Members lagarto1 Posted January 25, 2010 Members Share Posted January 25, 2010 Can anyone offer a suggestion to an old man (me) that is fairly technology ignorant? I play in a 3 piece oldies band, and I'd like to take some jobs where I can use a drum machine instead of our drummer, the offers for a 2 piece have come in, he's aware of it and is OK with it (he doesn't want to play much). What I need is simplicity: I need a machine that I can patch into our PA, see an alphabetical list of songs, pick the one I want, and press "start". That's all I need and want, I would likely pick a pre-downloaded track, assign it a name, maybe--MAYBE edit it a little if I am able, but this is what I need, and I need it in fairly big font as my eyesight isn't the best. price is not an object if it does what I need without a bunch of extra features i don't need. Any suggestions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMS Author Craig Vecchione Posted January 25, 2010 CMS Author Share Posted January 25, 2010 Do you have a decent laptop? A drum machine typically needs you to program every song, which can be incredibly tedious. It sounds as if you want to play pre-recorded tracks through a laptop or other media player. Each has its pitfalls. Software based systems crash, and always at the worst possible moment. Have a Plan B for all of these systems. It's probably easier to get a drummer who's still alive:lol: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RoadRanger Posted January 25, 2010 Members Share Posted January 25, 2010 A real easy (and cheap) way is just to record your drummer playing the songs, then play it back on an MP3 player of some sort. Have your drummer play along with the original song via headphones . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members zelmobeaty Posted January 25, 2010 Members Share Posted January 25, 2010 A real easy (and cheap) way is just to record your drummer playing the songs, then play it back on an MP3 player of some sort. Have your drummer play along with the original song via headphones . Yes. An MP3 player is the solution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Phil Clark Posted January 25, 2010 Members Share Posted January 25, 2010 For a two piece act, why even use a drum machine. They are more trouble then they are worth (IMO), and they always sound like crap to me. I much prefer when seeing a solo or duo act when they just play and don't fudge with Drum Machines, Harmonizers or backing tracks. Just keep it loose and free and have fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RoadRanger Posted January 25, 2010 Members Share Posted January 25, 2010 ... or you could keep it real: http://farmerfootdrums.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jwlussow Posted January 25, 2010 Members Share Posted January 25, 2010 Our drummer uses a Roland electronic kit. He "records" every song so we can rehearse occasionally have a full rehearsal without him. When we were working on our latest CD, he recorded all the songs in order and we were able to play through the entire CD without him. I imagine we could record an entire show and run the drums off of his TD-20 brain if we needed to. Best part is it is actually him playing the tunes and we can switch kits or individual drums if something sounds funky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RANUI Posted January 26, 2010 Members Share Posted January 26, 2010 Alesis sr16 will work for you, has a bunch of preset rhythms easy to program, easy to operate, has 2 foot switches, i = stop/start, the other will toggle between a verse and a chorus with a fill in between. Sounds good and easy to use, had one for 15 yrs. AJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members stunningbabe Posted January 26, 2010 Members Share Posted January 26, 2010 It's probably easier to get a drummer who's still alive:lol: This is hilarious, Craigv! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dparr Posted January 26, 2010 Members Share Posted January 26, 2010 For a two piece act, why even use a drum machine. They are more trouble then they are worth (IMO), and they always sound like crap to me. I much prefer when seeing a solo or duo act when they just play and don't fudge with Drum Machines, Harmonizers or backing tracks. Just keep it loose and free and have fun. ^THIS^ I hate hearing people use drum machines or mp3's in live music. Real music is much better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Shaster Posted January 26, 2010 Members Share Posted January 26, 2010 What I need is simplicity: I need a machine that I can patch into our PA, see an alphabetical list of songs, pick the one I want, and press "start". That's all I need and want, I would likely pick a pre-downloaded track, assign it a name, maybe--MAYBE edit it a little if I am able, but this is what I need, and I need it in fairly big font as my eyesight isn't the best. price is not an object if it does what I need without a bunch of extra features i don't need. Any suggestions? It doesn't sound like you've used a drum machine before. So I'll give my rendition of what's involved. Most drum machines come with a bunch of pre-loaded drum patterns (sometimes a useless bass pattern too) in one to four bar segments with two bars being fairly common. They come with a variety of beats, Rock, Swing, Shuffle, Reggae..... Some of the patterns are useful, some are cluttered and annoying - think factory guitar patches on the Multi-Fx boxes. You can always program your own. Generally there are no songs programmed into the machine, you have to program them yourself. For the most part, you can't go buy a drum machine with a bunch of songs programmed into it. On a live gig, people usually mark or remember five to ten grooves (beats/patterns) that they like. Then before the start of each song they pick the pattern they want and enter the tempo, either by punching it in or starting the groove with the volume low and "spinning" the data wheel... until they come to the desired tempo. What you are describing sounds more like a midi sequencer with a bunch of midi files loaded on it. Boss makes some small drum machines in the DR line. I've got a DR670, a friend of mine has a newer version. Both also have bass sounds, and some have a few keyboard patches. In summary, it really is easier to hire a drummer unless you're willing to spend a fair bit of time wandering around the pages of your manual IMO. Maybe you can rent or borrow one and try it out at home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMS Author Craig Vecchione Posted January 26, 2010 CMS Author Share Posted January 26, 2010 This is hilarious, Craigv! My grandmother had a favorite saying, "Many truths are spoken in jest". I think it applies here, as the OP is looking at a tedious process that I'm betting he won't be interested in pursuing. Programming drumsbeats for an entire show's worth of songs is B*O*R*I*N*G. It also makes your set static....no requests, no extended solos or vamping when the guitarist's E-string breaks, without leaving a really obvious void ("what happened to the drummer who's not there?") in the band's sound. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members stunningbabe Posted January 26, 2010 Members Share Posted January 26, 2010 Drum Machine has its place. When you are fed up of the drummer who always gives excuses why he's late, never learns his part and etc...you'd want a solution. A Drum Machine is the solution. It sounds refined, never out of tempo, faithful, loyal and has no super-ego to you to feed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMS Author Craig Vecchione Posted January 26, 2010 CMS Author Share Posted January 26, 2010 Drum Machine has its place. When you are fed up of the drummer who always gives excuses why he's late, never learns his part and etc...you'd want a solution. A Drum Machine is the solution. It sounds refined, never out of tempo, faithful, loyal and has no super-ego to you to feed. For rehearsals, yes (do drummers EVER show up to rehearsal on time, every time??) but for a live show, IMHO this or tracks are a lame way to handle an act. I don't know why duo's or solos feel the need to do it....you're a solo act? Be one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members drummer_jay Posted January 26, 2010 Members Share Posted January 26, 2010 Have your drummer record every song you play live... to a CLICK... allow 4 beats at the start of the song to count you in... Bad thing is.. If there's a break in the song where drums stop... you're going to have to either keep PERFECT tempo or being listening to the click as well.. All in all.. I'd say do the acoustic thing and don't even attempt it... Sequencing keyboard parts and FX are fine... but when you start replacing CORE members... OUCH! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fu2jobu Posted January 26, 2010 Members Share Posted January 26, 2010 I never tried a drum machine but did use backing tracks. Using Cakewalk (now Sonar) I turned the Midi into sampled drums, bass etc recordings. Burned the recordings to a CD for live shows and used a portable CD player for playback. Found a CD player that could handle MP3's so was able to fit tons of songs on 1 disc. Looks like you are doing oldie's so you may be able to find many of the songs already transcribed into midi. A few things I learned: - Used the left channel for click track which was sent to monitors only, the right channel was panned dead center and went to FOH and monitors.- By leaving a few seconds of silence before each song we gave ourselves enough time to get ready by the time the click started.- Putting an extra 20 or 30 seconds at the end of each song gives you plenty of buffer to move between songs. Not putting in any extra silence would lead to the next song starting before you had time to pause or stop. It wasn't that hard to do requests on the fly, just needed a master list with the songs sorted by track number and by title. With todays MP3's players or computers it would be even easier. ** Not going to get into an argument with the others who think it should be 'live' or nothing. Just saying my piece. I like the fuller band sound of using the backing tracks. Most joints I am going to play aren't meant for full bands anyways. less personalities to deal with, less people to potentially become undependable, less people to OD on drugs, less people that show up without having learned the material, less people that will leave making it takes months to get the band running again, etc, etc. Playing songs like RHCP 'Suck my Kiss', Hendrix 'Manic Depression' and tons of other songs just aint gonna sound right without drums IMO. Acoustic Duo's are fine if thats what your into. However, I want distorted guitars and a fuller band sound when I play. YMMV but it's my mileage that counts. I love(d) playing in a full band. Would do so again in a heart beat if the right situation came along. It's so much easier to get a Duo off the ground though, especially at my age. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Unalaska Posted January 26, 2010 Members Share Posted January 26, 2010 I've used an alesis SR16 live a few times when the $ wasn't there. Think chinese restaurant that has karaoke most nights. It was so-so. I spent a lot of time programming in shuffles and rock beats, nothing it had stock worked on its own. And I hated using a bunch of different sounds when 2 or 3 worked best. There is a SR18 now, try that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fingerpicker Posted January 26, 2010 Members Share Posted January 26, 2010 put a mic in a pot holder, or box, eq it,and bang it with your foot. Thats what Ive done. People dig it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tlbonehead Posted January 26, 2010 Members Share Posted January 26, 2010 here's a couple vids of my 2-piece act using just a cheap $150 Yam keyboard for the rhythm section. Has a start stop footswitch, an A/B setting on each rhythm (which my bass player can hit between notes, and take maybe 10 seconds to set the rhythm and speed for a given song. (on our set and songlists we have the rhythm # and the speed next to each song. [YOUTUBE]ybjQGnDORYQ[/YOUTUBE] [YOUTUBE]eU5BqsKEuU0[/YOUTUBE] [YOUTUBE]M3uBvaRhyzA[/YOUTUBE] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tlbonehead Posted January 26, 2010 Members Share Posted January 26, 2010 I've used an alesis SR16 live a few times when the $ wasn't there. Think chinese restaurant that has karaoke most nights. It was so-so. I spent a lot of time programming in shuffles and rock beats, nothing it had stock worked on its own. And I hated using a bunch of different sounds when 2 or 3 worked best.There is a SR18 now, try that?bass player has one. It suffers from that same thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fingerpicker Posted January 27, 2010 Members Share Posted January 27, 2010 here's a couple vids of my 2-piece act using just a cheap $150 Yam keyboard for the rhythm section. Has a start stop footswitch, an A/B setting on each rhythm When your Bass Player swithches from A to B is there some type of automatic fill or did he have to program that? Hey which keyboard model? I occasionall get a gig where this would be a good idea (drum machine) although these days I pick places to play where its not needed/wanted... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tlbonehead Posted January 28, 2010 Members Share Posted January 28, 2010 When your Bass Player swithches from A to B is there some type of automatic fill or did he have to program that? Hey which keyboard model? I occasionall get a gig where this would be a good idea (drum machine) although these days I pick places to play where its not needed/wanted...It has a "fill" button that he hits all too often! I'm not sure it it automatically puts a fill in when going from A to B or if he hit both at the same time. I think it does that automatically. You can't program your fills, or anything really. It works pretty well. We have gotten a lot of gigs in places that want live music but don't have the room and/or can't pay $600 for a band. So we play for $350-400 and can set up in a smaller area and can control out volume better. Its also gotten us more gigs for the actual bands. We try to make sure the two don't compete against each other. Some of these small bars also have outdoor patios/beer gardens and do occasional band stuff in the summer outdoors. We've gotten some of those gigs for the band because of our 2-piece band playing indoors. We have lots of DOUBLE-SHOT stuff on youtube. Some decent, some pretty rough if you want to look at some more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tlbonehead Posted January 28, 2010 Members Share Posted January 28, 2010 BTW, PSR225GM, I believe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMS Author Craig Vecchione Posted January 28, 2010 CMS Author Share Posted January 28, 2010 OP's a goner, eh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tlbonehead Posted January 28, 2010 Members Share Posted January 28, 2010 OP's a goner, eh?hmmmm. Didn't seem wacky enough to be a troll. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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