Hey, I've got a small home studio and I think that it's time that i graduated from drum loops and time to start programming my own. I'm looking for something decent for Drum n Bass and/or House/Garage. Someone had suggested the yamaha ry-30.. but I'm not possitive about anything yet.. any suggestions? i'd rather keep the price under $500.. keep in mind i'm not looking for an mpc2K or anthing.. just something a little simpler.. or.... should i forget about drum modules in general and get a something along the lines of an akai s20?

you might try to find a YAMAHA RX-5 , it was their flag ship drum machine in 1987. But don't let the age fool you , all sounds are editable and it has 12 individual outputs and it is very easy to figure out because all the job fuctions are labled on the machine. It's like having the manual on it . It can have a mean sound and they usually go for around 200$ , it also has MIDI in, out, and thru . Not many drum machines have that even today.

Hate to do this in a Yammie forum, but you may want to consider the Boss DR202. It has all the "commercial" drum kits ranging from traditional rock to industrial. From funk to trip-hop.

They sell for about $350 now

Hi,

You originating post suggests you have a sampler ? . If so I would suggest you stick with it. There is no reason to use loops (although nearly everyone producing this music does) and most samplers will allow the editing of drum samples to a greater extent than many drum macines.

Paul

no i don't have a hardware sampler.. to this point i've just been using ACID to run loops taken from vinyl, cds, etc. I've heard that akai's s20 was a pretty good machine for sampling anyway. But i took 800dv's advice and got myself an rx5 for $80 and i'm very happy with it.. however, i'm still looking around for others, i keep hearing about the ry30.. i know that the Boss dr* have good presets, but can you edit the individual drum sounds??

I'd also recommend that you consider the Alesis DM Pro. Its not as inexpensive as the other suggestions, but its programmable as all get out, has 2 FX processors onboard, can layer up to 4 patches and the number of available sounds is huge. There are a couple of earlier Alesis models as well. You might want to check out the 2nd-hand sources such as ugbm.com.
Check with Yamaha for specific loop disks/CDs, too. They're not always forthcoming with a lot of such data, but they have their moments. Likewise drum CDs or WAV/AIFF files via the Net. You can always load a WAV file and send the note data TO your drum box, which could lead to some interesting kit assignments. Between your RX5 and Acid, you could get some massive action going. When you share the workload between 2 or more units, your options grow exponentially, although your headaches can do likewise!