Since the adoption of classic devices like the Roland TR-808, Oberheim DMX, Linndrum, and Akai MPC-60, it's become clear: drum machines can easily become the backbone of not only specific pieces of music, but of entire genres of music. But drum machines are much more than computers for creating musical rhythms in the studio: many are also fully-featured performance instruments that, in the right hands, can create sounds that no one has ever heard.

As technology has advanced, these machines' possibilities have expanded exponentially. Today, the drum machine market is full of options, ranging from simple, straightforward emulations of classic devices all the way to forward-thinking, no-holds-barred devices for creating the music of the future. In this article, we're going to break down some of our favorite currently-available drum machines, with plenty of musical examples along the way.

For the purposes of this article, we're only discussing devices with built-in sequencing and, for the most part, are not discussing samplers/all-in-one production workstations like the modern MPC series. Instead, we're focusing in on devices aimed explicitly toward the creation of rhythm...though as we'll see, many are capable of creating compelling full arrangements on their own.

We have a lot of ground to cover—and as such, this article is broken into themed sections with a few of our favorite recommendations in multiple product categories. Specifically, we'll discuss budget-conscious devices, affordable instruments based on vintage drum machines, and affordable devices with a more modern approach to beat-making. From there, we'll move on to higher-end instruments, including some of the best drum machines available altogether, as well as some devices that take a peculiar new approach to the creation of rhythm-oriented music. Ready to dive in? Read on.

Budget-Conscious Beat Machines (Under $200)

Let's start by taking a look at the most affordable end of the spectrum: drum machines designed to get folks into the world of electronic music hardware without breaking the bank. Luckily, these days there are tons of options for budget-friendly beat machines—so let's look at some options from Roland, Korg, and Teenage Engineering in particular.

Roland's Aira Compact series brings powerful music making equipment to an affordable, battery-powered form factor…and the T-8 is the beatmaker extraordinaire in this line-up.

Inspired by the 606, 808, and 909, the Aria Compact T-8 uses proprietary Analog Circuit Behavior technology, letting you get those vintage tones without all the large, vintage components. Program up to 32 steps for each of the voices—bass drum, snare, tom, clap, open and closed hi hats—plus a bass synth for adding some tasty riffs. This little buddy is effortlessly playable thanks to the Step Repeat function, and you can store up to 64 patterns for quick access on the fly.

Easy to use and great for performance en plein air, the Aira Compact T-8 has great features, like beat and bass randomization, as well as a built in delay and reverb. There are no hidden menus and everything accessible is labeled clearly, taking the guesswork out of making a beat so you can just focus on making tunes. Straightforward with a massive sound (seriously, the bass drum is outstanding), the Aria Compact T-8 can get a pattern going quickly, so you can leave plenty of room for inspiration.

You can't mention budget or portable drum machines without talking about the Korg Volca series. Aside from their incredible synth-centric options, such as the Volca Keys, Volca FM, or Volca Modular units, Korg's line of affordable instruments offers four different types of rhythm machine options—each with their own timbral options and at a price that lets you scoop up a couple to try.

Volca Drum is a physical modeling synthesizer that lets you customize six different percussive sounds in any way you want. There is no bass, snare, or hi hat specific sound, which is what makes this unique: you can have a kit of all toms, wooden tones, or just a fully customized traditional kit all based on unique synthesized sounds.

If you're looking for sample based beats, the Volca Sample 2 is a perfect option for making unique sounds. While it doesn't have a huge memory, that is part of its charm: how creative can you be with limitations? The Sample 2 does have a robust set of knobs for adjusting start time, pitch, and an Analogue Isolator to fine tune the EQ of your samples.

Aside from these somewhat more modern offerings, the Volca series also offers a couple of more vintage-inspired designs. The Volca Kick is a fun percussive addition because it can be just a kick or clicks or generate tones, too. Based on the classic MS-20 filter, the Kick is all analog giving you nice warmth as well as musical saturation. Rounding out the Volca lineup is the Volca Beats, another analog drum machine that is more of a traditional setup with dedicated sound sources for bass drum, snare, and hi hats. All of these are great options for generating percussive patterns and it's best to try out each one and see what suits your needs.

Teenage Engineering is popular for their exquisite OP-1, but they have really made their mark with the Pocket Operators. These handheld, battery-powered rhythm machines come in several different flavors that give you specific types of drum sounds or tonal sequence options. One of the most popular ones is the PO-33 K.O.!, which has lo-fi sampling capabilities, pattern chaining, and time stretching. Handy for quick samples and has playable monetary effects for beat repeat, reverse, and others, this is a versatile pick for creating beats.

No matter which Pocket Operator you get, though—and perhaps you should grip a few—you can generate some unique patterns and have fun doing it.

Affordable Vintage-Inspired Drum Machines (Under $500)

Sometimes, it's hard to beat the sound of a tried-and-true classic drum machine—maybe an 808 kit is just what your track needs! But even though the original vintage units become more expensive on the used market year after year, you don't have to pay astronomical prices for getting those same sounds in your hands today.

Of all musical instrument manufacturers, few have put out as many legendary drum machines as Roland. The TR-606 and TR-808 each command an impressive legacy, to the point where entire genres of music owe their existence to the sounds of those machines. Today, those same kits can be found in Roland's Boutique series, with the TR-06 and TR-08 respectively carrying the torches of the 606 and 808 into the future, with plenty of modern updates for contemporary music studios.

But, if analog is the only way for you to go, Cyclone Analogic has been producing updated takes on Roland's classic instruments and drum machines. With a lineup that also includes the acid-y TT-303 Bass Bot, Cyclone offers the TT-606 Drum Drone and TT-78 Beat Bot as their rhythm-savvy boxes.

As you might guess from its name and appearance, the TT-606 Drum Drone is Cyclone's version of the TR-606. While it does look a lot like the 606, this Drum Drone features a streamlined sequencer workflow and modern features like MIDI In and Out ports plus individual audio outputs for the drum voices. These additional outputs are not only handy for multi-tracking, but you can also try running certain tracks through pedals or other effects processors to find wider sound palettes. Compared to the original, the TT-606 sequencer is way more straightforward to use so you're bound to get programming in beats immediately.

Cyclone's other drum machine is the TT-78 Beat Bot, which is actually based on one of Roland's earlier percussion instruments: the CR-78. But unlike the original, which was essentially a big box with pre-programmed rhythms and limited capacity for custom patterns, Cyclone's version is housed in a 606-like package and offers the same sort of workflow as the TT-606. As such, the TT-78 is probably one of the most unique takes on the CR-78 out there, short of just loading up a sampler with one-shot samples of the original. In fact, if you're looking for a 606-style workflow but want a different sound set to work with, we can't think of a better choice than the TT-78.

Affordable, Forward-Thinking Drum Machines (Under $500)

Of course, the sounds of vintage drum machines aren't necessarily appropriate for every musical situation. You might instead be looking for something new: and luckily, there are plenty of options out there. In this section of the article, we're going to discuss instruments that offer decidedly more modern approaches to sound design and sequencing while still falling in a sub-$500 price point.

Elektron makes exceptional professional equipment for composing with samples and sequencing complex rhythmic patterns. This can come at a price, but if you want to get into the Elektron line, but start off slowly, the Model:Cycles and Model:Samples are the groove boxes you are looking for.

Model:Cycles is an FM synth at its core with voices that are tuned for creating percussive sounds, but it's also great at generating melodic lines. Since it utilizes FM, that means digital bliss is just a few button presses away, and everything from harsh noise and metallic blasts to wooden, snappy sounds are easily programmed. Their Tonal and Chord options are great for adding melodic lines and each of the six tracks has all their options spread across independent knobs making it very easy to adjust.

Model:Samples utilizes the same form factor, but uses samples instead of a synth engine to generate its sounds. This means you can get more complex sounds and unique flavors with the 1GB of internal memory and 64MB sample size, freely open for you to load up. Complete with reverb and delay sends on either the Cycles or Samples, dry driving kits are just as easy to make as blissed-out reverb-soaked kits. Both units can send their audio over USB and can function as a 6 track MIDI sequencer making both these versatile and budget friendly options.

If you want budget analog drum sounds, look no further than the DrumBrute Impact from Arturia. Featuring 10 analog sounds for bass, snare, clap, hats, toms, FM sounds, and more, the DrumBrute is a marvel when it comes to making big, gnarly drum sounds. Each pattern can have up to 64 steps and with 8-voice polyphony, it can take what you throw at it. The eight pads are velocity sensitive allowing you to dynamically record your perfect pattern.

For complex routing, combine with a mixer and use the individual outputs for the bass, snare, hi hats, and FM drum to add separate effects and EQ—allowing for immense sound design potential. The DrumBrute Impact plays well with others by using 3.5mm Clock sync, 5-pin MIDI I/O, and USB connectivity so you can slip into whatever your workflow is with ease. Designed to sound great and get you making patterns in no time, Arturia's DrumBrute Impact is the perfect option if you want analog sound in a modern package without typical analog price.

Best In Class: Our No-Holds-Barred Favorites

Maybe you've been around the block a few times with some other drum machines and you're looking to step up to a new box. Or perhaps you're a sound designer at heart and jive with a flexible sequencer that brings your sounds to life. In either case, or a myriad of other scenarios, you might crave the premium drum machine experience. These next instruments on our list represent the pinnacle of the drum machines in our catalog, and any of them would be a great choice for creating top-level tracks and performances.

No conversation on powerful drum machines would be complete without mentioning Elektron, and in fact, we'll be mentioning them a few times in the following paragraphs.

Representing their flagship Analog line, the Analog Rytm is a powerhouse hybrid drum machine that melds heavyweight analog synthesis with sample layering for rich and highly personalized sounds. Its 12 tracks can control eight analog voice circuits with incredible precision and versatility, ranging from heavy-hitting kicks to all sorts of metallic cymbals and strange impulses. Add in analog filters and onboard effects like delay, reverb, and compression, and it quickly becomes apparent that Analog Rytm is one of the most sonically complete drum machines ever conceived.

But of course, Elektron has also seen incredible success with their Digi line, which is positioned as a sort of intermediate level between the Model series on one end and the Analog instruments plus Octatrack on the other. But that said, Elektron cut very few corners in designing these instruments, and through continued firmware development over the years they have added more features that bring them ever closer to the capabilities of their flagships. The Digi experience as a whole is streamlined—complex data structures are largely overhauled in favor of simplicity, and any given parameter is usually no more than a few button presses away.

If you prefer drum synthesis over sampling, then you might rather try Elektron's Syntakt. As a 12-track hybrid drum machine comprising both analog and digital synthesis methods, and extends well beyond the capabilities of a typical drum machine. Sure, there are plenty of kicks, snares, and other drum sounds to explore, but load up the Dual VCO or Chord machines and you'll find melodies, basses, and pads hiding within Syntakt. The inclusion of a global FX track is also a unique feature for Syntakt, where you can create sub-mix groups of both internal tracks and external audio sources to be processed by the global analog filter and VCA, as well as delay and reverb.

We've already mentioned Roland's history of producing legendary drum machines, and how their Boutique line captures the individual magic of their legacy instruments. But what if you wanted every classic Roland and the ability to mix and match 606, 808, and 909 sounds with each other and your own sounds? Well, that happens to be exactly what the TR-8S is all about, on top of also providing a highly immediate and performance-friendly interface.

Like the Boutiques, the TR-8S utilizes Roland's ACB technology to realize digital recreations of the original circuits. But the TR-8S gathered up the entirety of the TR family, offering the 606, 707, 727, 808, and 909, along with select modified versions of each, too. But this isn't an instrument that's stuck living in the past—Roland also packed in a powerful FM drum synthesis engine, and the ability to load in your own custom samples with an SD card. This sonic flexibility combined with the classic TR-x0x sequencer approach makes the TR-8S a truly compelling instrument with a tried-and-true interface.

But even with a more traditional sequencer layout, Roland packed in plenty of ways to give your tracks a modern flair. You can certainly program in steps the old-fashioned way, but there are also live playing and recording options. Dial in polyrhythms or polymeters by individually changing track lengths, enter in flams or ratchets with sub steps, or use probability, pattern variations, and fills to give your sets some dynamic sensibility. And that's not even mentioning the immediate access to essential track parameters and built-in effects, which themselves can be used to elevate your music.

Equally comfortable on stage and in the studio, TR-8S is also equipped with plenty of hardware and software points of connectivity to make its integration into your life even more seamless. All eight tracks have individual outputs for external processing and mixing, and external audio can be routed into the TR-8S for immediate blending with its sounds. Its also a powerful USB audio and MIDI interface, with multi-track recording and full MIDI implementation for modulation and automation. Simply put, it's clear that Roland was taking notes on what other drum machines were bringing to the table. As such, the TR-8S is both a culmination of every famous Roland drum machine that came before it and a powerful platform for pushing electronic drums into the future.

It's also worth note that the TR-6S offers many of the features of the TR-8S in a reduced package and a lower price point...well under $500.

The Weird Stuff: Drum Machines from Another Planet

Only five years into its existence, Jomox's flagship drum machine Alpha Base has already earned an iconic status among electronic music makers, and rightfully so. Unlike many other drum machines, Alpha Base is not limited to just one or even two types of synthesis—but rather, it offers an amalgamation of different digital and analog approaches spread across 11 distinct percussion instruments.

The machine comprises a powerful and flexible analog kick drum, a membrane-based shape-shifting analog percussion voice, four sample-based instruments equipped with analog VCAs, ADSR envelopes, and multi-mode resonant filters, two more sample-based voices bent toward hi-hat sounds, yet two more tracks for externally sampled sources, and a 6-voice 4-operator FM synth which can be equally useful for off-kilter percussive sounds, and adding tonal and harmonic interest to the grooves. Each voice includes an assignable LFO (MBrane has two) with 64 selectable waveforms to add movement and variance to sounds. Additionally, Alpha Base features built-in reverb and delay effects that can be applied to each voice in varying amounts.

And then, there's the Soma Laboratory Pulsar-23…and frankly, nothing about Pulsar-23 is ordinary.

Created by Vlad Kreimer, Pulsar-23 is easily one of the strangest and most powerful electronic percussion instruments to ever exist. The idiosyncrasies of the machine, however, don't come at the expense of usability or functionality. This drum synthesizer was created by the designer by following their own intuitions and original ideas instead of attempting to replicate or even modify any previously existing design. And as such, it's wholly unique.

Above all, Pulsar-23 is a modular instrument with a wide range of possibilities. However, it does not religiously conform to any conventional patching format. Instead, its interface is densely populated with ambiguous binding posts for alligator clips. This seemingly odd decision, in reality, has a number of practical and creative advantages. First, as was mentioned by Vlad Kreimer himself, it allowed Soma to increase the total number of patch points on the instrument without making it more expensive, or significantly larger. Secondly, it exposed a variety of unusual performance and sound design possibilities. For example, gestural modulation of clusters of parameters using one's body as a patch cable or densely entangled feedback networks is a breeze on Pulsar-23. Moreso, the obscurity of the design actually increases its capacity to musically mingle with instruments of any format. Alligator clips on their own are quite adaptable for interfacing with many things, however, for the sake of convenience, Pulsar-23 includes built-in 8-point 1/8", and 6-point 1/4" bi-directional converters. On top of that, it includes a fully-equipped MIDI-to-CV module.

Esoteric by nature, Pulsar-23 is truly an instrument like no other that invites a musician to develop an intricately personal approach to it. More than a drum synth, it is a wildly flexible canvas, beaming with a seemingly infinite array of possibilities for radical sonic experimentation.

Last on our list of oddities, and named after a Baltic god of thunder, Erica's Pērkons HD-01 is a drum and drone machine that truly lives up to its deemed ground-shattering potential. Comprised of four hybrid analog-digital voices, a nuanced sequencer, a flexible modulation LFO, a digitally modeled bucket brigade delay, a master compressor, and a wealth of performance features, the instrument is tailored toward intuitive live interaction, and unobstructed music making. Erica Synth intentionally put an emphasis on the simplicity of the interface when designing the device, making it such that all of the necessary functions are always one or two button presses away. Deep menu dives that can significantly halt the creative flow are skillfully avoided without sacrificing the complexity where it is needed.

Pērkons's four voice engines are distinct from each other, yet all feature a digital sound engine with 3 selectable algorithms, 3 selectable algorithm modes (variations), and an analog multi-mode filter. The sound engines sport a variety of approaches to sound synthesis, including wavetables, waveshaping, FM, and Karplus-Strong.

As a whole, Pērkons is an extraordinary percussion instrument. Its quite distinct yet hugely varied sonic character paired with uncommonly intuitive workflow encourage play and spontaneity that can be very addictive, and keep one energized to pull off a lengthy performance with nothing but this machine alone. In fact, Pērkons gives out a strong vibe that this is exactly what it was designed for—to keep you focused on making music, inspired and undistracted.

Honorable Mentions

Of course, whittling our list of favorite drum machines down to a single article was quite a task—and it left a lot of important instruments unmentioned. I'd like to point out a couple in particular.

And of course, there's more—from Novation's Circuit series to countless samplers, drum synthesizers, and electronic drum pads. We hope that this article has left you with some inspiration, or some ideas of how you might invite a new drum machine into your life—and of course, if you're still looking for more information, feel free to reach out to talk about what drum machine might be right for you.