it's not there
First every DR Rhythm machine, the analog DR-55, a real classic you can afford.
This was my first ever beat box, and it has been on hundreds of hours of my experimental jams back in the early 1980's. I first saw punk band, The Fast, who used one, and it was so cool looking, and so quick to change beats with, that I ordered one new from Manny's. I was able to sync it with an old Paia analog sequencer I had for some interesting loops. Both the Paia and the dr-55 have spent some time traveling back and forth across the country, between myself and one of my music collaborators, and they have both survived! I'm curious to try some dr-55 mods... hmmm... Mars 10-04-09
I've had my DR-55 since 1990. It was thrown in by the music shop when I bought a Juno-6 and a bunch of cables. It's been a centerpiece of my home studio ever since.
The sounds are familiar early Roland with crisp/hissy hihats, tight/round bass drum, sharp 808-ish snare, and a distinctive rim-shot. Think early Depech Mode etc.
Programming is pretty straight forward however without any kind of display it's up to the user to count steps and keep track of the pattern in their head. Playback is simple and switching between patterns with the big-ass knob is lots of fun.
You can't slave the DR-55 but you can use it as the master clock running a CSQ sequencer. There is also a programmable trigger output allowing you to create cool arpeggio patterns with something like a Juno-6 or trigger additional drum sounds from another module. I use my DR-55 to trigger a baseline on my Juno while I jam over top on another synth.
As of 2012 these are still pretty cheap. I found one locally on CL for under $50 CDN a couple weeks ago. I'd probably pay up to $175 without regret.
I should also mention that the build quality of the DR-55 is outstanding. Mine has endured quite a bit of accidental abuse over the years and still looks and functions like new. It even had a recent encounter with a sippy-cup full of milk and came out apparently unscathed.
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