I've never used one before. Before now I've mainly survived on the awful beats available through Cubase or Logic.

How easy are they to operate? How expensive are they? Any makes you'd recommend/avoid? How contemporary are the beats?

Any advice would be gratefully received.

By the way, my music has urban, ethnic, Minneapolis and pop influences... I'd like a drum machine that could cater for all those different genres.

I've been programming on drum machines for 2 decades.

Several things to consider with your drum machine venture. First off, do you understand rhythm and how to play it? I know that's an obvious question, and duh, ANYONE understands rhythm, but, are you able to play out patterns on a desk? Sure you are. Then you're good for a drum machine. (sorry to ask, but I watched a guy buy a drum machine all excited, only to discover, his timing was so bad that he had no use for the drum machine. Even tho it's not a drumkit, you DO need rhythm to program the thing).

There's some good cheap drum machines out there.

Alesis
The HR-16 was (in my opinion) THE EASIEST drum machine to use. Ever. Hands down. Unfortunately, it came out in 1988, and the sounds are now extremely dated, and not in a old-school-hiphop way, but more like a Paula Abdul/Wham way.

edit: you could change the tuning of the drum, (detune up or down by 16 notes - SUPER LOW clunk like Prince did on the Linn Drum) and you could change the panning, individual mix of each sound, (so, if you REALLY like the hi-hats, but they're just too loud, you could change the overall volume of the hi-hats). I haven't seen another drum machine with this much control over the sounds.

ebay: $40.00.

The SR-16 was the successor to the HR-16. It's still in production, and they sacrificed a LOT to make this machine. Programming it is still pretty easy, but you don't have as much control over the sounds. By then, most companies realized that their market was home studios who didn't own a dedicated effects box for the drum machine, so they started shipping drum machines with reverb, echo, etc, already included in the sounds. Which is great, if you WANT reverb all over the snare.
ebay: $75-90.00

Zoom
The Zoom family - 123 and 234 - great sounds, (drums AND bass sounds) but a MISERABLE programming method. It's horrible. Add to that the mistake of making the pads exclusively touch sensitive, (as opposed to programming in layers - "I'll add the HEAVY bass drum hits first, and then go back, reset the volume, and add secondary drum hits - so it sounds more human"). The drum sounds are fantastic tho - with everything from realistic drums to hip hop drums (the TR-808 sound that's all over Big Boi's latest record).

I DO understand that they've modified their drum machines for programming songs, using, of all things, ALGEBRA. Which is brilliant: pattern 1X8, pattern BX16. Repeat both 4 times, then Pattern CX8, then repeat the first part all over again. HOW EASY is THAT? awesome
ebay: 234: $40, 123: $125 (I THINK)

Boss
the DR series - for "Dr. Rhythm". Classic sounds, but, unfortunately, an even WORSE programming setup. From their original Dr. Rhythm (my first drum machine) to the DR-6 or 7, they've always used the same pattern program style: SLOTS. Meaning, "we'll provide you with 16 slots for this pattern, you put whatever beats you want in the pattern, as long as they go into one of these 16 slots". Which is horrible, if, say, you want to do a 7/8 time signature, or add a triplet (for the New Jack swing style).
The DR5 is sposed to be WAY cool because not only is it a drum machine, but it includes a lot of regular keyboard sounds, and a semi-intuitive interface for programming those notes. Unfortunately, it STILL uses that "slot" based pattern programming. useless, if you ask me.
ebay: dr5: $180?

If you're new to all this, I'd suggest getting an Alesis SR-16 off of ebay - going for around $80 these days. BE SURE you get the manual. I just bought a keyboard with no manual, and had to print out all 300 pages here at work. (love my company).

I know this is probably WAAAY more than you wanted to know, but, your options are wide open. If you want something that gives bass and drums together, check out the zoom drum machines, but, be prepared for a learning curve on how to control your hitting the pads (I had one for 2 years and NEVER got good at it).
[This message was edited Fri Feb 6 9:26:27 PST 2004 by otan]