monomachine vs. tr909 vs. tr808 vs. drumstation

[smallsynth]

okay, i might start a new projects with a couple of friends. we used to be in a band in college, and played live instruments over laptop beats and beeps.

we are updating to no laptop, and including a drummer. still, we are going to use a click track, and sequenced electronic kick and snares live, in addition to the drum kit.

i have a monomachine, and was thinking of using it for this purpose. we will likely not be adjusting the tone, rather, using the same "kit" for all songs. does anyone with experience know if the MM would be enough, or if a drum machine (trigger by the MM) would be necessary?

if an accompanying piece of hardware is needed, could the 808 even fill this roll? would the 909 work well? would a drumstation be good enough?

thanks,

geoffrey smallsynth

[space6oy]

live drumming + a simple drum machine, 909 would get my vote.

[Stab Frenzy]

Why not just see how it goes with the MM and then if you find it's not doing it for you then you can start thinking about buying something else? It's got aux outs doesn't it, so you could run the beats through some external processing or an amp on stage so they didn't sound too clean and digital? From what I've heard you should be able to get the MM doing it well enough for playing live.

[Z]

I've always been fond of Phil Collins' use of his live drumming over basic rhythm patterns from CR-78, TR-808, 909 or LinnDrum. In the early 90's I drew a lot of influence from that technique, however my "live" drums were sequenced from Roland R5 and later R8M over my 808 and/or 909.

I think the Novation DrumStation is an excellent emulation of the 808/909 sounds. Once I learn to record audio & video straight to the computer (right now I record direct into the camera with the mic jack), I plan to make a comparision video.

[JSRockit]

A drumstation sequenced by your MnM is probably the cheapest and easiest way. With the MnM....you will have to craft your own drums via synthesis...it is probably the hardest way to go about what you want. That said, the MD is a complicated machine (compared to TRs) that takes work to get banging drums out of too. The 909 is the easy way too.

[RobotHeroes]

909 would get my vote.

+1

Or the 808. Depending on which sound you like better. I barely like the MnM for synthesis so for any serious drum business nope. Maybe for weird clicks, pops, beeps and other various sounds added to tracks for flavor but for awesome percussion...Negative.

[Soundwave]

The Quasimidi 309 worked amazingly well with my Monomachines external MIDI sequencer as the 309 will do instant program and parameter changes (like waveforms) with parameter locks from the four MIDI CC's on each MnM track.

You can also run the 309's sequencer (with no playback data) along side the MnM and use the eight 'fill in' RPS style triggers for extra performance fun.

It also does a darn good 808 and 909 (except the toms) impression.