With drum machines becoming cool and fashionable again, we thought of using this week’s injection to explain the appeal 🙂
PERSONALITY & DESIGN ETHOS
Every drum machine has its own flavour. It was built by somebody with a precise idea in mind. When you use a real drum machine, it’s not like you just have new sounds, you also have a new way of working. The manufacturers put a lot of thought into it, and they want you to be creative. Good instruments influence your workflow and creativity.
SELF-CONTAINED WORKFLOW
There are no USB connectors (although some do), there is no software that you need to run on a different machine, and you don’t have a whole bunch of cables and 15 mins of work before you can actually get to the music. You switch it on, make music, drive the song and make the groove. The reason why drum machines are so appealing is because they have their own work flow and inspire you to make something different.
NEW TOY, NEW INSPIRATION
We are not different from children. We need new toys to get our creative juice flowing. Every time you work on new instruments you have new ideas and new brain connections that you didn’t make before. Even if you get just a few days of new inspiration and new vibe for your music, that’s worth the purchase. Drum machines are fun.
LIMITATIONS
When you work with a DAW with plugins, soft synths and samplers, there’s no limit to what you can do. This can lead to a lot of wasted time, and you end up doing nothing. When you have a drum machine that can do only certain things, it is like a railroad. It forces you to down a certain path and focuses you. You have limitation, and you are forced to be concentrated on the rhythm. This limitation helps your music.
We explain all these in detail in our new online video course, How To Produce House Music. In this course we will show you all of the techniques that you can use to get the best out of drum machines, as well as how to recreate the methodology in your DAW. Click here to find out.