Drum machine for making heavy kicks?

[loulou]

Hey peeps

I've come to the conclusion that i need myself a hardware drummachine in order to get those really heavy, punchy kicks in my tunes (am i right?)

But which one should i get? Ive been looking at Elektron's machines?

The cheaper the better, but of course i need a good result otherwise it would be stupid to spend any money

Thank you!

[AK]

I wouldn't buy a machinedrum if my sole interest lay in kickdrums. Although its perfectly adequate in making kicks, they weren't one of its strongest points to my ears when I had one. I think it excels in other areas, namely, percussive, morphing, rhythmic efx sort of thing.

I always found myself using samples from my kicks library when using the me and eventually sold it as it wasn't the sound I am currently into. Apart from sampling records, I have many samples off drum machines and tend to use a lot from my jomox, mbase, airbase and xbase collections as well as 909 samples. Never owned any of those but there's some guys on here who have so they'd be better suited to commenting on those. Personally, it samples all the way for me when it comes to kicks. There's a lot you can do with them

[mehta]

If you want a dedicated kick machine, get an Mbase.

[hydrogen]

[stream of consciousness].. you can probably create the best kicks using a combination of synthesis and samples. so many ways to do it.

This is one always an easy win for me...
http://www.ismism.de/

and there are plenty of drum synths that do it too...

microtoniq
drumatic
drumspillage

mbase is great imo but it doesn't always sound good out of the box imo.

And really it depends on the kick you are going for because there are so many techniques with layering or processing that lead into different qualities for a kick. [/stream of consciousness]

[dirddey_iddler]

808 / 909 + a nice compressor

all the rest is just a compromise.

i had the MD UW, XBASE999, Drumstations (both versions) and the Miami.

MD UW - very cool. sounds cold and clean, digital. Like it but not for Kicks. Maybe a shitty Compressor can do the job?

XBASE999 - very clean, sharpy sound, need a compressor and an eq after it! sold it directly, it was buggy and not stable with midi.

Drumstation - cool, analog, but without sequencer

Miami - cool, analog, nice kick but crappy housing and knobs.

I know its scary to pay 2000 bucks for a Kick but nothing can reach to the original one.

After my experiences i went back to the originals.

Why is the sequencer so important? Every kick out of an 808 is different! That makes her really special and gives the track a certain vibe.

But with the MD UW you can import 808 Samples in addition with an old Behringer Compressor (yes Behringer) it could do it.

Or try a old MPC 3000, 60.

[steevio]

If you want a dedicated kick machine, get an Mbase.

+1

sorry to disagree with dirddey_iddler but
you dont have to have a TR909 to have a heavy kick, ive got a TR909 and an Mbase01, and i rarely use the 909 now. its still a great kick drum, but it cant be tuned, also compression is unecessary for heavy kicks in my opinion, ive got 4 nice hardware compressors including the Alesis 3630 that Daft Punk made famous and i never use any of them on kicks. If the kick has the right characteristics there's no need.

mbase is a great kick and its cheap

[dirddey_iddler]

I had the 909, sold it, got the mentioned machines and was not satisfied.

The 909 is just simple yes, i modified mine with colin frasers tips. The 808 is simple but heavy.

Since i had a XBASE999 with both OS Versions i dont like the Jomox sound.

The best results i got nowadays was a little compression with the old composer going to the channels

from my desk

which have an Urei as an insert in the main outs.

Now i'm satisfied.

The choice depends on what kind of kick you like imo.

[steevio]

The best results i got nowadays was a little compression with the old composer going to the channels
.

do you mean the very first Behringer Composer ?

that is a suprisingly good compressor, despite Behringer's bad reputation generally.

i wish i still had mine !

however i just used to use it because i thought you had to have a compressor on a kick back then, because everyone else was doing it.
now i know from experience that i dont need it.