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I've been thinking about getting a drum machine to replace a boring metronome. Any recommendations?

Mark wrote:I've been thinking about getting a drum machine to replace a boring metronome. Any recommendations?

The one that I got (I'm thinking you may have read my post) is an old one that I acquired for a low cost from eBay. Most any "drum machine" (even if old) is going to offer so many more options (some: humorous YET quite instructive), that you're going to be delighted with most anything.

Keep in mind that most require external amplification and external speaker (such as some crappy little guitar or bass amp, etc.), as you surely won't be wanting to hinder hearing your own playing by wearing headphones.

Most drum machines I've looked at were pretty high priced, and for a practice tool didn't want to go there. What I discovered is that some very cheap keyboards have pretty decent drum beats for really reasonable prices. I wound up with a low end Yamaha keyboard that has quite a variety of beat patterns preprogrammed in.

Boss DR-3

Garage Band app??

Beat Boy??

Three Valves wrote:Garage Band app??

Beat Boy??

Yeah good call, just get some drum machine app and a decent Bluetooth speaker. Good to go.

I use an app called Drumgenius. The sound quality of the samples is very good and natural. There is control over tempo within reasonable limits for the sample selected (in other words, you can’t slow a hip hop groove down to 40bpm). It includes a number of different straight, rock, and jazz patterns and a number of interesting international ones. It’s not perfect, but it’s good enough that I use it regularly.

http://www.projazzlab.com/" target="_blank

Or a Boss DB90 (aka Dr Beat, the one with the yellow select wheel). I don't think the sounds are sampled, and the interface is wacky, but there's an assortment of percussion patterns to work with. Used it in a rehearsal almost as a joke, but it actually helped the ensemble get the feel of the particular tune we were playing.

The Tonal Energy app has some real basic drum patterns you can use for the metronome sound. Works really well, much less irritating than a electronic blip when used loudly.