Grooveboxes/sequencers/drum machines - Yamaha RM1x

  On 11/19/2012 at 1:51 AM, sirch said:

  On 11/19/2012 at 1:10 AM, sweepstakes said:

Yeah the ER-1 is good fun. Especially with that audio input. I think the input on the EA-1 was more fun cos you can run it into the filter and I think the ringmod too, but it's pretty tough to get good decent drums out of that thing.

 

that depends on your taste i spose.

it has 909 sounding hats, kind of.

a kick that is somewhat 808-ey, but not, but bouncier. and a lot else inbetween.

not great for snares but you can get a lot of good bleeps and bloops out of it.

it does have a certain sound to it though.

but it's full of patterns already loaded, innit, some of which aren't too bad, imho, so trip would have no problem there just looping and tweaking stuff, if it's just for fun.

 

anyhoo, i think the man wants thee box of IDMz.. :)

 

you'll probably need double your current budget of 200, tho... even now.

Oh I agree about the ER-1, nice blip and boom stuff for sure. I liked it. I was referring to the EA-1 for drums, which it's not great at.

I like to try to use gear for purposes it wasn't intended for. It's more fun and I like to think you get unique sounds that way.

I think "limited" gear is the way to go. You have no choice but to be creative.

Whereas with highly-capable start-of-the-art gear sometimes it's so easy to make stuff that your actual, personal contribution (vis-a-vis the contribution of the gear) is minimal.

edit: the Electribe and Casio stuff are great examples of "limited" gear

I don't know much about Grooveboxes but I've heard good things about the MC505.

  On 11/19/2012 at 2:29 AM, sweepstakes said:

  On 11/19/2012 at 1:51 AM, sirch said:

  On 11/19/2012 at 1:10 AM, sweepstakes said:

Yeah the ER-1 is good fun. Especially with that audio input. I think the input on the EA-1 was more fun cos you can run it into the filter and I think the ringmod too, but it's pretty tough to get good decent drums out of that thing.

 

that depends on your taste i spose.

it has 909 sounding hats, kind of.

a kick that is somewhat 808-ey, but not, but bouncier. and a lot else inbetween.

not great for snares but you can get a lot of good bleeps and bloops out of it.

it does have a certain sound to it though.

but it's full of patterns already loaded, innit, some of which aren't too bad, imho, so trip would have no problem there just looping and tweaking stuff, if it's just for fun.

 

anyhoo, i think the man wants thee box of IDMz.. :)

 

you'll probably need double your current budget of 200, tho... even now.

Oh I agree about the ER-1, nice blip and boom stuff for sure. I liked it. I was referring to the EA-1 for drums, which it's not great at.

 

I like to try to use gear for purposes it wasn't intended for. It's more fun and I like to think you get unique sounds that way.

..use the blippy bloops as percussive sounds then. ;)

I don't think it was ever meant to be a straight drum machine. therefore those sounds that are more straight drum sounds are a bit pants. like the mock-909 hats, etc. there's only a few of them anyway. I liked the clap.

it's a drum synth, innit, so you're meant to tweak in order to get, as you say "unique sounds", and use them as/for percussion.

then you (can) whack on your more atypical kick drum and hats (if you want).

still a pretty good buy i reckon considering its price, still, and that most everything else made around this time was complete shit. :)

Yep. Totally agree.

The only "straight drum machine" I really enjoyed (well besides the 606 of course) was the Yamaha RY30. Amazing machine, albeit a little thin on its own. Autechre's "We Are R Why" was made primarily on one.

i fucking love drum machines. they're all brilliant.

OK yeah what the fuck am I talking about. Drum machines fucking rule.

*takes control of the drum machine*

so if a machinedrum is a drum machine...whats a monomachine?

also - what's peoples thoughts on this dainty little contraption:

seems much much cheaper and fairly decent...?

  On 11/19/2012 at 4:44 PM, The Bro said:

I don't know much about Grooveboxes but I've heard good things about the MC505.

Me too, but the little time I've spent with it gave me the impression that it was an overpriced piece of shit. Maybe I missed something?

i have fond memories of the 505 (and the MC303 lol), but in reality it's nothing much more than a limited ROMpler with a fancy interface...however, i think the step sequencer combined with the on-board effects and real-time tweaking make for a powerful combination in the right hands. would be pretty simple to knock up some tussy style stuff with one for example - all about the sequencer innit.

The ER-1 is actually very nice when sequenced with something else. It only has a single accent level in it's own sequencer, but it will actually respond to full velocity range from external gear. ER-1 + numerology is a great combo. Get some NRPN sequences going too and it really comes alive. If you use it for normal standard drums only you are really missing it.

  On 11/19/2012 at 10:51 PM, slightlydrybeans said:

The ER-1 is actually very nice when sequenced with something else. It only has a single accent level in it's own sequencer, but it will actually respond to full velocity range from external gear. ER-1 + numerology is a great combo. Get some NRPN sequences going too and it really comes alive. If you use it for normal standard drums only you are really missing it.

Wut!? Mental! I fucking hate NRPNs though.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/160922905234?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

might end up around the 500 mark? who knows could get lucky

  On 11/19/2012 at 10:57 PM, Social Spastic said:

http://www.ebay.co.u...984.m1423.l2649

 

might end up around the 500 mark? who knows could get lucky

extremely tempting, but extremely unlikely...this thread was defo premature in terms of my current moneys situation. But it still has been a good source of info and will offer potential dreams....

i'll check back when i get at least 500'sih...which i have no idea when that'll be

Some of the Roland MC-X0X's seem pretty rad

obviously the 202 is a classic

but the 808 and 909 seem rad

and the primitive MC-09 looks like it produces interesting results

The 202 seems dope. I'd personally skip out on the 808 because at this point it's such a fucking cliche. The 909 is almost as bad but mostly only for house, I think you could get some fresh stuff out of it still. If you want to pay the price for one, that is.

  On 11/20/2012 at 1:14 AM, sweepstakes said:

The 202 seems dope. I'd personally skip out on the 808 because at this point it's such a fucking cliche. The 909 is almost as bad but mostly only for house, I think you could get some fresh stuff out of it still. If you want to pay the price for one, that is.

naw naw I meant the MC-808 and the MC-909

edit: looking back on my post, I wasn't clear...my bad

Oh yeah. I see now.

I'm a child of the 90s so when people say 808/909 I always assume they mean TR.

  On 11/20/2012 at 1:48 AM, sweepstakes said:

Oh yeah. I see now.

I'm a child of the 90s so when people say 808/909 I always assume they mean TR.

It's Roland's fault, and they did it on purpose.

You also have the SP-303, SP-808, MC-303

I can see a kid mistakenly picking up an MC-808 or SP-808 at a music store

  On 11/20/2012 at 1:55 AM, LimpyLoo said:

  On 11/20/2012 at 1:48 AM, sweepstakes said:

Oh yeah. I see now.

I'm a child of the 90s so when people say 808/909 I always assume they mean TR.

 

It's Roland's fault, and they did it on purpose.

 

You also have the SP-303, SP-808, MC-303

 

I can see a kid mistakenly picking up an MC-808 or SP-808 at a music store

Roland did it so that when little hipsters ask for a TR-808 for xmas, their well-meaning but value-conscious mums will purchase a new MC-808, saying 'here you go snookums with luv MOMMY" on the xmas card, and the hipster children will be too ashamed to complain, just like that time in 1987 when their mothers got them a set of Go-Bots instead of Transformers, and I could tell how proud my mom was of the purchase, thinking I'd love it and bring it in to show and tell, but I knew all the other kids would laugh at me again... oh god, wait--

The thing is, most--if not all--of the stuff is pretty decent.

I wouldn't mind having an MC-909 one bit.

I currently own an SP-303, and I used to have an SP-808.

All very good gear.

No offense but I think I'd mind having an MC 808/909.

The MC303/505 I think I could dig because they're so shamelessly trashy. Record it super hot to tape and have a ravepocalypse

The SPs seem dope tho. Still miss my SP202 sometimes. I'll prolly scratch that itch with a Microsampler one of these days.

I just don't care for pretty much any post 90s Roland except the VP9000 which I still kinda want.

  On 11/20/2012 at 2:25 AM, sweepstakes said:

No offense but I think I'd mind having an MC 808/909.

The MC303/505 I think I could dig because they're so shamelessly trashy. Record it super hot to tape and have a ravepocalypse

 

The SPs seem dope tho. Still miss my SP202 sometimes. I'll prolly scratch that itch with a Microsampler one of these days.

You're right that the early ones are the cool, simple-elegance ones (e.g. 202, 303, 505).

I think the 808 and 909 could be used for good but they tend to be used for evil. I'd probably dirty the stuff up so it didn't sound so slick. but for a hardware sequencer and drum machine/sampler I think they're workable.

I have a microsampler and I can vouch for its awesomeness (though I only really use it for multi-sampling things like glockenspiels and little Casio flutes)

  On 11/20/2012 at 2:35 AM, LimpyLoo said:

I have a microsampler and I can vouch for its awesomeness (though I only really use it for multi-sampling things like glockenspiels and little Casio flutes)

Nice! It seems like it'd be good fun traveling, for hotel rooms or relatives' houses. Like a super SK1. I have a soft spot for battery operated hardware like that, because I'm an awkward dweeb.