Effects and Drum machines

Dexter76 · Joined: May 23, 2006 Posts: 10 Location: Italy

Greetings,
i'm really new into this wonderful forum and i'm quite new to the electronic music in general.
I take my musical inspirations from Underworld, Orbital, Future Sound Of London

at the moment my gear is a Midi Controller+MC909+MC307 and Ableton+Cubase SX 3.
I'm looking for a couple of things:
-1 a great multieffect processor especially suitable for live sessions
-2 a great Drum machine (i read that the TR909 is still the coolest analogue DM)

Any suggestion?

Regards
Dx76

mtvic · Posted: Tue May 23, 2006 5:47 am Post subject:

Suggestions:
-1 a great multieffect processor especially suitable for live sessions

Korg Kaoss Pad 2

-2 a great Drum machine (i read that the TR909 is still the coolest analogue DM)

Machinedrum if you can afford it

jkn · Joined: Mar 14, 2004 Posts: 469 Location: La Porte, IN, USA

You've asked a very wide open question - one that is hugely based on personal taste. Start looking around for used things that catch your eye - you can usually catch a few decent reviews at http://www.harmony-central.com - in their effects database.

Some people really love the older classic drum machines - some people like the newer groove boxes. The Korg electribes make a lot of people happy.

Dexter76 · Joined: May 23, 2006 Posts: 10 Location: Italy

Thnx for your answers.

I've read brillant comments about Kaoss Pad 2 (my music store has the Entrancer version for 400euros...not bad)
I was just wandering if it's a professional stuff in term of sound capabilities...
What's better: analogue or digital effects?

Bye!
Dx76

paul e. · Posted: Tue May 23, 2006 7:58 am Post subject:

Kassen · Posted: Tue May 23, 2006 8:44 am Post subject:

modified analogue effects for anything that can be done anlogue, custom code and patches for everything else.

Beware of people that say "you can't tell the difference". What they mean is "I can't tell the difference and so I asume you can't either". Also, beware of any thing marked as "industry standard". The standard in this industry is never being heard: "industry standard" isn't nearly good enough.

elektro80 · Posted: Tue May 23, 2006 9:00 am Post subject:

blue hell · Posted: Tue May 23, 2006 12:32 pm Post subject:

Dexter76 · Joined: May 23, 2006 Posts: 10 Location: Italy

Dexter76 · Joined: May 23, 2006 Posts: 10 Location: Italy

Does anyone tried the Pioneer EFX 1000?
It's too much Dj oriented?

There is also a huge price difference...Kaoss Pad 2 Entrancer is 480€ and EFX1000 820€

i would mainly use echoes/phaser to produce drum progressions and some vocoders...

Thank you in advance for your suggestions

Bye

Dx76

elektro80 · Posted: Wed May 24, 2006 11:55 am Post subject:

paul e. · Posted: Wed May 24, 2006 10:06 pm Post subject:

a polaroid ?

Kassen · Posted: Thu May 25, 2006 4:51 am Post subject:

Kassen · Posted: Thu May 25, 2006 5:02 am Post subject:

elektro80 · Posted: Thu May 25, 2006 5:37 am Post subject:

deknow · Posted: Thu May 25, 2006 5:41 am Post subject:

Kassen · Posted: Thu May 25, 2006 5:50 am Post subject:

elektro80 · Posted: Thu May 25, 2006 5:55 am Post subject:

elektro80 · Posted: Thu May 25, 2006 6:03 am Post subject:

Mohoyoho · Posted: Thu May 25, 2006 8:33 am Post subject:

Back to the original question: a good filter would be handy with a drum machine. I like the Moog MF 101. It's quite flexible and sounds great. I have an Akai, but it seems a bit thin. Add in a good processor with decent reverb and delay such as a Lexicon or TC Electronics. I'm not up on drum machines. I own a Yamaha RM1X, and it seems pretty flexible. The drum sounds are ok, but the synth sounds are a bit weak but usable.

jkn · Joined: Mar 14, 2004 Posts: 469 Location: La Porte, IN, USA

I wouldn't worry too much about whether an effect your looking at is 'pro' enough or if it's more 'dj' oriented and you want to use it for 'x' type of music, etc... tools are tools - you can use them however you like!

For effects I run...

Korg SDD-1200 - older dual digital delay rack - great for controlled feedback, stuck in a metal tunnel, and more realistic type delay stuff - puts out the most annoying pumping noise on earth when sitting idle. I've had this thing since about 1988 and I love it to death.

Lexicon Vortex - fun, morphing delay/chorus type stuff. It's quirky, I like it.

Alesis Wedge - cheap, small reverb - for what it cost me ($120 used) - it's perfect for the cost. However, you can get into a Lexicon reverb fairly easily.

Boss ME-8B - bass multi-effects pedal unit. I'd love to upgrade this since the newer boxes have amp modeling and such, though it's worked great on my bass and whatever synths/drums/whatever I run through it for the last decade.

Synthesizers.com modular - this is my newest addition - I have it setup as an aux send from my mixer like all my other effects.

For drum machines - I own an Alesis SR-16 which I don't really recommend. It's fairly plain vanilla - amazingly I think they're still being made new - got to be in the running for longest product lifecylce of an electronic instrument... scary. I just dug it out of the closet after ignoring it in favor of Fruity Loops and Rebirth on the pc. I'm finding it fun to be working with an actual drum machine again - but... I'm tempted to think I'd be having more fun with a different machine. Smile

Dexter76 · Joined: May 23, 2006 Posts: 10 Location: Italy

Thnx for your answer mate.

Obviously it's not the gear that makes a musician, but the right equipment, i think, helps a lot:-D

I'm aiming to recreate sound similar to Underworld, Orbital, Future Sound of London...i think that they use a lot of analogue sound

I cannot afford Moog and expensive analog stuff so i'm trying to find the best solution with some hardware components (live oriented) and Pc software.
At the moment MC909+Cubase3sx+MasterKeyboard work just fine...i don't like live sessions behind a PC and i prefer knobs and hardware stuff so i think that Kaoss pad 2 should do the work.
My only concern is that i read KP2 is plenty of sound effects and just the 10% is ok ...is it true? what about the sound quality?

And by the way ...what about the old TR909 as a drum machine?

Cheers
DX76

elektro80 · Posted: Thu May 25, 2006 4:18 pm Post subject:

It all depends on what you want to do. If you seriously are considering the 909, then you should get the TR 707. The sounds are almost as outragously bad as the 909 soundset. It will most likely be very inexpensive. The LCD matrix display will be really helpful. The 707 is very underrated. It has individual outputs for each of the sounds at the back and this means you can also easily route the various sounds to diffferent sound processing devices. You can also play the sounds from the small pads. The programming scheme is very intuitive and the visual feedback from the leds is cool.

elektro80 · Posted: Thu May 25, 2006 4:23 pm Post subject:

BTW: I like the MachineDrum.

elektro80 · Posted: Thu May 25, 2006 4:29 pm Post subject: