Advantages of a Drum Machine

amakarise

New member
Hello,

I am fairly new to music production so while this may sound like a silly question, I wanted to ask what are the true benefits/advantages of owning a drum machine? Intuitively, I'd imagine perhaps it's easier to use from a creativity standpoint. I am wondering if maybe on a drum machine someone could link it to their daw (or maybe audio interface, I'm not really sure) and for example, assign a kick to Pad 1, a snare to Pad 2 and Hi-Hat to Pad 3 and experiment to come up with whatever pattern they like to record inside their DAW? (This would be easier than dragging and dropping notes into the piano roll I'm sure)

Also, would the 8 pads that often come on a midi keyboard suffice to do nearly the same job as a drum machine? Sorry if these questions sounds elementary, but I have never used a drum pad nor do I have access to one at the current moment. So, I haven't too much idea of why it is useful. I know some come with preset sounds while others do not, but as far as why people choose to start using it is what I'm looking to gain insight into.

Thank you for any help!
 
The pads on a keyboard are not the same. With an actual drum machine, you get to tweak the sounds & then program a sequence. Some have more features then others. If you are using a DAW, you don't need hardware at all(in some cases). Hardware though can both sound better & allow you to do more then what a DAW is capable of(at least not easily).
 
I think the beauty of drum machines are their limitations, rather than being "more capable" or "better sounding" than what's possible in a DAW. They do a certain thing, and have a certain sound and that's what people tend to like. They're self-contained, so you can focus on just doing drums instead of sprawling in all directions at once, which tends to happen with DAWs a bit too easily. Of course, there are drum machines that simply sound awesome with minimal tweaking, and there are drum machines that have superb features. Not sure if there's anything universal that applies to all drum machines though...

But the thing about "linking it to the DAW" sounds more like just using a pad controller. You don't need a drum machine for that.
 
Thank you all for your answers. So what I've gotten from your answers is that a Drum Pad often comes with it's own unique flavor and sounds (ex: TR-808 will have an "old school" vibe about it's drums) as well as ability to manipulate and tweek those sounds. Also, Drum Pads help the user to stay focused on creating and sequencing drum/percussion patterns only vs the other distractions that could lure someone away inside the DAW.

I know this is a bit subjective of a question, but for someone looking to create new/old school hip hop type beats, rap, EDM and pop-ish type beats, is a Drum Pad truly a great investment to really look into or just something pretty nice to have that can help out with one's craft but not necessary?
 
Thank you all for your answers. So what I've gotten from your answers is that a Drum Pad often comes with it's own unique flavor and sounds (ex: TR-808 will have an "old school" vibe about it's drums) as well as ability to manipulate and tweek those sounds. Also, Drum Pads help the user to stay focused on creating and sequencing drum/percussion patterns only vs the other distractions that could lure someone away inside the DAW.

I think this might be oversimplifying both the definition and the purpose/usefulness a bit...

A "drum pad" usually refers to a pad controller, like Akai's popular MPD series. These only send MIDI messages to the DAW or other MIDI-capable devices, and don't produce sound on their own. They don't usually have sequencing capabilities either. Drum machines, on the other hand, usually have both sounds and sequencers (although there are some units that are just "sound boxes" and need external MIDI input to build patterns with). Then there are, of course, a bunch of different types of drum machines: some use synthesis, some use samples, some both and offer different levels of tweakability. For example, the legendary TR-808 is actually an analog synth, but as ubiquitous as it is, it's actually very limited in its scope - there are only two or one adjustable parameters per sound (and most of them have none!). The just-as-legendary 909 already combined sampled sounds (hi-hats & cymbals) with synthesis (all the rest of the sounds) and then there's a myriad of stuff that do both to varying degrees. Modern high-end machines can have tens of parameters per sound, layered synthesis & samples and super intricate sequencers but it doesn't mean they're better - people still love their 808s because they're simple and sound amazing without having to tweak everything.

I know this is a bit subjective of a question, but for someone looking to create new/old school hip hop type beats, rap, EDM and pop-ish type beats, is a Drum Pad truly a great investment to really look into or just something pretty nice to have that can help out with one's craft but not necessary?

I don't think this can be answered, because as you said, it's subjective - most people just use DAWs and are content with it. They're practically unlimited, and it's up to you to decide whether you like that limitlessness or consider it to be too much and needing something simpler and "more focused".
 
Ableton is a very very effective DAW to organize a custom "drum rack" that you can map to onto midi pads. And it's very easy to do. I'll make a video explaining it in the morning, and send it to you or post it here.

Yes, you can use the pads on a midi keyboard just like any other "midi drumpad/controller". If you're talking about older drum machines that you load samples into and play internally, that's not midi and a lot different. We're talking about midi controllers here and Krushing is right about them above. If you want everything on the same controllers (keys, pads, and knobs), there's a forum selling one on this site: https://www.futureproducers.com/for...re/buy-sell-trade/selling-alesis-vx49-535919/
Or you can get one at a local store.

You'll map it the same way as I do on my MPD. You'll have the convenience of having everything on the same controller. I'm using an MPD26 and a couple separate keyboards, but just imagine that it's on a "combo controller", with everything included. It's the same thing in the "midi-mapping" world.

You can assign the knobs to be unique effects as well, but that's a later topic, we're just talking about the pads here.

Ah hell, lol I'll make the video right now. (It's good content to add to my site anyway). Give me 30 minutes and I'll show ya how to customize the pads.
 
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