Drum machine for a duo - looking at Alesis SR18.

[Strays Dave]

I'm talking with a lady about forming a duo.  In recent times she's been doing a solo thing with midi tracks. I'm not really familiar with this, but she said you purchase them for $3 and are multitrack, with easy key changes and muting certain instruments.  I'm a pianist with a strong left hand bass sound. So I suggested a drum machine.  It appears the market has been matured for some years. 

 

I found a nice YT video on using the Alesis SR18 in a live setting. Also it seems to allow some simple editing of existing patterns. 

 

She's hoping to book some happy hours in The Villages (in central Florida). BTW, she said the market for live music for dementia patients is booming in The Villages. I guess having a much higher ratio (than a random town) of aging boomers. 

 

So, does anyone have any experiences pro or con. Or other preferences - this is for live performance. 

[Anderton]

I've been working a bit with the Beat Buddy Mini. The big deal about it is that you can add files and transition between sections in real time using footswitches, so you're not locked into a backing track. I'm curious about the "big" version that costs around $380. Supposedly it sounds better, is more customizable, etc. It can also play back MIDI files but then you're locked to the backing track again.

[Notes_Norton]

I've worked with drum machines in the past. OK, but I like doing my own backing tracks better.

Each one has pros and cons, here are the main ones I can think of.

Working with tracks, cements the arrangements, no variation, but the drummer can play the right fills and accents at the right places.

The drum machine is more flexible with tempos and arrangements, but it doesn't always have the right beats for a particular song, and doesn't put the right fills in at the right time.

Drums were my first instrument, and I play the drums on my backing tracks, so this response is definitely from that point of view.

In the end, I suppose it depends on what kind of a gig you are doing.


Insights and incites by Notes ♫

[Strays Dave]

Just to follow up....I ordered the Alesis SR18 and a stand (Samson LTS50) from Sweetwater.  The SR18 seems straightforward enough.  I just need to find my preferred pattern and tempo for  specific songs.  Also I'll need a foot switch.

 

As always, thanks for opinions and experiences. 

[Anderton]

1 minute ago, Strays Dave said:

Just to follow up....I ordered the Alesis SR18 and a stand (Samson LTS50) from Sweetwater.  The SR18 seems straightforward enough.  I just need to find my preferred pattern and tempo for  specific songs.  

 

Let us know whether there's a footswitch that can do a transition to the next pattern. I remember the SR-16 had that feature, and I thought it was great.

[Strays Dave]

I got the Boss FS-6 pedal.  I haven't been able to find how to change patterns from the pedal.  I see that patterns can be assigned to the "pads" (I'm not sure of all the equipment terms)  -  so that it would be easy to manually change to another rhythm pattern. This would require touching the desired pad with a finger - but the size of the pads help reduce a slip of the finger, likely to happen when using the small buttons.  There are 12 pads so I might try to find my standard patterns.  I'm thinking it could fill out nicely for a single or duo.

 

There's an A pattern and B pattern for any given "pattern" (redundant) .  A guitar friend and I tried the SR18 for  Roxanne/Police. I couldn't find any sort of ska sound per se. I tried using (IIRC) a slowed down samba. Then the problem was needing to go to double time in the chorus.  Anyway it's a learning  experience.  Regarding the pedal - don't understand the polarity and mode buttons. I prefer the press and release setting for starting and stopping. This function seems to keep reversing each time it's powered up. 

 

Someone named Jenn Porter has a nice YouTube demo. She shows how to change the system tempo setting to be consistent from one pattern change to the next - Global.  The other thing, she has a split screen 2 camera setup to show her foot working the FS-6 pedal. 

[Bill H.]

On 3/27/2024 at 1:14 PM, Strays Dave said:

 

She's hoping to book some happy hours in The Villages (in central Florida). BTW, she said the market for live music for dementia patients is booming in The Villages. I guess having a much higher ratio (than a random town) of aging boomers. 

 

The Villages is ALL aging boomers 😀 It's an age restricted planned retirement community (the largest in the country I believe) where it's possible to do all your daily chores in golf carts. 

 

I'm not familiar with the Alesis SR18, but all drum machines I've used have had the ability to create your own patterns from scratch (like maybe for Roxanne that you mentioned) plus string them together in song mode if you don't want to manually set tempo and switch patterns all the time. Best of luck