Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)First off, the drum sounds on this things are great. They are of the quality where they will sometimes sound a bit funny when recording demos if you don't spend enough time getting your guitars and such to sound as good as the drums. The touch sensitive pads respond naturally and aren't just simply the same sounds turned down or up. The machine mimics the natural response of drums being hit harder or softer. I also noticed that when you do things like hit an open high-hat sound, it stops ringing if you hit the closed hat immediately after. Things like this are the kind of details that enable you to really mimic having an actually drummer. If you are simply looking for a hardware drum machine w/ punchy sounds and lots of control, I don't think you can do better than this.
The other features are where it comes up a bit short...
The included bass sounds are only decent. One nice feature is you can rout the bass (or anything) to a separate output so you can run the bass sounds to an actual bass amp and the drums to the PA and get a more realistic live sound that way. That being said, if there is one way a recording made w/ this thing is going to be pegged by the listener as being made by a machine, it's the bass-lines.
I also feel like this is a bit lacking in terms of some electronic drum sounds. There are a few kits but they kind of feel like an afterthought to me. If you are looking for natural sounds, they are here, but if you want great samples of 808 kicks or whatever, you will probably do better looking towards something more oriented towards dance music as this seems pretty solidly aimed at the rock musician w/ a home studio. Similarly, I really wish their were some synth sounds build in and more tracks in the sequencer for other parts. You can simulate having multiple instruments w/ the bass lines as it has great polyphony and you can shift the octaves and play chords but it's not the same as being able to add some strings or an emulated analog synth on a separate track. One of the DR-880's predecessors, the DR-5, had this feature and it is one of the things that made that such a great box despite having limited sound quality compared to newer models. I am not sure why Boss did away w/ it. It seems like this is an uncomfortable balance between being an all-in-one groovebox type deal and a simple drum machine. If I am going to have to use external synths to fill out my sound, I might as well use them for bass lines too.
That being said, one thing this excels at is being a jam-along box for guitar practice, which is pretty much what I have ended up using it for. The amp simulators in there are passable at best for recording or live performance but they are plenty good enough to jam along to the drum beats on and the included effects are fun to mess around w/. This is also where the semi-cheesy bass sounds become very useful. You can do any manner of odd time signature or tempo change you want and there is plenty of flexibility in song and pattern structure. I am not terribly keen on the step programming process for the songs but it gets the job done and you only have to do that once.
Overall, as a drum machine, it's great. There's a bit of a steep learning curve for me even though I've been using other drum machines for years but, you gotta figure each box you pick up is a whole new instrument. As a guitarist, you can't expect to really wail on mandolin the first time you pick it up and you should not have the same expectation for a new drum machine. I do feel though, that for the price, it is not unfair to expect a more full featured jambox w/ better sequencing capabilities and sounds to use as a stand alone unit.
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Boss Dr. Rhythm DR-880 Rhythm Machine
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