set a little more dynamic, also easier and more intuitive to control with an external controller.

[Uncle DJ]

I'm running the drum machine (ultrabeat) in mainstage out through my laptop's audio port into the phono input in my herculees RMX. The input is set to run through Deck D. This works fine.

The problem: For some reason, when traktor is playing a song on Deck A, mainstage automatically mutes its self to the beat of the music in traktor. This only happens when a song is playing on Deck A... Any ideas?