So what is everybody's opinion on a good machine for making beats. I do most of my sequencing on Cubase and compose trance, house, ambient and trip-hop. I currently either use audio samples or the drum kits on my synths. I've been eyeing the E-Mu Orbit, Procussion and Planet Phatt, Yamaha RM1X, Akai MPC2000, and Yamaha V3000 but think I would be better off with a module rather than a sampler since I do most everything on PC. Any tips??

all the modules you mention have some good drum sounds, and some not-so-good drum sounds IMHO....


but, if you get a smapler, then you can put the BEST drum sounds from ALL those modules into it... most of them are out on the net somewhere...


the smapler is much more versatile, but you have to do the work to get the sounds into it, and that usually means you need to add a SCSI connection you your computer for transferring the samples.... extra $ and time.


in the future, you might really get into crafting your own drum sounds by starting off with a drum sample and tweaking it by using a digital editor like Wavelab or Sound Forge... to use the resulting sound, you could import it directly into your Cubase audio track, or load it into the smapler and trigger it via MIDI...


plus, the smapler is good for other sounds, of course, and it will usually have those all-important filters... I don't think that many drum modules have good filters, but I could be wrong...



I started out with a drum machine, but quickly became dissatisfied with most of the sounds.... since I'm now picky as hell about my drum sounds, I've been taking the time to get a good collection going, and it's very satisfying.... so, a smapler was definitely the route for me...



your PC doesn't know the difference between a module or a smapler... it just sends out MIDI messages to play sounds, and it doesn't care what it's sending them to.....



hope this helps.

emax- emax - emax - 12 bit sp1200 sound, 8 outs & stereo, analog filters, and there is a utility to send the samples over the net too on a pc!! - but frankly why stray outside the pc? - try a softsampler like SC or whatever in vst. or the LM drums are good, or the SC DRUMS is great too.

Why outside the pc you ask?

I always ask myself why would I want to get my sounds in the pc, it just seems like so much hassle.

Maybe there's something I don't quite understand about all this.  

man, that LM or SC drums etc in vst or logic?.. spot on triggering and click & load samples from youtr drive total simplicity - the sound is crystal clear too - if the samples are ok then the drums sound great

A MPC a triton and a 505 grovebox did most of these beats CLICK THE PIC

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