A Guide To Find A Suitable Drum Machine | Thomann

Finding a Drum Machine that fits your needs is one kind of a quest.
This video might help on the search as Jonas is checking out four different machines.

Interesting bits and pieces:
00:00 Intro
00:46 Soma Pulsar
04:22 Erica Perkons
06:35 Roland Tr8s
09:55 Nord Drum 3P
12:30 Outro

Gear used:

[djjuno]

Why is it comforting too hear a German talk about drum machines?😂❤

[ryanmanning]

I have the Perkons. The ability to send and return all 4 channels independently through effects pedals (ie fuzz on the kick, delay on the hats, reverb on the snare, and chorus on the bass line) makes this thing a monster drum machine and sound designing tool. One of my favorite hardware machines ever.

[dijjidog]

"I sold it to flume" very subtle flex

[WilliWerkel]

I can't wait for the Jomox Alpha Base MKII to arrive, should be shipping in a few weeks.

[kristianTV]

Never found a single drum machine in 32 years that worked for everything. Mixing and matching to your production is probably the best approach. Sampler/DAW. Though for 'those' genres the 808/909 will never be topped.

[gcd]

Disadvantages Pulsar: Costs 4x as much as most other drum machines, can't be remote controlled unless you're willing to deep dive into CV. Does industrial best though and has a pretty decent recording function.

Perkons is also super expensive - and I just sold my (much cheaper) Erica Synths LXR-02 as the user interface is very confusing. It can generate a lot of sounds, but there are no "snare/kick drum templates" like the Nord Drum does, which would make creating drums a lot easier. So you're quite limited when it comes to creating/adjusting your own sounds, loads of menu diving involved in sometimes obscure locations.

Roland TR8S only plays samples - which is why I sold my Roland TR-09 as it was too much of the same, same. Also MIDI implementation is really terrible. But faders are a plus.

Nord Drum 3P is actually the one that survived all the other drum machines I compared it to. It's a bit of a bummer that it doesn't have seperate outputs for each pad and I had to do a workaround with a AtoVproject 16n to assign some MIDI faders to it - but it has by far the best sounds and has the best user interface (also some of the decisions by Nord make no sense: if you choose between 6 pads with CC 70, why not use values 1-6 instead of 0-21, 22-43 etc? Also has some limitations where you can use note values only with a global MIDI channel, not individual channels, and the firmware hasn't been updated since 2016). Live it to bits and the only one where you can just beat in some variations, without tediously adjusting your velocity afterwards for some "human touch".

[lockyp]

Nord 3P, and Syncussion ftw…One day I might pick up a pulsar. They sound so good. Wish Nord would make a Nord drum 4 with individual outs. It would sell like hotcakes. Especially considering they already have the research and development from the previous models and it really wouldn’t require too much more

[henrikfisch]

I had this »problem« around 2 years ago. I made descent list of all drum computers/synthesizers available on the market. Due to versatility (in my case) it quickly boiled down to four machines:

-- Elektron AnalogRytm
-- Roland TR-8S
-- JoMoX AlphaBase
-- Sequential/DSI Tempest (used)

At that time a »Pulsar« and a »Perkons« simply did not exist, otherwise they would have been on the list. I really REALLY liked to have an »AlphaBase« in my equipment park ... but after listening to a couple of videos I got the impression it is too »techno«, too »hard« (not my sound philosophy).

At the end a »Tempest« made it ... especially after I realized the »Tempest« is more or less also an 6 voice synthesizer. Very happy with that machine right now (even though it is also a bit complicated).

[RAWRecordsDE]

soma looks interesting. I love my modified drumbrute + some modular drum modules I build myself

[ModLifeCrisis]

Kind of an mis-title. Four of my favourite drum machines would be more accurate. I enjoyed watching it nevertheless.

[louistoussaint]

Holy sht the kick of the last tool sound excellent

[compucorder]

An expandable alternative to Perkons / Pulsar that lets you design your own drum machine is to build a eurorack drum machine around a sequencer. start with say an Akai MPC One, and a cheapish 6-8 channel interface for it (Behringer UMC1820 is ok, Audient EVO). Or a Beatstep Pro or Oxi-One and a cheap small mixer. Then a 60u-80u Eurorack case. Maybe add an MI Ripples clone (for Bass drum), Noise Engineering Basimilus Iteritas Alia, maybe a small noise module and a cheap second filter (something MS-20ish?) Or Tip Top 808 / Patching Panda Hats module. There's some nice T-network modules that make satisfying tom/pop/clicks. The affordable Takaab 2LPG can do Buchla Bongos. Mutable peaks gives you useful envelopes, but can also do quite nice 808 drum sounds. Even with four to six voices, you do quickly get to 1800-2k+. And if you pack out an 80u with 8 voices, eurorack case can easily get to 3k+.

[davidcooke]

Interesting selection! Sorry you didn’t get to work on the Nord with a set of sticks!

[great_attractor]

Love the idea! Could you do the same with bassline synths?

[anthonybryan]

Gotharman's Spazedrum never seems to get a mention for some strange reason

[wackerburg]

For me it's quite easy. I like Techno, so I bought a 909. As I also enjoy Electro, I added an 808 a year later and could not be happier. You get instant results that just sound like the real things. Cause they are real ❤

[HOLODECK-MUSIC-PROJECT]

How can Vermona DRM not on this list?!

[mikegeary]

If Nord made a Nord drum eurorack module with plenty of modulation inputs it would be super popular I bet.

[alicelaranjeira]

There's nothing like multilayering drum sounds to get something different.

[snörre]

I want a Perkons with the sounds of the Syncussion. (at a third of the price). The interface is awesome but i could not get a sound i liked out of it. Also mine had a lot of bugs, support was not helping so i sent it back.