Is there any such thing as..

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a cheap drum machine with step sequencer?

I fancy something with a bit of classic 808/909 programming and some basic tweakability at least. Would love something with a bit of analogue synthesis plus sampling ability but I know this wouldn't come cheap.

The old 707's go cheap but they're pretty limited.

Ideally I wouldn't want to spend more than £200 and don't mind buying second hand. Don't really know anything about drum machine hardware so figured I'd ask on here.

Cheers!
Just got a korg ESX-1SD a couple weeks back and the sequencer is great! Load up with samples and go. Don't know what that runs over there, but got it for ~$265US shipped. Definitely worth it, have had a blast sitting on the couch with it and jamming.

ESX master...
Cheers Sackley, I was eying them up last night actually.
They go for pretty much the same amount but in £££ here. We get ripped off for everything in the UK!

I was also looking at the much older ES1 sampling drum machine. They're going for about £100 give or take a bit.
I might try and pick one of them up.

Can the ESX-1SD sequence other synths direct from it's pattern sequencer?
If you find a 707 for £200 or less then let me know, that is a very good price. It was a quest to find a 727 for a reasonable price. Problem is, you can do very little tweaking with a 707, but they are so bloody awesome.

Sampling function - Casio RZ1, Korg DDD1 (is it has the board) - none of these have a step sequencing.
Korg ES Electribes - certainly.

Forego the sampling: the ER series of Korg Electribes are probably your best bet, and can be bought for around £100. They have the step sequencer, and you can tweak the sounds. MkI has ring modulation, MkII replaced it with cross modulation.
I love my MkI, one of the best things I've ever bought.

If you forego step sequencing you could look at a Yamaha RX5 - can dampen, reverse, flam sounds, and these parameters can change for a sample throughout each pattern (not bad for 1986). Sound-wise you are looking at typical 80s drums, so its an acquired taste. Problem with this one (alongside a few other notable late 80s drum machines, Korg DDD1 for example) is finding the add-on cards will be expensive.

Boss DR202 is another one you can get sub £100, and you can do a lot of tweaking of the sounds (not pitch though), but I'm not a big fan of it. There are some nice 909/808 sounds, but it all sounds a bit Dance eJay to me.

Roland Human Composers, Boss DRs, Novation Drumstation - all contain some 808/909 elements and whatnot.

Tweakability is kind of limited in a lot of cheap drum machines. If you are lucky you can adjust the pitch (e.g. TR626 and Alesis HR16), but most of the time it's just bash out a beat and voila.
done
Cheers for the great post Chris!

I saw a 707 on buy it now on ebay for £150 plus £12 p&p and another one went for £122 plus p&p. Then all of a sudden, there's a bunch of them on there for £300+
Bloody ebay..

Think I might try and pick up an old Korg ES1. You can expand sounds with a memory card slot which will be all I really want it for.
Just thinking of getting a couple of external bits that I can chain together and have a bit of a jam on.

Getting bored to entirely scripted-in-the-sequencer stuff and craving a bit more experimentation and hands on knob tweaking.
sackley Wrote:Just got a korg ESX-1SD a couple weeks back and the sequencer is great! Load up with samples and go. Don't know what that runs over there, but got it for ~$265US shipped. Definitely worth it, have had a blast sitting on the couch with it and jamming.

ESX master...

265! where'd you get it for that, all I'm seeing is 499 :P

been on the to-buy list for a while
evilBay. Even had a bunch of ".esx" files with old drum machine samples in it. The editor software is critical. Just kept waiting and wasn't thinking I'd actually get one, but couldn't pass that up. Glad i didnt in the end. Last thing about it, I find it much more satisfying to mangle odd sounds into patterns rather than simply sequencing drum sounds... but how ever you roll it, I can see many possibilities.
yeah, 707s have gone thru the roof. Crazy. 505s are about the only reasonably priced roland boxes now. They are great for modding if youre that way inclined; trigger outs etc.

The MFB drums are cheap and completely analogue and midified...

eg

http://www.mfberlin.de/Produkte/Musikele...b-522.html

might get one for £200 ish second hand
Got a Roland MC 303 in practically brand new condition (apparently) on the way from the eBay. £118 including P&P.
Still going to get a Korg ES1 as well I think for the sampling aspect.

Not expecting much of the MC 303 to be honest, I know it's all Rompler sounds but as a starter hardware drum machine & sequencer I'll get some fun out of it.
Plus the ability to use MIDI out on the sequencer means I could link up the old Nord Micro Modular or Bass Station (still got one kicking around!)

Quite looking forward to having a play now. If you're lucky (or unlucky) I'll post up some examples of what I manage to get out of it.
sackley Wrote:evilBay. Even had a bunch of ".esx" files with old drum machine samples in it. The editor software is critical. Just kept waiting and wasn't thinking I'd actually get one, but couldn't pass that up. Glad i didnt in the end. Last thing about it, I find it much more satisfying to mangle odd sounds into patterns rather than simply sequencing drum sounds... but how ever you roll it, I can see many possibilities.

I think I'm going to go for the emx (the blue one), looks like a blast to use. You're right, lots of these moving around ebay. I saw a video of a guy using one with a Roland MC-909 and I'm totally sold on both, much to my special ladies dismay.
Also got a Korg Electribe ES1 today! £135.

I reckon the 2 together will be great fun. Actually can't wait to play with them now.
HURRY UP EBAY MANS! get them posted..
haha the wait for gear, you have my sympathies. The Electribes are seriously good fun.

I've been looking for a Nord Micro Modular - you want some extra gear and £££ if it's gathering dust?
done
I may well sell the Nord Micro Modular - Been criminally underused since I moved over to a primarily laptop based setup.
Requires OS 9 for the (stable) editor on a Mac and although I still have a 14 year old G4 kicking around (for the editor and for SCSI to the Emu) I barely ever switch it on.

Just seem one on ebay (buy it now) for £325! doubt it'll go for that to be honest, last time I saw one go was for £160-something, I'd take £150 for it if it was going to someone who would give it the love it deserves.

So I'll see how it fits in with the Electribe and stuff and will give you a shout if I decide to sell it.
So both the ES1 and the MC-303 have arrived now.

The ES1 arrived on Tuesday so had a couple of hours playing with it. It's got the instant gratification that I expected it to. Next step is to load up some chopped breaks and do some live chopping.

The MC-303 arrived today and is a lot more complicated than I expected it to be! That's not necessarily a bad thing but without a manual you would be stuffed.
It's not as intuitive as you would expect and it seems quite convoluted using the sequencer to key in beats. It's not as simple as 'select kick drum, key in kick drum parts' rinse & repeat for other drum parts.
Weird, as the different selectable voices even have BD, SD, HH, CLP etc.. written below them leading you to believe that you can sequence them as you would on anay other classic step sequencer (808, 909 etc..)
There's probably a mode to do that and I've not found it yet though. Only had a brief skim over the first few sections of the instruction manual.

It'll take a good weekend to get the 2 sussed and slaved to each other but so far, the sounds from them seem fairly well matched and with the ES1 able to either live sample or import from memory card means potentially hours of fun.

Looking forward to a proper play this weekend when I'm not exhausted and am able to comprehend words written on paper Teef
Ben Kei Wrote:So both the ES1 and the MC-303 have arrived now.

The ES1 arrived on Tuesday so had a couple of hours playing with it. It's got the instant gratification that I expected it to. Next step is to load up some chopped breaks and do some live chopping.

The MC-303 arrived today and is a lot more complicated than I expected it to be! That's not necessarily a bad thing but without a manual you would be stuffed.
It's not as intuitive as you would expect and it seems quite convoluted using the sequencer to key in beats. It's not as simple as 'select kick drum, key in kick drum parts' rinse & repeat for other drum parts.
Weird, as the different selectable voices even have BD, SD, HH, CLP etc.. written below them leading you to believe that you can sequence them as you would on anay other classic step sequencer (808, 909 etc..)
There's probably a mode to do that and I've not found it yet though. Only had a brief skim over the first few sections of the instruction manual.

It'll take a good weekend to get the 2 sussed and slaved to each other but so far, the sounds from them seem fairly well matched and with the ES1 able to either live sample or import from memory card means potentially hours of fun.

Looking forward to a proper play this weekend when I'm not exhausted and am able to comprehend words written on paper Teef


Jealous JEDIcrying

Post up some recordings!

My baby came up in my ebay feed... can't afford it right now though. Icon_sad

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?...SS:CA:1123

Homerdrool
Ben Kei Wrote:Can the ESX-1SD sequence other synths direct from it's pattern sequencer?

Id like to know this as well. As good as Yamaha's RM1x and Rs7000 sequencers would be nice to know.
Wilshy Wrote:
Ben Kei Wrote:Can the ESX-1SD sequence other synths direct from it's pattern sequencer?

Id like to know this as well. As good as Yamaha's RM1x and Rs7000 sequencers would be nice to know.

Yes, it can. I know for sure the 2 monophonic keyboard parts can, not positive about the drum parts, but pretty sure they can as well. Was actually just jamming with the shruthi-1 and esx. Good fun. Xyxthumbs

It's not nearly as "powerful" as those other two (or my emu command station), but the beauty is in it's simplicity. Some day I'll get some recordings up. Maybe even some videos. :O
sackley Wrote:
Wilshy Wrote:
Ben Kei Wrote:Can the ESX-1SD sequence other synths direct from it's pattern sequencer?

Id like to know this as well. As good as Yamaha's RM1x and Rs7000 sequencers would be nice to know.

Yes, it can. I know for sure the 2 monophonic keyboard parts can, not positive about the drum parts, but pretty sure they can as well. Was actually just jamming with the shruthi-1 and esx. Good fun. Xyxthumbs

It's not nearly as "powerful" as those other two (or my emu command station), but the beauty is in it's simplicity. Some day I'll get some recordings up. Maybe even some videos. :O

^^^ I have used my EA-1 to audition new rack/module units before I install them - quite useful in that regard. Married with one of those mid90s TB303-clone racks you essentially have a x0xb0x.
done
I may have accidentally bid on (and won) a Korg EA-1 and a Roland MC-307 last night Blush

I'll test them out and probably sell anything I don't get along with.
Now lusting after outboard effects though, something to run on the auxiliary channels on my old Spirit desk.
I've got 1 fried aux and 2 working, so does anyone know of a decent(ish) and more importantly, cheap multi effect unit that can process a couple of different effects at the same time?

Got a bid on an old Digitech studio quad V2 which hopefully I can get for under £50, including postage. That'll do me fine.
It's old, a bit crusty sounding but for the time, it was a great unit.

Any other suggestions in case I don't win it?
Quadraverb all the way, awesome.
Blimey Ben! Puts me to shame with just watching a load of stuff.

Funny you should mention the Spirit. Is it worth hanging on to? I think we both have the Folio F1. Was considering getting something smaller and flogging it on eBay. But I'll only get something like a Behringer or a tiny notepad style desk for the price of the F1 on eBay - surely a sideways step.
Well to be fair Wilsh, I reckon within a couple of months I will have sold at least 1 of them.

Decided to give the MC303 a proper go tonight and have managed to get some pretty nice dub techno sounding stuff out of it. Pretty surprised at how nice it actually sounds. Just need to add the ES-1 in to the mix and then get the Monotribe delay on one of the auxiliaries and I reckon there's hours of fun to be had just fiddling with an 8 bar loop.

This is actually just the tonic I needed to get me away from my laptop. I might still not be finishing anything but I just lost 2 and a half hours without noticing it or getting frustrated with anything and had loads of fun along the way.

PDX, used to love the Quadraverbs, used them loads in the late 90's/early 2000's but they seem to go for quite a bit still. Probably because they were actually decent.
Oh and both the EA-1 and the 307 cost less than £100!

That's the only reason I put danger bids on them Teef