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Average rating:
3.9 out of 5
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I love this machine. Got it new in 1989? it works great still. DO NOT TAKE YOUR BATTERIES OUT without having the replacements ready to go. According to the manual you have 60 seconds to replace them before you loose your memory (there is no internal battery). However I know for a fact that I have taken the batteries out to clear the memeory and after some time my stuff was still there (but don't try this...). It will save to tape if your feel like doing that. Back in the day you had to do that with everything. This box is great and well worth up to $100 depending on the condition. Other people never seem to notice this but most of the dr.rhythm series will run off a boss PSA adaptor but all of the units that I have used will emit an extra hum when used with the adaptor but not with batteries. I always had to record my 550 on batteries.
sound - think Big Black, NIN, godflesh. good thick sounds. great for heavy music or to layer over other drum machines. good control over each of the sounds including pitch, tone, and decay.
The biggest limitation it has now is the lack of any midi out (because you can't beat the pattern sequencer) and an easy way to back up the memory. So... back at the time I would have given it a 5 but I'm docking a point because it is a little "old" compared to the units available today. It is still now well worth the investment.
This is easily one of the most favorite musical instruments that I have ever owned.
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Can anyone help me here. I lost the manual some years ago. Unfortunately a friend has done some interesting programming and i need to find out how to reset back to default. Cant seem to make it do anything at the mo. So if anyone has a manual I would like to hear from them Thanks Jim
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-----good little box...decent sounds...runs on batteries...2 audio outs(mono/left...right)plus phones... good for pop/rock/industrial music...like the guy said"early NIN'...very handy,you can program anywhere anytime...DO NOT remove or let the batteries run out or else you'll lose everything,the bastard has no internal memory for that...I only use it as a module for my MC 50 sequencer...NO MIDI OUT(it is such a pain in the ass!)...wastes my time programming beats w/ my sequencer/so if you dont happen to have a sequencer forget this box,buy something else...good for beginners who are in to sequencing...if you need help about this product email me...switch2iq@yahoo.com
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I just got a used one the other day, and as my first drummachine, I found it terribly easy to use. There's a couple tricks here and there where it's like hold this button, and push that one. Now let go, and then push it again, and push this one and that one at the same time. Stupid little button commands that would be hard to know without the manual I guess. Once you get over that very easy. The sounds sound okay to me I guess. This being my first of any sort of electronic music machines, I can't really make a solid review of the sounds.
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This one sounds quite good, many of the sounds are the same as in the R8. But I have one question. Is it just me (or my DR 550 mkII) or is the sequencer extremely untight? Maybe this is just some way Roland tries to make it sound "human" but I don�t like it! And it can�t be quantised any harder either. I want my drummachine to sound solid as a rock! Not like Charlie Watts! Feel free to email me if you have any tricks!
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