Mach Five Drums?

[Larry_81]

Hello all.

I am about to purchase M5V2 and would like to ask those of you who have it, what are the drumkits/sets like?

I only have DP5 and I was considering buying BFD or some other drum software but I hope that M5V2 will prove adequate.

I need access to basic acoustic kits as well as some modern, electronic sounds.

Has anyone tried the drums to see if the libraries would hold their own in quality (if not quantity) against some of the standalone pieces of drum software?

Thank you

[Shooshie]

I wouldn't know a good drum kit from a crocodile, so I can't help you there, but the point of Mach Five isn't about the sounds that come bundled with it. Mach Five is billed as a universal sampler, or sample player. That means you can buy disks of drum kits for other samplers such as Giga, Akai, Roland, Kurzweil, and others. It reads the files from MOTU Symphonic Instrument and MOTU Ethno Instrument as well. It also reads loops. Thousands and thousands of loops. In addition to the loops that came with it, I also have the Garageband Loops, Apple Loops from elsewhere, and SoundTrack Loops (more Apple). Then there are the REX files in the MOTU Extras Disk that came with DP. Without consciously purchasing a single loop, I find myself in posession of tens of thousands of them, all readable by Mach Five.

I've come across drum kits numbering in the hundreds. I have no idea where they all came from, but I've got them from various sound sets including Mach Five's. So, my point is that you'll have access to so many drum kits that you won't know what to do with them all. If that's not enough, pick up the phone and call someone for some more drums. Mach Five will read them all, er... at least it says it can. It might pay to find out which formats are most successful before buying more kits.

Shooshie

[rentadrummer]

I wouldn't know a good drum kit from a crocodile, so I can't help you there....
Shooshie

DRUM KIT:


CROCODILE:


No need to thank me.

[Shooshie]

Wait a minute... that's a pretty lo-res image of that croc. And that drum kit looks like it has scales. Are you SURE those are labeled correctly? How can you be so sure? Could you get an mp-3 of you beating on each one so we'll know the difference in sound?


Shoosh

[tim57var]

I didn't know Billy Cobham was a croc... or wait - I don't think he ever had more than about 16 toms in his kit....

Anyway -
The best factory kits I've come across are in Battery 3 (NI) - I was never sold on BFD or Drums from Hell - although I've gotten a lot of mileage out of Burning Grooves over the years.

[Larry_81]

I didn't know Billy Cobham was a croc... or wait - I don't think he ever had more than about 16 toms in his kit....

Anyway -
The best factory kits I've come across are in Battery 3 (NI) - I was never sold on BFD or Drums from Hell - although I've gotten a lot of mileage out of Burning Grooves over the years.

Thanks for the response so far.

tim57var, how do you rate Mach 5 vs Battery soundwise?

That is to say, quality of included samples, not quantity...

[Shooshie]

I didn't know Billy Cobham was a croc... or wait - I don't think he ever had more than about 16 toms in his kit....

Anyway -
The best factory kits I've come across are in Battery 3 (NI) - I was never sold on BFD or Drums from Hell - although I've gotten a lot of mileage out of Burning Grooves over the years.

Thanks for the response so far.

tim57var, how do you rate Mach 5 vs Battery soundwise?

That is to say, quality of included samples, not quantity...

I think it is safe to say that Battery whacks the tom-toms out of Mach Five when we're comparing the included drum samples, but again I reiterate that you're comparing apples and oranges. To use an analogy, battery is a sports car designed for a particular kind of driving. Mach five is an automobile carrier which can carry all kinds of cars, so that when you want a particular sports car, you drive if off the truck and use it. Mach Five is the truck, though, not the car. The analogy kind of breaks down there, since you DO end up driving the car somehow through the truck -- that is to say, it's very possible that Battery's samples might even work in Mach Five-2. But you'd have to find someone who's tried that.

If you're looking for the world's best drum samples, you'll probably find it in Battery or BFD or something like that. If you need a universal sampler that can play some of the best drum kit samples in the world, but may not come bundled with them, then Mach Five 2 might be a valid choice.

Shooshie

[Larry_81]

Thanks Shooshie, I appreciate your taking the time to answer my question so thoroughly.

As it stands, I don't have any sample player at the moment and, in light of what you say, I can't see any good reason to choose a non-MOTU product to play samples back, as it's very likely it will play better with DP than anything else.

Cheers!

[tim57var]

I've been using MachFive v1 for years to do my drums - but when I went to an Intel-Mac I had to find another solution, even though it proved to be temporary. So, I tried Battery - it's a GREAT drum-only module - and the sounds it ships with are the best I've seen so far. I'm sure the individual sounds will load into MachFive - I've loaded whole kits into MachFive2, but the load in as one part - that makes it difficult for editing and effects processing, as well as splitting out to individual aux tracks, etc. You absolutely can make great kits up on MachFive2, I'm just not thrilled with the sounds it ships with (at least for my taste). I'm using Battery now for drums as my go-to choice - It's making me think a little different for the moment.