A lot of groups are leaning towards drum machines now instead of a living breathing musician. For the life of me, I can not understand why. Does anyone out there use, or know someone that uses a drum machine, and if so...why?

Blame Phil Collins, I guess. I don't play with a drummer who uses a drum machine, but he does occasionally uses electronic pads to recreate a drum kit sound from a record we're covering. I much prefer the natural ebb and flow of a real drummer, although you can program a drum machine to vary tempo and even to "hit the drum" mor4e softly. But I prefer a human.

Drum machines, I will grudgingly admit, do have their advantages but no drum machine in the world can play with "feel" and emotion. And though they can be programmed to jump tempo and time signatures, there is just...no soul to them. But to each their own I guess, that's why they are out there and being bought.

My only use for a drum machine is for practice. I've never played with a drummer who can keep time as well, and any metronome or drum machine I play with doesn't have any qualms about telling me if I'm even a hair off the beat!

That's definitely true. I mean that is definitely the main advantage of drum machines. But man, those metronomes can be cruel sometimes especially in the slower tempos.

There is nothing harder than playing slowly -- unless it's playing extremely fast. At either extreme, it's always helpful to subdivide the tempo. AT slower speeds, let's say 60 BPM, you can set the metronome to 120 BPM, effectively making it easier to figure out where the "in-between" beats are. Any decent electronic metronome will also usually have options for triplets or dotted quarter-eighth rhythms. I love the Yamaha beat boxes that yell out the count in a Japanese female voice! Makes me feel like watching anime.

Man that is so true. But, the key to playing fast is learning to play slow. Nothing is harder, than playing at low dynamics and as slow as 60 BPM. But that's where a lot of practice time and a Dr. Beat come into play. It's funny you mentioned the Yamaha beat box, we named ours Dr. Beat. When I was on the drumline in high school, we mounted a public address speaker to a two wheeled dolly, plugged up Dr. Beat and our drum instructor would run around the field behind us as we did our drill pushing this evil contraption.
Man I still have nightmares about that.

I still remember one day trying to teach a bass player how to practice walking a bass line with a metronome. I told him to put the metronome to 2 + 4 and count himself in. I guess I didn't explain it well enough, because he came in the next week and said his metronome only had a setting for 1 + 3.

I used to play with a drummer who counted off songs: 1-3, 1-2-3-4. And he was right, of course.

That's probably the funniest thing I have heard today. I wish my metronome only had a setting for 1 & 3. That is such an odd way to count off a song. I've heard a few different ways but 1-3,1-2-3-4 is definitely new to me.