From legion@netaxs.com Wed Nov 16 09:11:34 1994 Date: Wed, 16 Nov 1994 11:15:02 -0500 (EST) From: Legion To: analogue@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu Cc: electronica@andrew.cmu.edu Subject: Boss DR-55 (yes, that DR-55) Yesterday I found a Boss DR-55 Drum machine. This is the very first Doctor Rhythm ever made and it's totally analog. I called roland and they didn't even know it existed. I bought it despite the greadhead price (>sigh< I *know* I shouldn't encourage them-a Ma and Pa place yet!) mostly because it does sound kinda cool and has the box, manual, etc. Kinda like unearthing a dinosaur. Anyway, here's the specs/Controls: Volume Knob/Power on Tempo Knob with Led indicator Tone Control (adds bass/treble to the overall sound) Accent (Places accent on specific beat of a 16 or 12 beat pattern) Hi Hat - This is kind of cool and annoying at the same time. High hats are either on or off. On you have the choice of 8 beat or 12/16 beat. It's cool to mix hats into the pattern but you have to do this manually. Variation - allows you to mix two patterns together in order. ie: play a then play B. You can also play Pattern A and B separately. Mode Switch - (Play/Write) Sound Switch - BD,SD,RS,AC this is where you select the drum sound you want while step entering the pattern (more later) Rhythm Select (1-8) - Select patterns. There are 16 pattern in memory total. 12 16beats and 4 12beats. Variation (A/B) selects actual pattern within Rhythm Select. Start/enter button Stop/Rest Button 1/4" output DBS Jack 1/8" pulse +5v, 8ms CSQ Jack 1/8" pulse +4v, 10ms Foot switch 1/4" for FS1 Runs on 4 AA batteries (little battery pack enclosed) and is avery small all metal black case with the typical old Roland orange print. 21.1 x11.6 x 5.3 cm How does it sound? Surprisingly good. Very warm and everything is more pulse oriented than an actual sound. The bass drum is a little stronger than the 606 I think the snare is hissy and my favorite is the stick (RS) which makes a great analogish pulse beat. The hats are not bad but nothing amazing although at the 16beat on with the right accents they do pretty good. The best thing to do is setup the RS and bass with an odd meter in two patterns and let them mix together. Add accents, stir and mix with the variation switch. Nice little beatbox. The manual explains how to hook it up to the Roland CSQ-100 Digital Sequencer and has some cool pictures of a System 100M and another Roland (Synthesizer 09). Sorry to take up so much space with this message but with all the 808/etc. hype it made me happy to find a cool, if limited, old roland that actually sounds good. Anyone use one? Anyone ever seen one? From tb303+@CMU.EDU Wed Nov 16 13:57:41 1994 Date: Wed, 16 Nov 1994 12:55:07 -0500 (EST) From: Thomas C Butcher To: analogue@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu Subject: Re: Boss DR-55 (yes, that DR-55) Hi again: I've used a DR-55... the sounds are pretty cool, but the main thing I didn't like about the box was that it's not programmable. The one I saw was like $80 (waaaaaay too much for that thing IMO), and after I tried to get the guy to come down on the price with no avail, I decided to buy Magic cards instead (haha jk). It does have some neat crackly hissy sounds, but I really like to progam my own rhythms into these boxes... so a non-programmable machine wouldn't have much of a value to me. BTW: The place where I saw that DR-55 is the same place that fizzled an Electro-Harmonix drum box (somethingsomething 12) I was about to buy... you can bet I was not happy about that. Tom From: "Temporary Insanity" Date: Wed, 8 Nov 1995 11:30:26 -0600 Subject: Re: (MP) Boss DR-55 The Boss DR55 is a very simple, funky drum machine. All analogue, naturally. You have three drum sounds you can program, and hihats that either off, playing every eight note, or every 16th note. The rotary knob controls which rhythm pattern is playing. Each pattern has an 'A' and 'B' variations, and you switch between playing 'A', 'B' and 'A/B' (i.e. alternating). The start/stop buttons double as programming buttons. You put it in program mode, select an instrument, and then tap 'start' to get a note, and 'stop' to get a rest. The 4th instrument is 'AC' or accent. There's a knob to control the level of accent. The two 8th inch jacks are triggers -- one of them is a normal 5 volt trigger and can be used on Roland gear that takes triggers. The other one is a trigger output for Roland stuff that isn't made any more (the 100M sequencer??). A trigger is sent on every 16th note for which you've programmed an accent. With something like 16 patterns, each with a variation, tuning knobs, and an accent knob, this is something that can be used live once you program it up to pretty good effect. It's rumored you can hack it to accept DIN sync but I wouldn't have a clue how to go about it. They don't play unless you've plugged something into the output, kind of like guitar stomp boxes. I wouldn't pay more than $50 for one -- They're fun, but hard to sync to the rest of the world ... -- kent.williams@cadsi.com [Kent Williams/CADSI/2651 Crosspark Rd/Coralville IA 52241/(319)626-6700] I live in a split level ranch, and we use split level ranch dressing on our salads ...