Drum machine program?

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Well, been trying to get a band together in my area for a while now BUT no one around plays drums. So me and the rest of the group have been thinking about using a drum machine. So heres my question.

Can anyone recommend any drum machines, preferably a computer based one thats open sourced. (Have thought about fruityloops (just to simply make a drum track in program and just play it back), but if there is any decent open source ones, I would love to know about them.)

Ooh, it's been a long time. If you have a VST host, you could use short circuit to trigger drum samples.

http://vemberaudio.se/shortcircuit.php

There's probably better out there by now.

Hydrogen - it will run on Linux or Mac or Windows. yay.

http://www.hydrogen-music.org/?p=download

Hydrogen is really easy to use, and if I remember correctly, there are quite a few sample packs (sounds) available to install as well. It's got a really decent built in mixer too.

You can export your patterns and tracks as midi files too if you ever decide to invest in a better program or drum machine.

Even a cheap sampler/sequencer would be fine. You might need to go crate diving for samples, there are sample cds all over the place that you can buy but its up to you whether you'd rather do that, grab at some free stuff, or go through the cds you have for drum breakdowns or intros and see how well you can do at chopping those up.

Drumkit From Hell, though it's pricey.


http://www.toontrack.com/products.asp?item=11

Peruse the local bookstore chains for mags like Computer Music, etc. Usually a whole free CD's worth of free software (aviod demos; they only work for a few weeks.)
Check for VSTs andmusic in google, there's lots of sites to download there.

What YOU need is the Rebirth app for iPhone.

http://rebirthapp.com/

I'm a big fan of propellerhead's software. I'm REALLY not happy that they no longer make the original software available with Reason. But on the other hand, the Reason software is phenomenal enough, and you can make the same sounds with a little programming savvy.

I'm more of an anti-technology person, favoring vintage computing and musical instruments over the "latest-greatest." Owning a MacBook Pro is more out of necessity than desire, but I'm never without it.

The Rebirth app makes me want to get an iPhone if for no other reason than to run the app.

Here's another suggestion that I've found helpful in my own music: Any time I perform live, I worry less about having an actual drum machine and more about having a pre-programmed track that is exactly the length and form I need. As long as I have no reason to deviate from what I'm doing, the track is always perfect. I also use hardware with multiple outputs so I can include a click track. There's nothing like playing piano solo for a while when a full orchestra just magically comes in at the perfect time. Make your stereo mixes such that you have a mono mix from one side (that people will actually hear) and a click track with or without the mix on the other side, which only you will hear. Stereo mixes are normally desirable, but not often practical in a live performance with a band. So relying on two separate mono mixes in a live setting can work to your advantage.

As for free software: Look into Audacity. Good stuff. Really professional considering that it is free!! !

If you can save up some money in the meantime, though, you really need to look into stuff like Ableton or Digital Performer. Programs like that and Logic Mainstage offer looping, so you can program loop sequences for choruses, bridges, intros/endings, and so on. What that allows you to do is an interactive performance in which you aren't limited strictly to doing the song the same way every time. If you want to sing a couple of more choruses than what you normally do in rehearsal, just keep tapping the chorus loop until you're ready for the ending. You can put your keyboard player in charge of that if you want. That kind of stuff is pricey, like $500 for the entire Apple Logic package, and that's assuming you already have an upper-line Apple computer like a MBP. Personally, I wish Mainstage was available as a separate program. If you REALLY want to replace a drummer, any one of those programs will be the way to go. And like I said, I also use Reason, which is only $300. For $400, you get the Record duo, which adds recording and manipulating audio to the Reason sequencer.

Seriously, if you can handle working at McDonald's for a few months and save up the money for it, getting the good stuff is well worth the effort. As soon as I was out of college and had a couple of "real" jobs, the first thing I did was scour ebay for some good keyboards, upgrade my computer, and eventually get new computers, new instruments, upgrades, and one FINE piece of vintage equipment which has taken my composing/songwriting to a whole new level--although my composing is going more in the direction of handbell music for church. Still, success is success. Do what you have to do, pay some dues, and you'll have a really good thing going with your band. The free stuff will only get you so far. I went that route for a while and I found it to only be one headache after another.

Apple's Garageband? I thought I could get by with it because it came with the computer. HUGE disappointment. Keep your eyes on the prize, man.

Lol....ok, if we're giving offers of personal opinion this is mine - I really hate how a lot of newer industrial, seems like almost all of it, sounds like 1993 trance/techno with a guy screaming over it. Mainly that the beatwork is entirely old, uninspired, makes it sounds like utter garbage.

What I'm dying to see is someone use the old Skinny Puppy motif with new sounds and in newer ways. Fragments of new skool gangster rap (beats like the one under Let Me In by Youngbuck seems perfect for it), bits of dubstep, IDM, dub techno, jazz, ambient, new age, crash it all in to each other, sometimes - quite literally - crash, get things trainwrecking into each other methodically to intensify the mood, distorted train-whistles at the right off-signature spots, liquid noise baths, that kind of thing.

To go that route, having a decent computer sampler is great (sounds like you may already have it), from there - just start grabbing records. Any time you hear of a dj on Craigslist getting rid of a whole bunch of hip hop, electronic, jazz, soul, or r n' b records - if they're going at bargrain rate grab em. Chop, paste, skew, make a big sickening collage. Just make sure you're vocalist has enough grit in both vocals and song writing to fill that order. If you're not sure how its done, again, listen to Last Rights a few times through - that'll set you on point . Then again, do as they do - just don't try to have your stuff feel just like theirs, that's when it stops being forward thinking.

Not that you have to take my suggestion - I'm just dying to hear someone do it.