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Playing live shows with a drum machine?

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? by tjkennelly

Good idea or not?

We really can't be fucked looking for a drummer anymore and we already practice using a drum machine but i'm wondering if gigging with its considered acceptable

tjkennelly | 13 May '08, 23:10 | Send note | Report this | Reply

I spose

it really depends on what kind of band you are.
I think drum machines only sound good if they're not trying to be real drums.
But yeah, if it sounds good, might as well, drums sound crap 75% of the time live anyway.

hectogon | 13 May '08, 23:32 | Send note | Report this | Reply

tricky

i) A drum machine is nowhere near as interesting to look at as a drummer. This may seem trivial, but often the drummer is the most interesting person to look at onstage, particularly in post-rock bands who don't have a singer.

ii) If you have a drum machine then your ability to keep in time, onstage, will depend entirely on the quality of the monitors and the soundman. At least with a real drumkit everyone can hear the hi-hat/ride and try to keep in time to that, but if you have rubbish monitors (which are often only designed to be powerful enough for the vocals) then you're really going to struggle.

argle | 14 May '08, 10:02 | Send note | Report this | Reply

kill yourself

no seriously, kill yourself.

Any band who uses a drum machine over live drums should be mown down with an AK immediately.

Try not to be such arseholes, play some decent music, let the drummer have some input, these are all ways of keeping your drummer.

If you "can't be arsed" to look for one then maybe a record company won't be arsed to look for you either?

If you don't have a mad drummer going nuts then your stage presence is absolute zero

drummerboi | 14 May '08, 11:03 | Send note | Report this | Reply

and dude

it seems as if you like metal so I'm guessing that's what your band plays, right?

a metal band without a drummer? wow, you'll be booed off

drummerboi | 14 May '08, 11:05 | Send note | Report this | Reply

.

agoraphobic nosebleed anyone? or ghengis tron in fact...?

chipmunkfancier | 14 May '08, 11:30 | Send note | Report this | Reply

^ typical drummer

TimmyL | 14 May '08, 11:38 | Send note | Report this | Reply

^bell

toomanykooks | 14 May '08, 11:57 | Send note | Report this | Reply

Its not that we

cant be bothered
its more that we can't be bothered to put the effort to find them any more
I've spent the past 4 months trawling gumtree and other sites looking for decent metal drummers
I've emailed over 30 and had about 7 replies. I'm just sick of hunting them down when most of the time they can't be bothered to do a weekly practice or won't play because they're not paid

tjkennelly | 16 May '08, 15:48 | Send note | Report this | Reply

Didn't do the Sisters of Mercy any harm

Doktor Avalanche = legend.

basil | 14 May '08, 11:23 | Send note | Report this | Reply

Big Black did it well

It's certainly not 'unacceptable,' being that it's a musical tool. You'll just need to make sure that your monitor mix is good enough to allow you to hear it. I saw a band recently that had some sort of light thing for them to keep in time (if it was a 4/4 beat, it flashed red green green green red green green green etc...), don't know if that'd be of any use to you. Another option would be for you to get in ear monitors, but they're expensive.

rfscott | 14 May '08, 12:18 | Send note | Report this | Reply

or buy your own mini-monitors

for onstage, which might be slightly cheaper than in-ears.

argle | 14 May '08, 12:24 | Send note | Report this | Reply

Carter USM

FTW

Salsamander | 14 May '08, 12:41 | Send note | Report this | Reply

I'm a drummer,

in need of a new band, and i'm definatley the most exciting one to look at.

spunder | 14 May '08, 13:02 | Send note | Report this | Reply

It did work well for Big Black, true

and I have nothing agaisnt bands using drum machines live, it's just that I suppose it works better with some bands than others. Big Black's sound was based around the rigidity of the drum machine to a large extent, but if your band isn't set up like this, then it won't be for you.

Drum machines certainly take away any sponteneity from your gig, so if you want that, perhaps plough on looking for a drummer.

Joe - www.anewbandaday.com

joespro | 16 May '08, 16:04 | Send note | Report this | Reply

On...

the sponteneity front, the only way to do it is to have someone operating the drum machine/laptop onstage. Get a laptop or an MPC drum machine and you can have as much sponteneity as a real drummer, as you've someone there to trigger fills as needed. That does require another band member, but it may well be easier to find someone who can operate Ableton/a drum machine than it is to find a drummer.

Mu_Tron | 16 May '08, 16:28 | Send note | Report this | Reply

...

Using drum machines to try to sound like a real drummer when you can't find one makes baby Jesus cry. Using a drum machine as a drum machine, though, is preferrable over a real drummer, who tend to like cymbals a bit too much. If you're going to do it, make it an element of your band rather than trying to replace a live drummer. Most rock and metal bands who use drum machines go for a "we're going to try to make this sound as much like a real drumkit as possible" when they should really be thinking "Ok, so we're using this instead of a real drummer, how can we use it to it's fullest potential?" Personally, I'd applaud a metal band with a drum machine who programmed it with 808 and 909 samples instead of the usual rock kit ones, and nicked beats from house music rather than Led Zeppelin.

Mu_Tron | 16 May '08, 16:25 | Send note | Report this | Reply

Good luck programming the beats

It will be a bitch.

steveholt | 16 May '08, 16:36 | Send note | Report this | Reply

the beats are already programmed

our vocalist has a drum machine and writes all our beats on there

tjkennelly | 16 May '08, 17:05 | Send note | Report this | Reply

if it's the difference between playing live

and not playing at all I'd do it just to play.

nickthescene | 16 May '08, 16:42 | Send note | Report this | Reply