A Christmas gift...maybe...

[Speed Demon]

My wife asked me if I would be interested in a drum machine as a Christmas gift.
That would be nice however I have no idea which brand/model would be the ideal one for me.

Anyone here using one of these devices? Are they easy to program?

[ODH]

I still use my Boss DR-5 Dr Rhythm section, which also gives me bass and two keyboard tracks; it's the bedrock of all of my songs.  It's fifteen years old; you can pick them up on e-bay for 50 bucks.  Easy to programme and construct songs (whole songs, not just drum sequences) once to understand how it works.  But it has little internal storage and no USB connectivity, so you have to back up via MIDI.

I was looking into upgrading but it seems everything is software / PC based now and I can't be arsed with all that.  To quote Weezer - the world has turned and left me here.  New drum machines seem to be more basic.

Sorry to be no help whatsoever.

[Speed Demon]

Nick, I am looking at the Boss DR-880. It seems to be a popular device for creating drum tracks.
However, being basically lazy about programming anything, I want to have that part of the job as automated as possible. It still will never take the place of Drumbum. He rocks!

[SteveB]

Speed-D, M-Glenn-M was asking a similar question over at Cool-Lab. I have the DR-880, and while I freely admit that it has more features and facilities than you can shake a stick at, programming a full-song (with all the inticracies that you might want to add), I think would be a nightmare. Having said that, if programming is yer bag, then it's got everything you'll need. Think carefully though.

[Speed Demon]

Thanks for the insight, Steve.
I could actually do the programming, just that a time-consuming job like that takes away from practice
time on the guitars. And spending time with Mrs Demon. Now the decision comes down to this:

Do I want the drum machine, or do I want to build a new quad core PC with all the bells and whistles?

Which choice would you guys make if you had to choose?

[SteveB]

Do I want the drum machine, or do I want to build a new quad core PC with all the bells and whistles?

Which choice would you guys make if you had to choose?

Ooooooh. Thank the Lord I don't have to make that decision. At a push I'd probably go with the PC. It'll keep you occupied, and you can diversify what a PC can do. The drum m/c will always be a drum machine, ultimately to be superceded by something else. Good luck with that little choice.