classic late 1970s early 1980s drum box sounds; what cheap contemporary gear can get me there?

[tabbycat]

hey the gfx,

not sure if there are any drummers or drum programmers out there, but this question goes out to you.
basically am looking for a stand alone (not software) drumbox that can get me all the classic drum machine sounds of the late 1970s to early 1980s. everything from kraftwerk to throbbing gristle to (early) new order to cocteau twins, etc.

will be using it for the the darker more industrial side of things i suppose, though obviously they can be applied to anything. the original machines i like the sounds of are the linn lm1, roland tr808, em-u drumulator. raw and basic. no pan pipes or phil collins overkill.

have spent some time looking for the best bang i can get for my buck (or complete lack of bucks) that will get me all those sounds, along with being easy to program, and be compatible with relatively modern daw software (am on the edge of getting into that).

at that price point (the more under £100 the better) i feel i’m looking at a used korg volca beats, but before i commit to that cause i wanted to double check with anyone here who might know the territory better if this is all there is?

thanks for any ideas or suggestions.

[Synsound]

The Volca would have beeny suggestion.

[Beaker]

My son has a bunch of vintage drum machines - he's in Berlin at the minute, so I'll ask him when he gets back on Sunday.

He has a Vermona which is is incredible, and (I think) an Akai MPC1000, which is really hot and dirty sounding.

[jivedanson]

IMO, a Volca Sample would be even better for what you need -- can do pretty much everything the Beats can do, but gives you the additional flexibility to load in your own samples and manipulate the heck out of them.   You can coax out some seriously crazy stuff with it.  

Don't get me wrong; the Beats is awesome, but it's an 808, and no matter what you do to it, it sounds like an 808.  Great for hip-hop!  Not really the sound of dark industrial IMO.  

[tabbycat]

jivedanson wrote

IMO, a Volca Sample would be even better for what you need -- can do pretty much everything the Beats can do, but gives you the additional flexibility to load in your own samples and manipulate the heck out of them.   You can coax out some seriously crazy stuff with it.

thanks for the tip off jd, will dedicate some quality yt demo viewing time to the sample over the weekend. isn't it a pita to get the samples trimmed to fall exactly on the beat? maybe the demos will clarify.
i remember trying to use a basic sampler to double-up as a drum box in the 1990s (admittedly old tech) and it sounded bad, everything a shade off either way. you sound convinced by it though, so it must do something very right.

jivedanson wrote

Don't get me wrong; the Beats is awesome, but it's an 808, and no matter what you do to it, it sounds like an 808.  Great for hip-hop!  Not really the sound of dark industrial IMO.

have you not heard the obscure public enemy v einstürzende neubauten collaboration album 'fear of a dark industrial planet'? if it doesn't actually exist it surely will eventually.

@beaker. would definitely appreciate your son's thoughts as he sounds like he knows his shit. thanks.

[Neil mcNasty]

This might not be exactly what you are looking for, but after I got the "FunkBox" for my iPhone/iPad, I have stoped looking for drum-box sounds/machines.
This one has all of them in one package, and it sounds great!
Wanna hear how it sounds? Listen to Gorillaz "Plastic Beach". It's the only drum-device used on the album. Actually all the instruments comes from an iPad/Phone app on that album...
With a Midi adapter on my iPhone it syncs up nicly with the rest of my gear and can be triggered from an MPC or similar for live action.
From lovely lo-fi and crappy sounds from the late 70's, via the legendary boxes from the 80-90's, to the modern sounds of today. It's all in there.
(Damn! almost sounds like I made the app myself and is trying to come up with a sales pitch...)

[jivedanson]

Very good suggestion!  Some great rhythm apps out there; cheaper than hardware, that's for sure!

Just bought the KORG Electribe iPhone app yesterday--for $10, it's freaking amazing:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/korg-ielectribe-for-iphone/id1006939067?mt=8

[Beaker]

Hi Tabbycat, sorry I have not got back to you sooner. Talking to my son about your requirements, he said Alesis SR16 or the SR 18, if you can get one for cheap secondhand.

He said the SR16 has everything you need, and nothing you don't - and they are cheap - £100 new and as little as £30 used on ebay.

He reckons that their only flaw is that they can be too clean sometimes, so he sticks his through an overdrive or distortion.

The really cool machine he has is a Kawai R100, as used by Ministry and Big Black. Even a couple of years ago they were cheap, but now - ouch!

Hope this helps.

[tabbycat]

@beaker, thanks for following up, beaker. much appreciated. will definitely look into the units you mention. £50 is what i've put aside for this one so if the alesis hits the spot for me that would be a ideal. maybe a maxed-out vintage booster, like an ep3 pre, would do for dirtying up just so. i've got an unboxed one not in use. and will check out the kawai for reference. thanks to your son for the tip.

@ neil and jivedanson, thanks for the recommendations re the apps. alas i don’t have a smartphone (calls and texts old-school nokia only) but will consider getting something with regard to using it solely for music apps, starting with those you mentioned.
am generally very wary of the perennial ‘this isn’t compatible with that’ (and vice versa), bugs, crashes, viruses, memory low, etc, problems that come with creative software packages. i tried film making a few years ago and i ended up spending far more time trying to get the software to work together properly than i ever did actually producing the work itself. so once burned.
but friends sometimes offer me old smarts as they perpetually upgrade, so maybe i will accept the next one that comes along and see.