drum machines decision

dksucharda

New member
I have been looking at drum machines for a while. My first question is are these good for producing drum tracks for other types of music other than rap, hip hop, EDM, etc. can you do country, jazz, or just "normal" percussion for music from music such as John Mayer type music. Was looking at NI Machine for quite a while, but more recently been looking at Arturia SparkLE and Beat Step Pro (not sure how these differ and would appreciate an explanation). My software on my computer Groove agent has a 4x4 layout with 16 pads. Machine has this physical layout so I know it would work with my software, but seems more complicated. SparkLE and Beatbddy has a row of 8 pads or 2 row of 8 pads in the beat buddy and is more of a step sequencer if I under stand it correctly. What I don't know is if software such as groove agent could be used in anyway with the arturia products. I have other questions, but I think think explanations and recommendations from these questions are what I am most curious about.

FYI: I have no real drumming experience or beat making experience. I do like hip hop, rap, etc but am a 47 year old in a small town and am probably not going to be he next Rick Ross, P-diddy, etc. Thus I am looking for a drum machine tat can apply drums to other types of music that are more in line with what I will be doing on a daily basis. I have even wondered if I wouldn't be best with a beat buddy, but I am not sure if I can record to cubase from this. Thanks.
 
Very Short Answer-- Yes.

A little more indepth-- You will need to work on the experience that you currently don't have; creating realistic drum grooves and correctly genre-specific drum grooves takes time/patience and know-how. Also, if this is your plan (as described above-- to make realistic drum groove emulations for a variety of music styles), you need to pick a machine with sounds that match that goal (good solid drum samples that are not too electronically oriented or trendy).

GJ
 
Both the Maschine and the SparkLE are software/hardware hybrids - they have their own software (that produces the sound and so on) running on your computer, and the hardware device merely controls the software. And yes, both can be used for emulating live drumming as well, but as rhythmgj said, getting that to sound good and realistic is not necessarily easy.

The BeatStep Pro isn't really a drum machine, it's "just" a sequencer.
 
I recently changed from Cubase to Studio One (So happy, I should have done it years ago). Anyway, I finally decided on getting the new ATOM which releases End of October 2018 and Studio One Artist comes with this. It has the 16 drum pad layout I wanted and is only $150 (the software alone is worth $99 if I bought it separately). It is designed to work seamlessly with studio one so I should be able to avoid a few headaches here and It will be good for me to learn on. I am sure it will have it's own VSTs but I am told I can use it with Groove agent as well. Separate from this I am trying to learn where to find and how to use "drum loops." I anticipate using a combination of patches in ATOM and making my own tracks as well as using pre-made loops and manipulating them to my liking. However again, I am interested in making rhythm for many different genres of music, most commonly: folk rock, rock, country, jazz and then for fun maybe some hip hop and rap.
 
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