Drum Machines: The Complete Guide for Musicians

One of the newest names on the market, Polyend have turned heads with their aptly named hybrid analogue/digital Drums, built for quick and effortless, high-quality beats on a super clear aluminium interface.

They have 10 years of experience build sequencers and they’re bringing that strength to an eight-track machine housing 50 instrument sounds and effects, with each track capable of assigning analogue, digital and sampled sounds. No menu diving, just simple access to independent and master effects to spice things up, instant pattern switching, immediate sound kit changes and polyrhythms. Overall, an excellent live performance and recording drum machine, and as modern as they come.

This is where it all started. Roland are the unequivocal icons of the drum machine. The Roland TR-808, first made in 1980, sparked a new wave of electronic music that went on to dominate pop and seep into all sorts of EDM subgenres.

Roland is still one of the leading drum machine producers and you can tap into those classic tones everyone wants with the TR-08 Boutique, faithful to the original 808. Meanwhile, the TR-06 is an updated remake of the 1981 606, which was a popular choice on a budget and had a big impact on new wave and punk styles.

The TR-1000 is the flagship Roland drum machine and their boldest leap into rhythm since the 808 and TR-909, combining these two heritage sounds for 16 unique circuits total. Married with a massive library of textures and lovely analogue effects, this is Roland’s best drum machine yet.

The advanced TR-8S and its little sister machine, the TR-6S, both capture the snappy sounding heritage tones with added levels of customisation, connections and sampling – making them more rounded live performance grooveboxes.

The Akai MPC, meaning 'Music Production Centre', was introduced to beatmakers and producers in the late '80s, opening up entirely new avenues for sequencing and sampling. The hands-on workflow utilising a grid of 16 velocity sensitive, programmable pads developed a whole new style of production. Crafting loops and beats with your fingers in real-time was now possible; complex rhythms could be made entirely in the box without the need for a studio.

More of a fully-fledged workstation for building entire tracks, you'd still get plenty of use out of the MPC as a drum machine, and then some. Nowadays, Akai's MPC Sample, MPC Live 3 and MPC Studio carry the torch of classic MPC all-in-one drum machine, sampler and sequencer workstations.

These standalone pieces of gear let you create far more dynamic beats and layered, nuanced tracks using just one unit without the need for a DAW. Power, versatility and creativity all contained within one compact chassis makes an MPC a more than worthy centrepiece of any producer's setup.

Do you like the idea of owning a retro drum machine but don’t want to splash out big on something second-hand? Behringer have faithfully recreated the likes of the TR-808 and plenty of other classic machines with faithful analogue goodness.

Packing a familiar selection of sizzling hi-hats and big bass drums across a 64-step sequencer, the RD-8 and RD-9 add a couple of modern touches to those classic designs. Editing your patterns both during the creative process and mid-performance is easier than ever, as you can now repeat notes on the fly, access real-time triggering and step-overdub.

Behringer also make the LM Drum, celebrating the legendary LinnDrum known for its punchy 8 and 12-bit samples. There’s also the BMX, inspired by the sounds of the Oberheim DMX, and the RD-78, capturing the essence of the Roland CR-78 CompuRhythm – one of the first programmable drum machines and the first to use a microprocessor.

Stunning analogue sounds at seriously tempting prices. The Korg Volca Beats and Sample 2 are the best picks for those of you who want to keep things simple but don’t want to lose out on quality.

The Volca is one of the most popular beginner drum machines and for good reason. You get access to a great array of sounds without having to menu dive. There’s a choice of five oscillators that change the textures of each sound, such as sine waves and sawtooth waves. You can apply them freely to any of the six sound slots individually or as a track during a performance. The Volca is also packing some features you’d usually see on high-end kits like a choke function on the sequencer and a step slice letting you carve out drum rolls.

Also featuring in the line-up is the first analogue/digital hybrid from Korg: the Drumlogue. The best of both worlds comes in the richness of the analogue tones across the bass drum, snare, and low and high toms, with the ability to load in your own samples. There’s some nice crossover into synths as well with the inclusion of the Multi Engine from the Minilogue XD.

Elektron make world class digital drum machines with incredibly deep customisation and sampling capabilities - it’s up to you how far you want to push new sounds.

They’re also well known for having a super smooth, intuitive workflow thanks to their infinity dials and LED selection screens. That means you can see exactly what you’re changing – be it diving in and out of beautiful inbuilt effects, shaping soundwaves or dropping each sample in and out for ultimate flexible performance.

Elektron drum machines might take the longest to master on this list, but they provide one of the biggest pay offs when you know what you’re doing. Starting with the Models:Samples, moving up to the Digitakt MkII and onto the top end of things with the Rytm MkII and Octatrack, they’ve got plenty of price points covered.

Teenage Engineering are one of the innovative premium brands to have emerged this century brimming with unique ideas to combine sampling and sequencing. Favoured by on-the-go coffee shop beatmakers and ultra creative individuals with ideas pouring out their earholes, the Swedish-founded company initially made huge waves with the OP-1 and tiny, almost toy-like Pocket Operators.

Inspired by dance music cultures, the current four-track OP-1 Field and flagship OP-XY 16-step sequencer, synths, drum machines, samplers, recorders and just about do-it-all machines are incredibly expansive music production tools. Yes, there’s plenty of crossover into synth and workstation territory, but at their core is the ability to set out defined drumbeats with fantastic real-time control to drop sounds in and out and change rhythms for your live performances. Adding unique samples to your beats is a breeze with the FM radio, letting you record live broadcasts and chop them up however you like.