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It has a four-voice drum synthesizer (adjustable parameters are two base waveforms, six modulation envelopes, pitch, mod depth and speed, decay, low boost, level and pan), plus two sample voices (OH/CH and HC/CY, with adjustable decay, level, pan and boost) and two gated inputs.
In all fairness, it should not be judged in terms of its 808/909 emulation capabilities. They are certainly there, and better than on many other contemporary drum boxes, but it is not quite the same thing as the originals. So what - each of the four synth voices has a wider spectrum of possible sounds than an entire 909, and it can record controller changes.
The interface is among the best, too, the step sequencer is far closer to the x0x tradition than all recent Roland attempts. The only major drawback is its inherent limitation to straight beats - even 3/4 is only achievable through the triplet setting.
Overall, it is the first appealing drum box for ages - unique sound with barely any limit, intuitive handling, plus some trash appeal. I'd hazard a guess that it will become a classic of sorts, probably even as big as the 808 and MPC2000.
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