Newbie question....when I asked at guitar center a while ago if the motiff had a drum machine the salesman explanied no it had a arpeggiator...he didn't explain it very well something about looping patterns u play in or something so so I will ask you guys whats the difference between the 2...whats the difference between an arppergiator and a drum machine???

I'm hoping this is a serious question.
A drum machine is just that, a unit which reproduces percussion (particlarly) drum sounds.
An arpegiator, would be a unit or patch that takes a chord apart and plays it in succession up or down a particular scale.
That said..he may have been referring to tuned drums, that's all I can suspect.
The two (drum machine & arpegiator) are as different as night and day.
This salesman sounds a little strange to me...sort of like asking a car salesman if the vehicle has fuel injection and he says "No...but it does have power windows!" ...Huh?

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...shboom

A drummachine has either a step program memory ( you manually enter drum sounds and the rest quotes to the apropriate step and then when played back it will sound like a beat , if you placed them correctly ) .
The second is real time programming ( you play the beat i.e. bass and snare in a rhythm and it will store it , then you go back and play the hihat and other drums ) .

An arpeggiator automatically steps through one note at a time and it will run through the notes you hold down . Most arpeggiators can only go - up , down , up then down , and some can randomize their pattern . It will still only play the notes you hold down .

Only with a drummachine or sequencer can you program complex rhythms and store them .

Timo,

I suspect he was referring to arpeggiator drum patterns that the Motif has stored inside. The are pre-programmed drum patterns that start playing/looping as soon as you hit keys on the keyboard....sort of like an arranger, sorta not!

Carrie

You can make your own patterns ( as complex as you like ) on the Motif ES series boards and store them as arpeggios.