Now Hating.

Love drum machines  Great fun, and thats from a drummer!

Mind you every drum machine I've ever met has been better than me.

Some of the best music of the 90's involved sampled drums and electronics generally. The Orb has been mentioned, and they were brilliant (most of the time) but also Future Sound of London, Global Communication, Plaid, Boards of Canada..This was the best music of the 90's IMO. To my mind that is 'Neo-Prog' if anything has to be at all. Not the likes of IQ et al, they are PROG ROCK as far as I'm concerned.

Anyway, I waffle. Long live sampled percussion!!

Well I saw Pamela Kurstin recently at Moogfest doing one hell of a job playing that theramin.  The sound doesn't actually do all that much for me.. but the gracefulness of her hand movements and the playing was just stunning...

Also, I'm not quite sure what instrument Joe Gallivan was playing... but it was sort of like a theramin.. played with drumsticks... and he looks like Frank Zappa.. so overall it was a very interesting evening... I get all that and Keith Emerson, Rick Wakeman and Jordan Rudess playing at one event.

Caught! - But to make a sound, those electronic drums had to replay a drum sample, as they could make no distinct noise of their own

Didn't Jean-Michel Jarre use a similar light-operated instrument?

I gotta plug my favorite band yet again...The Cocteau Twins used a drum machine for most of their career, and many of their best tracks now sound a little dated solely for that reason.

It's all about what works for the music- Norman Cook, among others, can get more expression and funkiness out of his machines than many real drummers could ever manage.

Many of the problems that people have with drum machines are similar to the complaints that were made when synthesizers first began to get mainstream (thanks mainly to Floyd, Wakeman, Emerson, and other prog pioneers). The British musicians association even tried to ban the Mellotron! I have a feeling that if our beloved bands had access to drum machines, you would certainly have heard one from time to time, especially for spacey or futuristic accents.

My wife wonders what this debate is about- she seems to think that 'progressive' music should exploit the latest technology. I had to explain to her that most (not all, don't jump on me!) prog is based on what had been 'progressive' in the 60s and 70s. It is called progressive ROCK, after all. If you went to a club or trendy music store and just asked for "progressive", they'd most likely assume you meant progressive house and send you to BT or Spooky.

On Jon Anderson's solo tour I saw earlier this year.. it was just him, his acoustic guitar, a Korg piano, a harp... and a computer...

Actually it was really very nice and I enjoyed it .

Tauhd Zaïa wrote: Yes James Lee, I understand you (I try) But "HATE" was never a motivating force for me. "HATE" always destructed me when I felt it. I don't want to be sexist (I "HATE" this) but maybe it is one of the differences between men and women ?? And about drum machines : For me the most important is not the fact a music use or not drum machines but the way drums machines are employed. It is always the same problem of the man and the tool... "Q: why is a drum machine better than a real drummer? A: you only have to punch the correct rhythm into the machine once." Yes but in electronic music you have sofwares that are able to make imperfections to the correct rhythm of the drum machines (from 90ies I think). The result ? More "human", more life in the beat, more groove... But for me : "Q: why is a drum machine better than a real drummer? "A: a drum machine never drinks beer and never looks at my chest"

And it never listens to another drum machine play and says "I'm much better than that guy. He just got lucky."

I have to disagree- HATE as an obsession is very bad, but only as much as any other fanatic blindness, whether it's positive or negative in origin. However, HATE as a motivating force is among the most basic human impulses, able to motivate us long after more pleasant feelings have abandoned us. Trying to remove hate from our emotional palette is useless, and one of the worst mistakes of the Western theological tradition. Trying to squash negativity often just lets it fester forgotten, insidiously coloring all other feelings, and getting ever harder to separate and deal with in a reasonable manner.

So go ahead and hate drum machines- it's a quirky character trait other people may find interesting, anyway- as long as you don't end up stalking Boss and Alesis executives, or campaigning to blacklist or confine drum machine users. Better yet, find out what makes you hate them, and come to some sort of emotional compromise that you can live with.

Q: why is a drum machine better than a real drummer?

A: you only have to punch the correct rhythm into the machine once.

"The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them; that's the essence of inhumanity."
-George Barnard Shaw

Maybe... but if you DO have it (oops!), this thread is helpful to share your frustrations with others who feel the same way about it...

Moonchild: I don't like drum machines either!

I hate the new trend to sample pieces of music. Write your own, don't steal from others.

I hate drum machines. Humans are better.