Drum Machine for Songwriters

"Acoustic-G" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:ac01002f-0b14-4bef-9ede-53b8cb5b4bf0@34g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
> All,
>
> I am a songwriter with a home-based ProTools DAW. I typically record
> acoustic-style tunes and want to start adding a percussion dimension
> to my songs. I have a couple of very nice keyboards with excellent
> drum samples and in the past have done ok with manually designing
> percussion compositions. However, I am finding that this process is
> very much slowing me down - and quite honestly percussion is not my
> forte so to speak.

The second half of your last sentence says it all. Nothing will take your
music down faster than poorly programmed percussion parts.
Either stick with sampled grooves/percussion/beats, or pre-programmed midi
files triggering a decent drum sampler.

Poly

On Jun 1, 5:50 pm, "polymod" <[email protected]> wrote:
> "Acoustic-G" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>
> news:ac01002f-0b14-4bef-9ede-53b8cb5b4bf0@34g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
>
> > All,
>
> > I am a songwriter with a home-based ProTools DAW. I typically record
> > acoustic-style tunes and want to start adding a percussion dimension
> > to my songs. I have a couple of very nice keyboards with excellent
> > drum samples and in the past have done ok with manually designing
> > percussion compositions. However, I am finding that this process is
> > very much slowing me down - and quite honestly percussion is not my
> > forte so to speak.
>
> The second half of your last sentence says it all. Nothing will take your
> music down faster than poorly programmed percussion parts.
> Either stick with sampled grooves/percussion/beats, or pre-programmed midi
> files triggering a decent drum sampler.
>
> Poly

Poly - thanks alot - I really do agree. Any recommendations on
sampled grooves? Have you worked with ACID before? Perhaps that's a
better alternative than a drum machine?

"Acoustic-G" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:db7edc84-2e97-450b-8dea-dcdabf777021@34g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...
> On Jun 1, 5:50 pm, "polymod" <[email protected]> wrote:
> > "Acoustic-G" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> >
> > news:ac01002f-0b14-4bef-9ede-53b8cb5b4bf0@34g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
> >
> > > All,
> >
> > > I am a songwriter with a home-based ProTools DAW. I typically record
> > > acoustic-style tunes and want to start adding a percussion dimension
> > > to my songs. I have a couple of very nice keyboards with excellent
> > > drum samples and in the past have done ok with manually designing
> > > percussion compositions. However, I am finding that this process is
> > > very much slowing me down - and quite honestly percussion is not my
> > > forte so to speak.
> >
> > The second half of your last sentence says it all. Nothing will take
your
> > music down faster than poorly programmed percussion parts.
> > Either stick with sampled grooves/percussion/beats, or pre-programmed
midi
> > files triggering a decent drum sampler.
> >
> > Poly
>
> Poly - thanks alot - I really do agree. Any recommendations on
> sampled grooves? Have you worked with ACID before? Perhaps that's a
> better alternative than a drum machine?

Sorry, I haven't worked with any of these as I do all my own programming.
Along with Acid, I would check out something along the lines of "EZ drummer"
which comes with a ton of preprogrammed grooves.

Poly

I am a songwriter myself and I think I know what you mean so....
Have you considered Logic 8, it does need a Mac but in case you already have
that it definately is a contender. Not so much Logic as a program (which is
brilliant but if you only record a few tracks then any DAW will do) but
along with it comes an enourmous amount of loops, midi and audio, which is
constructed very cleverly so they can adapt to the tempo.
I have a fulltime studio myself which basically make band-tracks recorded
with a click and I find that I record less and less percussion because the
Apple-loops are quite sufficient.
I doubt that you can find any hardware that does this as well as Logic, it
simply takes up two much space. Logic 8 comes on 5 DVDs.....

PS a program as complex as Logic can really change the way you work. Unlike
all the competition it's a very full package. You get great instruments, FX,
samples, loops, pro CD burner etc straight out of the box. It's quite cheap
(very cheap considering what you get) but that has more to do with Apples
strategy to make cheap software for expensive machines.
It used to be the most expensive of all the DAWs (PT, Cubase, Performer,
Nuendo, Sonar etc) but that was before Apple bought it.