Drum Machine

[nik5]

Is there a good sounding drum machine (sampled sounds) that I can finger play live to a track without using midi? I would like to add drums to a prerecorded song. I thought Native Instruments Maschine would be great but it doesn't have audio outputs. It would have to be used as a plugin. I can't play live through a plugin without latency.

[Studio Saturn]

Here it is. If you use jack you can hook it up with mixbus. http://www.hydrogen-music.org/hcms/

[nik5]

Here it is. If you use jack you can hook it up with mixbus. http://www.hydrogen-music.org/hcms/

Yes, I am familiar with Hydrogen. I don't think you can play live in real time with this program. I want to actually perform the drumming while I record. Not sequence.

[x42]

In the free (libre) world: drmr is a plugin that loads hydrogen kits. https://github.com/nicklan/drmr
Then again you probably want http://www.drumgizmo.org (windows, linux - no OSX)

it won't be zero-latency. the lowest possible is
midi-in -> CPU/synth -> audio-out
with a well configured system you can get this down to a few milliseconds.

In the non-free world, there are lots of options EZDrummer, Addictive Drums 2,... just to mention two. Odd that NI Maschine did not work for you. On what platform is this?

[nik5]

In the free (libre) world: drmr is a plugin that loads hydrogen kits. https://github.com/nicklan/drmr
Then again you probably want http://www.drumgizmo.org (windows, linux - no OSX)

it won't be zero-latency. the lowest possible is
midi-in -> CPU/synth -> audio-out
with a well configured system you can get this down to a few milliseconds.

In the non-free world, there are lots of options EZDrummer, Addictive Drums 2,... just to mention two. Odd that NI Maschine did not work for you. On what platform is this?

I can not honestly say NI Maschine doesn't work. I have not purchased it. I am trying to find out if it will. All the info I read about NI Maschine indicates using it as a plugin. Hence, midi/latency. I know I can create a drum pattern and line it up. However, I want to play the part myself in real time. Latency is not a problem when I direct monitor. I can't direct monitor plugins. I can purchase an inexpensive drum machine that has audio outs, plug directly into my interface, and direct monitor it. Latency solved but quality suffers. Performing with any latency is not an option. Since I have a low budget system, I guess I have to except it's shortcomings. EZDrummer, Addictave Drums etc., all require midi tracks. You can't play the drums yourself in real time. Well, at least I can't on my system.

[Frank]

I can not honestly say NI Maschine doesn't work. I have not purchased it. I am trying to find out if it will. All the info I read about NI Maschine indicates using it as a plugin.

Maschine is either a standalone program, and or a plugin.
The box is just a controller , and indeed has no audio hardware.

I use it life, playing and editing sequences (adding and deleting parts) when we play grooves or dance

On world music parts , it is my Caribbean percussion kit , or my Tabla , or Dangdut.

I start events from it : one setup gives 8 times 16 possibilities

I am actually a wind player : and i use the the knobs to control parameters of those sound i play selected by machine.

The software for all Maschine controllers is the same : one just gets more knobs, and screens

Hope this helps to decide

Oh yeah : I use a Focusrite Firewire da converter to get the sound out, and use Jack to connect Maschine to Mixbus

Regards

[x42]

I only have access to Demo versions of EZDrummer, Addictive Drums 2 but they both can be played live in Mixbus. As can drumgizmo and drmr.

Create a Midi-track with the instrument (or add the plugin manually), connect the midi-keyboard to the midi track's input, set the track to monitor input. (explicit "In") on the top of the mixer-strip.

But yeah near-zero latency requires dedicated hardware. Then again even very experienced drummers are fine with a ms or two and cannot notice the difference. From snare-drum to ear: ~1m ; speed of sound in air: 330m/s -> ~3.3ms A well tuned PC with proper soundcard can do that: 2 * 64 [samples/period] / 48000 [samples/sec] ~= 2.6msec / period (factor for two for round-trip in+out) + some tiny systemic latency for the ADC/DAC. but most off-the-shelf PCs won't go that low: http://manual.ardour.org/setting-up-your...tal-audio/ has some background info

[nik5]

Many thanks to everyone. You all have been very helpful.

[Jostein]

Here it is. If you use jack you can hook it up with mixbus. http://www.hydrogen-music.org/hcms/

Yes, I am familiar with Hydrogen. I don't think you can play live in real time with this program. I want to actually perform the drumming while I record. Not sequence.

You can, just connect the MIDI interface and load a drum set.

EDIT: Oops! Now, I noticed this on the original posting: "..that I can finger play live to a track without using midi?.." Sorry, I should not answered. I'm a little to fast from time to time.

[allank]

A pad interface and hydrogen works perfectly well.
If you are on LInux, Bitwig also provides great options for this.
Of course any software solution is going to be tied to the latency performance of your system..
Alternatively get yourself a second hand MPC.. then the latency performance will be massively superior and switching drum kits is much more suitable.. (You don't need to use the sequencer.. just as you don't in any of the software packages.)