Boss DR-202

Easy to use once you read the manual and be patient with yourself. A lot of trial and error for me but with very few errors. The presets sound fine to me, I may not use them very much except as an idea starter. Editing the sounds is very easy and can't really get any easier and it does make a big difference in the sound. The manual is pretty easy to use also and I hate using manuals but this one is easy to read and understand, you just have to read it.

The polyphony is 24 if I'm not mistaking and I never have had my sounds cut eachother out yet. Effects are good and easy to use, I like the knobs and it suits my sp-202 perfectly. No expansion capabities as far as I know. Midi has pretty common uses but I haven't really played around with that too much yet. The pads are not pressure sensitive and that's okat since you can use the groove functon but I don't like that fact that sometimes they'll double up on your sounds sometimes, not often though. Sequencewr is cool and very easy to use.

I don't use the bass sounds since I use my synth for that as well as all the instruments. I just wanted drum sounds from this machine. But the bass sounds do sound good. This machine would work best hip hop r&b and so on. I'm using it now for contemporary gospel. On board effects are fine, they're exactly what I expected them to be. Nothing really to brag about but if you set them right they'll be very helpfull.

I can depend on for a gig but I would definately have a back-up, just in case. You never know what can happen. It's plastic so don't drop it because it will probably be done for if you do.

Very helpfull when I needed a manual for the machine

I would buy it again if it were lost or stolen. Especially if I can get it around the same price as I got this one. I bought mine off of ebay without any hassle at all. Been playing my own music since elementry school. I also have a Boss Br-532, both Yamaha DJX keyboards and Boss Sp-202 As well as other gear. I like the wieght and size, I don't like that fact that I haven't had as much time to play with it as much as I'd like to. Oh, and about the hissing that many others have complained about, I have none so I can't relate to ya'll there. Thank God for that. I compared it to the Boss Dr-3, but I thought I'd enjoy this much more. I wish it was backlit and had another set of inputs and outputs. I wish the roll could be set to a tempo, too. It is very helpfull, I don't think it'll ever be in the way. I wouldn't choose another drum machine over this as my first drum machine.

The distributor here in the philippines (perfect pitch) is horrible! When I bought this product it didnt have a box and the manual!,They had one manual in their main office but they wouldnt give it to me because they said its a copy for the office,I had to photocopy the damn thing cuz theykeep saying they lost it,well thats not my problem,its suppoed to be a part of the merchandise.They didnt even give me a brand new one(dr-202) instead the one they sold to me happens to be in display,which was already been used often by their employees.It had scratches and dust all over it,and sometimes i encounter some problems during and after recording songs. There are a lot of related cases of product handling and marketing with this distributor(yupangco),i think theyre jus taking advantage of their customers since they are the only roland distributors here,I hope this problem would be resolved.I'm sorry to say this but I am really disappointed.

Ive been using this machine for a month and id say its amazing!,I havnt tried it in live performances,but its really what i expected.I alredy wrote 4-5 songs in it.Id suugest more memory for the user patterns,preset patterns are not important.I wish it had more industrial or textured drum kits or add PCF filters and distortion knobs would do the trick:)

The DR-202 is dead simple to use, but that doesn't mean that it's easy to get a good sound out of it. Pattern and song editing is easy, but limited like all drum machines. Everything can be controlled easily in real time with a simple set of knobs on the front pannel, or preset in the kit. Adjustments are easy, it just takes some time getting them right.

Individual drum and bass sounds have access to standard filter parameters: cutoff, resonance, and decay as well as flanger and reverb/delay sends, which in turn have basic parameters open for editing: delay/reverb time, feedback, flanger depth. The MIDI implementation on this unit is surprisingly good (velovity and parameter changes can be sent), making it quite useable as a drum and bass module. I believe that the polyphony is 24 voices. The pads are slugish and not velocity sensitive, but it's a drum machine so that's expected. Oh yeah, you can run it on batteries. Very convenient.

The assortment of sounds on this unit is excelent, although very few are anywhere near acurate reproductions of any of the accoustic or electronic sounds they pretend to be. That said, most of the sounds are very useable, and you can get some good solid beats out of it. The effect quality is quite good. There is a definite low-fi quality to the sound produced, but if you spend some time setting the levels, pans, and effect settings correctly the sound produced is quite convincing, better than most of the competitors. Outputs are noisey, but unless you're going to use this in a studio with immaculately produced music, don't let this put you off. The sounds and features make this unit suitable for a wide range of musical styles and live performances, although it is clearly geared at the techno/dance music scene.

Bulletproof.

Never had to call.

I've used a number of drum machines, and this is my favourite so far. Initially I was pretty frustrated with it because it lacked the punch of earlier Boss, Zoom and Alesis models, but once I spent some time with it, I found I could get out some really great sounding drums. I use it mosly in a experimental project I do, and it works really well. I wish you could transfer individual pattern data from a PC to it (to get around having to work in the pattern sequencer), having this feature would make this thing unbeatable. I don't think it's worth the full retail price, but I got mine used for really cheap and feel that I got a really good deal. As a drum machine, it's more than competent and I think that it's pretty much at the top of the heap in its price range. Also, if you're on a super tight budget and need to buy one piece of gear that's an all in one, this might be a good choice (there are other's better, but nothing near this cheap). SPEND TIME WITH IT before you buy it. The sound quality will not suit everybody. This thing sits somewhere between an Alesis SR16 and a Roland MC303 as far as drum sounds go (featurewise it's much better than both) so it's a bit of an odd beast. I like it. I'd buy it again.

The is machine is fairly easy to use. One of my friends had one when I was in college and I learned how to use it without a manual. The presets are ok although they're nothing to get excited about. Patch editing isn't that complicated, although it can be a bit of a pain scrolling through the sounds to find the right one using the data wheel. I would say that programming this box is no more complicated than any other average drum machine.

I don't like the way the pads feel on this machine. They are somewhat harder to press compared to my other drum machine (DR660) which has a nice soft touch. The effects are ok. I like the reverb, especially when using it on the TR808 drums. Sadly, there are no expansion capabilities. The MIDI implementation is pretty good. I use it mostly as a sound module. However, there are a few downsides. The drumkits are not GM mapped and only a limited number of drum sounds can be applied per kit. It would be nice if this machine was 16 part multitimbral where I could use multiple kits simultaniously in a MIDI setup. Unfortunately, that's not the case with the DR202.

I bought this machine mainly for the hip-hop sounds, which are pretty good. I agree with some of the other posts that the quality is quite dull and not up to professional standards. And there is NOISY HISS!!!This can truly ruin a mix. However, I have the ultimate remedy:

EVERYONE LISTEN UP!!! If you own a DR202, get a Behringer SNR2000 denoiser and run the DR202's signal through it. It WILL eliminate the hiss if you set the controls it right!!! As a result of this procedure, my DR202 now sounds crystal clear running through my mixing board. No more hiss.

However, you shouldn't have to buy an external device just to improve the quality of this machine. I mean that's just plain ridiculous Because of this, I would say this machine has poor sound quality. My DR660 has WAY better sound quality. However, I'll give the DR202 a 5 rating because the sounds themselves are pretty decent for rap/hip-hop.

I agree with some of the others. It does feel like cheap plastic. For the amount this machine was originally priced, I believe Roland could have done a better job as far as build quality.

Never needed it.

If this machine was lost or stolen, I would not buy another one because of it's poor sound quality. I could since I came up with the SNR2000 denoiser solution, but I would but a better quality drum machine and put the SNR2000 to better use. Hiss noise in a supposely professional product is purely unacceptable. Overall, I'd say this is a good machine since there are ways around the sound quality problems. It can be put to good use in the studio and some very tight beats can be made with it so I'm giving it at least a 6.

I use this Unit with cakewalk, and Logic. the patches are right on point so is the Midi timing, you don't even need the Manual for that Unit. Give this to a 3 year old! I guarantee he'll know what to do with it.

I have no complaint about the pads, for the price of this baby the pads are fine with me althought they're not pressure sensitive, then again most of these people writing bad reviews on this site, aren't pressure sensitive either! when it comes to polyphony it has enough for the Drums and the Bass combine. I never really use the onboard sequencer therefore I will limit my comment at this point, all my sequencing is done via cakewalk or Logic.

This Unit is best suited for Hip-Hop, Pop,R&B and some other alternative music, and you get the most out of it thru a sequencer instead of messing with the onboard button! The Bass sounds are not too hot, but then again I didn't buy it for the Bass, I got it for the Drum sounds! which are excellent as far as flexibility and patch identity, the velocity and aftertouch are easier to control thru a sequencer.

I will without a doubt rely on my DR to get me thru any gig,

I never get to that point of calling Boss/Roland since I bought this unit,it never failed me! it's very reliable.

I've been playing and producing for a long long time, and I own many instrument from different manufacturer. and in my adventure with drum machines I tried several of them before I discovered the DR-202 which is my unit of choice! that Unit is Excellent! I also Own an SPD-11, Korg N364, Korg Triton Rack, Roland MC-303, Roland JV-50, Yamaha SU700
,Roland AX1. Before I bought this Drum module I bought the MC-303 but the sounds are more dance oriented, that's why I chose the DR-202 it's more versatile.
I would run by to the store and get another in a heartbeat! if this piece ever go down or get stolen!

This unit is a piece of piss to use. Plug it in, start fiddling and wahoo, you are off and running. I can only assume some reviewers write their appraisal after listing to the first hip hop presets which are pretty well buggered up with the naff vinyl sound, either that or they have dodgey connections through the RCA jacks. it seems mighty clean to my ears, albeit they are a bit fucked up after 10 years of playing. The sounds can sound a bit sterile but there is plenty to be extracted from this machine with its limited onboard effects as well as some clever use of equalisation through your mixer.

For $220 Aus it has enough in the way of features. bugger all expansion but who gives a shit? This little box has plenty to offer anyone experimenting in dance music (pity about the rock presets). It is so easy to program though, any half arsed buckeroo could put together some wicked beats. I love the flanger!!!

As I said, a lot of the presets are a bit naff, but it doesn't take a degree in astrophysics to tweak something new and funky out of this box. I wouldn't worry about the bitching about noise by some reviewers, I can see a lot of potential for the grooves in creating some fine tunes.

I've had a DR550 for God knows how many years and it still works like a charm. I'm betting this will last just as well.

Never had to call them

I'd be really fried if some bastard stole this as I can see a lot of future use for it. I will primarily be using it with my JX305, Nova Novation, TG33, Yammy RM1x, and s550 sampler. I have a juno106, Poly800 as well as a few guitars. It would be really cool if it had a cheque for $1000000 taped to the bottom, but fuck it, this little box is great value for money. Don't be scared off by the whingers

Really, really easy.

Good choice of styles, patterns, and kits.

VERY VERY NOISY. I CAN'T USE THIS UNIT. AS AN EARLIER POST SAID, "SHAME ON YOU ROLAND."

WHY DO THEY PUT OUT A PRODUCT NO SERIOUS COMPOSER/PRODUCER CAN USE IN THE STUDIO???

who knows? it's only 2-weeks old.

never called them.

i'm returning it. Too bad, it had potential.

Fairly intuitive realtime control, given the minimalist LCD display. It's realtime editing is acceptable. however, its list editing is tedious and unintuitive. I prefer graphical rhythm editing, as found in some other Boss units (670, etc.).

Good value for the money, especially if you get a used one. Lots of tweakable FX. Excellent MIDI implementation.

The sound quality varies. To my ears, the samples don't seem as pristine or high of fidelity as other Boss units. They sound a little flat perhaps. I can't find the sample rate anywhere in the literature, which makes me wonder if its 32Khz? Some nice FX, although a bit hissy.

A bit fragile. I wouldn't jack my car up with it.

I've not had this unit too long. Although I do like it, I would like to have had a bit better sound quality, and graphical rhythm editing. I'll probably add a Korg ER-1 with it in the future.

I got it used and was able to operate it no problems.

Editing User kits is easy.
I wrote a program for patching kit sounds, it helps a lot, It does stuff the manufactor will not let users do from the front panel.

Get it at:
http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/programs/DR-202Hack/

BOSS website claims that the Roll can not be applied to BASS this is not true... Assign a BASS sounds to a Drum location and roll away.

Also Pormento can be applied to drum sounds... by assigning a drum sound to Bass location.

Very Hack friendly :)

Keyboard is alright. It has some nice built in effects. I love the on-board sequencer it came very naturally to me. Also the DR-202 is battery powered ... love it. Only 100 User patterns wish there was a little more. It has external track too which is useful.

It has a lot of Expresiveness (if you patch/hack the kits) slur snares and pitching drum sounds is great.. Onboard effect are good, a few type of Flanger too. Realtime Modifiers are fun to mess with but I would recommend recordering them rather than playing them live because there is a slight reaction delay when you are applying it to many instruments.

Sounds quality is different issue RCA jacks can be hissy. But sounds in general are good.

Very dependable... I dropped it a few times on accident it might look cheap and plastic but it is sturdy.

Never talked with them.

For wait I paid 124 w/shipping it was a steal.

If it was stolen, I would hunt down whoever took it. If it was lost, I would cry and buy another in a heartbeat(if I had the money)... mostly because I have a library of hacked kits stored on my computer also all my a bunch of pattern dumps. I would want my material I wrote back.

I have been playing Bass guitar and junk since about 7th grade... once friends moved around 10th grade, I started to get into heavy electronic/industrial/abstract music (solo bass playing isn't fun after a while). One person band thing is appealing... in college now and I still don't care for band mates so this fits into my plans nicely.

I have a lot of other equipment (all used) EA-1,SP-202,DS-330,MX802A, MIDI controllers, Thru box, ect... I love this machine my first machine to escape computer based music making. (Love my computer but, I need a break from it)

Seriously, email me for any help about kit patching,ect.. or DR-202 questions I will see if I can help

Having used many drum machines and keyboards, i must say that this is probably the easiest i've ever used before. From changing parameters to editing patches, everything is simple and for the most part, just one or two button pushes away.

The sound it self is good, and while keys are not pressure sensitive and it only stores up to 100 user sequences, morphing sounds in realtime or without the knobs is easy and effective. It doesnt really have very many synth/bass/instrument sounds(52, i belive), but you get what you pay for.

Drum sounds - 8
Basses - 7.5
Synths - 5
Any instrument - 5, nothing sounds realistic at all except a couple of the guitars and organs.
*no aftertouch or piano sounds*

It hasn't broken yet after about 3 years.

Overall a good drum machine, and like i said before, you get what you pay for. Not extensively good, but solid in that the drums are excellent and, when used with a different sequencer (i use it with an mpc2000), it proves its worth. Looking back, I probably would've spent more money if faced with buying it again.

If you are new to drum machines, you will need the manual. Anyway, it is very easy to use. Very straightforward everything. Just turn a knob or press one of the buttons next to the display and a corresponding menu will appear in which you zap around with the cursor buttons and change values with the jogdial.

The preset drumpatterns mostly suck. This is normal because all manufacturers want to show what's in their boxes and therefore store completely overloaded preset stuff in there.

The manual is fine for me.

The polyphone is AFAIK 24 notes. Bultin FX are easy to use, there's Reverb effects and additionally some mean sounding Flanger (oouuuh I like it - very much like Kraftwerk sounding!)

MIDI is implemented fine. Note the extra sequencer track only for MIDI data. You can control external stuff with it (synth arpeggios, a drum sampler, whatever).

Creating new patterns with the sequencer is very easy. A friend of mine wanted some drum pattern to get more timing in the recording of his song. Never having used a drum computer he just triggered in his pattern and it was perfect. Need anything more to say?

The drum sounds are fine. The bass sounds... oh well, they are OK but could be better. This is mostly because sampling just can't replace real synth basslines.

The FX sound great and the whole box pushes your creativity because it doesn't make you learn complex stuff as some PC software would do.

The filters (which can be used seperately for every sound) are ok, they sound a little digital compared to my old Roland synth but that's not too bad.

BUT! The noise... great lord, this unit is so noisy that no professional (which I am not) could use it. Really... therefore lots of minus on the rating.

The noise is so loud that I would suggest: Do not buy it. Sorry BOSS, but this is true, you really did mess it up here. If you want to buy it anyway, be sure to get a used one. It's not worth to get a new one.

It never failed. You can do MIDI dump for backup if needed. External power supply - will surely fail or get lost somewhen.

No support needed yet.

A drum machine that is very easy to use, has good sounds and really great useful features. I am not sure if I would get another if this one was stolen or lost. I like its direct way of making music but I hate its noise. Keep in mind, that the thingie is cheep on the second hand market. :-)

The dr-202 is sports what is arguably the simplest, most intuitive interface on a drum machine. I mean, you even have a knob to select which instruments you want to apply FX to. Very little menu scrolling.
Preset drum kits are good, no matter what the self-proclaimed patch-editor gods tell you (these are the people whom, in a blind test, would call a real Steinway a sh*tty sample just to hear themselves talk). With the limited but easily applied FX, your beats can crunch fifteen minutes out of the box.
Manual is fine, if a little silly.

Not sure about the polyphony because I do not depend on it for heavily layered voices. No expansion, but jeez, I only paid $175 for it. No MIDI Thru, which is an extreme disappointment, but I get by. I do not use the sequencer either, save for battery-fueled, minimalist pattern creation while I'm waiting to be strip-searched at the airport...but it appears to be simple to use even if I cannot remark on the higher faculties of it.

Again, drum samples are fantastic, as are the preset genre kits. I've only created five user kits and am happy using a lot of the factory kits, to be honest with you. This is NEVER the case with my other gear, but the 202 really accomplishes a legitimate soundset for electronic music. Dedicated 'verb and flange knobs are nice, as is the aforementioned instrument selector knob, which lets you pan FX to certain parts of your pattern (kick, snare, bass loop, etc) with no cumbersome menu scrolling.
No velo or aftertouch, but what the hell? No sane person would want to run this unit without a controller, anyway, unless you're carrying it around wit the batteries in case a crushing groove comes to you like a vision. The keys are extrememly cheap, both in fit and in feel, and are as responsive as two canned hams. Often they jam and at other times are not too sensitive in general, which wreaks havoc on my timing. But again, you need to use a controller for this machine, as with any module that you actually might want to...I dunno...play.

I've used this unit for only two months, in a hobbyist environment. It's never let me down, which is more than I can say for my other gear, but I have to say that the unit has an INCREDIBLY CHEAP feel to it. No internal power source, so it weighs about as much as sandwich. Cheesy, corner-cutting RCA jacks? C'mon! The entire machine feels as though it might implode if you fart near it. But again, I paid $175 for a ten month-old, $360 box (approaching $400 with OPTIONAL a/c adaptor and prohibitive New Orleans sales tax). These things are everywhere used, generally for $200 or slightly less. I attribute a lot of the shady market value to the fact that the thing just doesn't inspire a lot of confidence. It looks and feels like a toy.

Never dealt with Boss. But I have dealt with Roland. It's like getting four molars pulled with pliers while squirming in a chair of smoldering embers. I'd rather watch a Woody Allen movie than deal with Roland in any way. Which, apparently, is how they view their customers, too. But again, Boss is an affiliate and deserves the benefit of the doubt, so I leave no rating in this category.

Yeah, I'd have to get another one if lost or stolen, merely because of the attractive price. But even If I were to be forced into paying retail, I probably would just for the crunchy drums. If you can get past the impression that it's a toy (a stigma attatched to all 'groove products'), the 202 is actually a competent drum machine and SUPERIOR drum sound module. God, I love those knobs.
I use the 202 in a rig including the mc-505, two older Korg controllers, E-mu XL-1 (sold XL-7...big mistake), and a few other odd bits of gear. I only run the 202 for simple drum patterns and build on them through the mc-505, but even if I relied on the Boss for stand-alone percussive duty, I'm sure I'd be fine. NOTE TO ROLAN / BOSS: Can I have the dr-202 with an INTERNAL power supply, SOME metal parts, a BACKLIT LCD (really), and some drum pads I can actually play without having to route the damned thing back to my controller? Other than that, and the fact that it JUST FEELS SO CHEESY...great instrument.

The DR-202 could not have been much easier to use. The manual is good, but you'll hardly need it.

Im not sure about the polyphony right now,(it is at least 13) but its a combined bass synth and drum machine. It has three built inn effects: flanger, reverb and delay. I never use the flanger, but the delay is pretty good. It has midi in out and through. The 13 rubber keys are not pressure sensitive, so use a keyboard if you are going to play the synth live. The on-board sequencer is fun to use, and has three parts: drum, synth, and one external from which I actually control my sampler. It has step and real time programming, both are great, and editing is a peace of cake. So is setting up yr own kits, you can add cutoff/resonnance/reverb and effects to each separete drum sound and save the kit. There are houndreds of different drum sounds, and plenty of bass sounds.
The LCD is small but informative when you get to know it. Just bring a light on stage. You can save 100 patches, and each of them can be pretty long.

The quality of the drum sounds are great for the price. Some of them are realistic others more bizarre. A few backwards cymbals. Bongos, hits, percussion, the usual... Its suitable for jungle, dnb, rnb, hip hop and much more, even rock. Even some of the bass sounds are very realistic, but i use it mainly as a drum machine and sequencer. I like some of the bubbly synth noises.

I have treated it badly, spilled beer and ashes on it, dropped it on the floor, and I've carried it around (I use to play it with headphones on the bus) and used it live. It has never let me down in any way.

It is great fun to use, and I really like it. I miss some more outputs tough. But for the price the dr-202 is amazingly good. Me and my group play trip-hop/funk. we once bough an ol Tr-808, and compared the sounds to the 808 kit in the 202. The 808 was slightly more punchy and clear, but when it comes to price and the user friendliness, for not to mention that the 808 is hell to use and without midi, the 202 is preferable. It also includes good tr909 sounds. After a few weeks we sold the 808.

Good thing this machine is really easty to use, because the manual is really only good for wrapping presents .. I was recording patterns and editing kits in under two hours after the thing was out of the box, and I'm pretty dumb. Really easy to use.

Wow. For the price of the thing, it's really quite limitless. You can make any number of sounds with relative ease. The presets are really cheesy, but presets are never really all that origional, there to show capability, not to show off the musicians uniquness .. effects are easy to use, but I wish there more of them. Has midi in and out, which is great. The sequencer is nice, really easy to use. I mean really easy to use. Like I say, if I can use it, anyone can.

Hrm. Almost all sounds are accompanied by *clicks* or *hisses* .. aside from that, they sound really nice. Kits included are 808, 909 and 606 sounds amoung others .. I think there are 127 preset kits and 64 user kits. Kits are easy to creat as well.

I don't know what to put here .. it doesn't break, it sounds like it did when I first bought it and I think that it kicks some really strong butt.

I've never dealt directly with the company, so I'm not sure what their customer service is like.

If I lossed this, I would buy it again. I like it a lot. I've played with it for about 2 months, and I'm still getting used to it. I wish it had some more onboard effects, if it had that, I would use nothing else .. it helps me make music. I like music. wonderful value, I don't think I could find anything that is this good, for this price.

presets - kinda cheesy (commercial sounding) but thats any stupid preset, ya know. manual is very bad. but this machine is very easy to use.

cool features for such a cheap piece of equipment! and the effects are pretty good too, not to mention easy to use. has midi and stuff so you can hookup your synth or sampler or whatever you want, no pressure senstive buttons though, but you do get what you pay for. personally i don't like the sequencer (give me an electribe!)

sounds are pretty realistic, great for jungle/techno/d&b....no velocity sensitive pads, but if you hold down buttons, such as a roll, the longer you hold, the longer the sound. blah

too much memory used ---- or something like that, get that when you change tempo and switch around some options, would never use something like this at a gig unfortunately.

never had to deal with boss/roland.

lost/stolen - probably would buy something else, unless i could get another one just as cheap. totally worth what i paid for. Love the bass sounds, hate the sequencer. but very good for basic jungle sounds
(black light sensitive - cool orange letters on black)

I gotta hand it to Boss. They are the only company that seem to consistiantly make great products at a fraction of the cost of others. I feel like they did it again with the DR-202. But I do have a few small gripes, so I cant give it a perfect score. Like the other posts mention, it feels way too hard to do some of the things I wanted to imediately do. Playing presests is a breeze. Being able to manipulate them in real time, at the individual instrument level, is also way cool. The reverb is very good and so is the flange. The manual is not so great though, compared to the other BOSS manuals I have, ie. BR-8. Once I sat down and followed it thur however, I was able to quickly make my own patterns. It bothers me at my core to spend alot of money on a rhythm machine, and my alternatives were $499.00 and higher. I feel that boss sounds just as good. Of course, you get what you pay for and the more expensive ones may be more capable of handling long hours and a creative mind like Dr. Dre. I wont ever dive that far into the unit. However, you can do much more than I even thought when I bought it. See below.

It says it has 24 note polyphony. Again, I havent gone that far yet. I've had it about 2 weeks. The pads are sticky and hard to play at first, but you get used to them pretty quick. The one at the music store didnt do this at all, so I'll have to take the word of the folks in the rest of the posts that this goes away with use. It has built in Reverb and Flange. Several different kinds for each. All sound very good and never get in the way of whats going on. No expansion capabilitites with this unit, but it does have midi. I dont use midi anyway, so... It has a sequencer with 14k notes and I can hear it in the presets. It should be more than enough for me. Basically, I hit START and start recording it to my BR-8. You have 100 user patterns, some 8 measures long, and 19 user songs to combine these patterns into. It says it has 20 songs, but you cant erase the demo song.

Now for the reason I bought it. Great sounds. 400 of them and mostly all Hip-Hop/Rap stuff. It does have straight Rock/blues sounds too, which the Kork electrovibe did not. The Korg sounded like a synth version of Rock drums, instead of the sampled snares found in the DR-202. One post below summed it up good. Think of this as a mini-synth with drums and bass. There are enought bass sounds to get just about anything you're after. Lots of cool sweep type sounds. The unit will record you're realtime movements as you record you're own beat. You can quickly mute the bass or any of the drum sounds. You can take the bass sounds up 8 octaves, which allows you to play keyboard chords with it and have drums/bass/keys all at once! I didn't realize this until reading the posts and trying it on my own. This works very well this way. My only 1 real complaint about the unit is it has no Transpose or FineTune/Pitch control. If a pattern is in the key of A440, what if I want it in G? Well, I'm screwed, thats what. Basically, you re-record it yourself in the key you want it in. Which is going to be tough, because the factory programmed these, possibly thur midi with the help of technicians. If this ability is in here, it is NOT in the manual and I've not stumbled on it yet and I'd love it if someone would email me with directions on how to do it. But I think I'm right on this one.
Editing patches is easy and there is no lag in the sound when you switch drum kits while the rhythm is moving along. Same goes for switching drum sounds, bass sounds for effects. You can choose a pattern, hit start, and then change the kits. This opens up all kinds of other sonic ideas for you. No touch sensitivity.
You have ADSR type controls so you can make basic synth type sounds out of the basses that are on here. I had no problems with noise thur my RCA jacks going into my Boss BR-8. It went in nice and clean and now my demo's sound semi-pro, instead of like cheeze whiz.
Also, the LCD is VERY hard to see and has no lighting. I found it hard to read unless I was right up on it or under direct light.
It didn't come with a power supply either. I hate that shit! Plan on another $20 for that, or take your chances with a generic power supply off the shelf of Walmart.

The unit is VERY light and made out of plastic. But so is lots of stuff these days. Its BOSS, so I'm really not worried about it. I wouldnt drop it or spill something on it.

never had to deal with them

If it were stolen, I'd probably look at the Roland unit that is $499.00, but only if it had the items this doesn't. Again, $500 is about 1/2 the price of a kick ass keyboard/sampler that would do drums and everything else, so I'd probably buy this again. Like I said, not being able to Transpose the bass parts is a BIG downer for me. I actually might have reconsidered had I known this. Compared to the Korg, it did the HipHop/Techno stuff, just as well, and I can control it all from the front panel. The ZOOM, which was cheaper, sounded cheaper too and the Alesis, which is also VERY good, doens't have the editing, bass sounds and the Reverb is sampled with the drum. I have total control with this box. But, I bought it to handle the job of Rhythm for my songwriting/recording on my BOSS BR-8 and it does this fine. There's plenty of inspiratin in this box and I was able to program DR.Dre's "Let me Ride", from the Chronic CD, within about an hour. Bass lines, keys and all. Thats pretty cool.

When I first bought this it was very difficult to understand. But after reading the manual thoroughly, I figured out how to use it. When I had it all down, it was pretty easy, though it's lengthly.

Lots of sounds. Easy to use layout. But no keyboard or mic input, only MIDI.

Most of the sounds are very realistic. Works good for hip-hop/rap, techno, jungle, house, rock, and drum 'n' bass. Though it is mainly for hip-hop/rap and/or techno. Effects are great. Lots of sounds and knob tweaking. It has a very clean sound to it. It's all-around great.

I think I can rely very much on this, being included in the same company as Roland and all. I would definetly do a gig without backup with it.

I ALMOST had to call for support because the manual is very complicated in some parts, but it has all the info you need.

If it wer lost, I'd look for it again. I have just started playing the day after christmas. I think it's all around great machine, except for the fact that it has no inputs besides MIDI.

This machine is a piece of cake, when it comes to operating it, I was churning out patterns in no less than 2 hours after its purchase. The preset patterns are inspirational, somewhat, being that they show you the capabilitys of the dr-202, other than that, the preset patterns are rather corny. Oh my god, the manual, who did Boss hire to write this poorly spelled out and written instruction guide? The typos are absolutely horrible.

The Dr-202 has a capacity of 24 voice, polyphony. Their are numerous effects to choose from on the interface, such as lowend boost, cutoff, resonance, and decay, as well as reverb/delay, and 4 different types of flanger. I do admit it took quite a while to figure out how the whole realtime modification process worked in this Box. Realtime modification is a process that the dr-202 employs to help tweak your patterns in realtime recording with the cutoff, resonance, and decay knobs. Its not the easiest thing to figure out in the world at first, but once you understand it, its a breeze. But as soon as you become familiar with the real time modify process, you soon come to learn that incredibly enough, when your editing your measures in realtime recording with the knobs, you cant modify the first note of a beat!which really sucks, and basically makes this realtime modify function useless, unless that is off course you want all your songs or patterns to sound the same, when using this feature.
Expansion capabilitys?huh, none whatsoever, other than expanding your collection of machines to hook it up via MIDI. As far as MIDI goes the unit is well equipped. Their is a 3 track sequencer in this unit, one track for drums, one for bass, and one for an external unit. The MIDI capabilitys of this machine really become useful when you hook it up a to sampler that has MIDI capatibilitys as well, the boss sp-202 is a real gem when used in conjunction with the dr-202. Now as far as the sequencer goes, I have a few gripes. The first gripe is that the sequencer when used in conjunction with the boss sp-202 has a bad habit of making horrible clicking sounds on the first note of each measure, I have tried everything in my power to alleviate this problem, and I havent been successful yet. Just when you have a nice tight sequence going with external samples and drum tracks from the dr-202, you have those abhorrent clicks. Other than that the sequencer comes in handy, when using with internal dr-202 drum sounds. The is sequencer is very easy to use, a piece of cake.

some of the sounds on this machine are very convincable. Im a huge hiphop/crate digging aficiando, and this machine has the sound that I adore. This box has everything from hi-fi kicks and snares and everything inbetween, to dusty dirty grimy lo-fi sounding kicks, snares and hi-hats, its the best of both worlds in my opinion. IF that wasnt enough, you can also modify each sound in a kit, and save it too memory for use anytime, you can also mix and match sounds from a kit, and customize your own. This box can work well with any type of music form, its all here. Once again the onboard effects are a nice addition, very usefull in recording your patterns and enhancing your drum kits. The stiffness of the pads on this Box are horrendous, but after the pads are broken in, it becomes much easier to operate and stay in sync while playing to a metronome in realtime recording or step recording. This box hiss's very bad, theirs alot of bad ground noize present on this box, but its not that bothersome, it sort of gives the machine character, and the hiss can easily be fixed with a compressor, and a slight adjustment of the treble. This machine does not have velocity sensitive pads, it has what Boss calls accent. Having no velocity on this machine for internal patterns and MIDI sucks, but it can be worked around.

so far I have had no problems whatsoever with this machine, maybe its just becuz I take good care of it. Aside from the bad background noise and the annoying clicks when making sequences with the sequencer, this machine is really dependable for either a studio recording or live gig, also the mute function on the unit makes things interesting while performing sounds from the unit. As of right now this is the only drum machine with a sequencer that i have to work with, so im doing my best to tolerate it.

the boss/roland company can be contacted either by their website or their phone number, but to my dissapoint they dont have a toll free telephone line. I have never repaired this unit before or upgraded it.

if i where to lose this unit, I probably wouldnt fret to much about it, one of the main reasons i bought this unit was for the sequencer, and once i toyed around with that, i was sorely dissapointed. ALthough this unit does have some nice sounds and added features, im just not really satisfied. Ive been a hiphop producer for quite some time now, and true this box becomes really handy when making tracks, but im ready to move to bigger and better fish i.e. an akai mpc series sampler/sequencer drum machine.lets see, i hate the poorly lit interface box, the noisy rca jacks are a burden, the poor designed sequencer is a rock on anyones back trying to make clean tracks with MIDI, the pads are big chunky and so awkward, theirs alot of things i hate about this console.

I'd say it's pretty easy to use,. some of the menu's are kind of counter intuitive (my speling sucks!) sometimes it's hard to tell exacly what the thing is trying to do (perticularly with the filters) but hey that can make for some crazzy sounds.

Presets: The presets are pretty typical roland nothing really new here but what is there seems to be good for what it is. I like the kicks and the snares,. more hats would be nice. One thing that bugged me about the presets was lake of reverse sounds (and auto reverse is not an option).

Editing: the patches is very easy I love the way the menu's are 'context' sensitive,. if you're editing a parmeter for a sound you just push a new sound and you're editing the same parameter for the different sound, again some things happened that I did not expect to here with the instrument selection knob.

The Manual: I'd like it to be more concise and exact on the complete functionality rather than tutorials,. I think there should be 2 manuals for this sort of thing.

Polyphony: 24 notes,. more than enough to do whatever you want in my opinion. Including tons of layering.

Effects: I was really impressed that each drum had it's own effects send, the reverb is not too bad, better than other roland reverbs I've heard.
Expansion: 0
Midi capabilities: pretty much everything you would expect, everthing I need anyway,. It spends most of it's time hooked to my PC though. Reatimes knobs send/recv. I find there can be some funniness,. a filter reset kind of thing would be cool.

One thing I can tell you for sure about this machine is that it is build mostly for real time and live stuff,.. it can do a lot of cool live dance kinds of things,. muting for breaks,. the decay knob can kind of give you a really cool break thing too,. changing kits instantly with no lag is really cool too,. tempo tap is there but I find it never gives me what I want,. (maybe it's just me),. I don't think you can break out of a pattern before it's completed and shift into a new one though which could be cool for dance.

Hmm sounds,. not much real sounds,. even in Latin they sound like those old $%&ing roland congas and stuff,. more white noise "house clicks" would have been nice. Out of the box you're dance tunes will sound out VERY of the box (almost cheezy),. but if you spend time tweaking you can get some suprisingly interesting stuff happening. (close to pro engineer quality) Actually some of the rock sounds are quite good too,. dr-660 like.
Pads are not velocity sensitive and are sucky to play, they just don't to real time right for some reason. As far as midi it resonds to velocity but only at like 15 levels I think,. (127 divided up)

The only thing i've ever noticed is that my power bar spiked it a couple of times when I plugged stuff in and out of it (could be the bar). I'd gig with it though,. (IF IT HAD A BACKLIT SCREEN!!!!)
LOw rating for backlit screen (Real pissoff to me),. especially for something that is geared to DJ's,. how many well lit clubs are there?

NO IDEA about customer support,. sorry

would I get another if it was stolen? hmm,. no I probly would spend more money and get a hardware sampler(much more $$!),. but as far as the money is concerned I think it exists in it's own catagory,. but for live,. it's totally cool. . for studio it's just not a mega-amazing sounding thing,.(really noisy!) but really as far as digital sample oriented drum machines I don't really see that much on the market right now. The market is mostly re-births of 808's and 909's where I would just use a Modular synth over anyday,. still I wish it had more backwards stuff,. hey it'd be nice to have a high pass filter too,. and a build in women but hey what do you expect for $500 canadian,. that's why the thing is made of plastic and feels like a fisher price tape deck,. (probly is pretty tuff though since it is so light).. The other choice to consider over this sort of thing (although not really as versitile for other catagories besides dance) would be the korg electribe stuff.
I will keep mine because of the live coolness of it. Just for sheer fun,. and the fact that every drum has it's own filter makes it really cool (that takes a lot of dsP out of a system),. don't get me wrong if you play with it enough,. you can get this thing sounding totally crazzy.

Piece of cake to use. Lots of realtime control, simple sequencing
interface ala TB-303/TR-909. Mine didn't have a manual and I figured
everything out in about an hour.

24 voices, realtime control of filter cutoff, resonance, decay, flanger,
and reverb/delay. It's got a three track sequencer, and midi i/o, but no velocity
sensitivity unless you use it as a sound module. The RCA jacks and 1/8th
inch phone plug are kind of annoying ( I'd rather 1/4 inch ), and there's
a bit of a hiss, but that can be controlled with a bit of EQ. Lots of good drum
sounds, tons of kits, and good bass sounds. I like it a lot better than
my Korg ER-1. Samples my not have the same fluidity as analog mimicry,
but surprisingly you actually get a greater variety of useful sounds with
the dr-202. Presets are also very useable, though, some are a little
tired. Most features for the money for dance/hip hop etc...

Great sounds, bass, drums, pads, hits, whatever. No velocity on the
pads, but I'll live. The flanger and delay/reverb are better than I
expected, and the realtime recordable control adds a lot of character
to any sound. Perfect machine for lofi dance/techno/house/hip hop/jungle
drum 'n bass.

Well, its plastic. Be good to it, and it will be good to you.

Never dealt with them

I'd definitely buy it again. No question.

So you want a drum machine? Expect to do some drum programming. You'll
have to spend time tinkering with manual in hand to get the hang of it.
Once you've got it, it's pretty easy.

The DR-202 is a great device for the show room. It has cool features
like real time controllers for cutoff, resonance, delay, delay/reverb,
and flange. It has a three part sequencer for drum, bass, and one
external device. It's got cool glowing buttons.

But once you take it home, here's some of the junk you have to deal with:

-No backlit LCD, and the screen is really hard to view from an angle or
with weak lighting.

-You can record the filter controls to a pattern, but there's a delay
and no fine tuning mechanism so it's impossible to apply anything to
the first note or beat of a pattern!!!

-Patterns cannot be strung together. If you want to reiterate something
with slight changes you'll have to create a new pattern. This wouldn't
be so bad, except:

-YOU CAN'T CHANGE PATTERNS WITH MIDI PROGRAM CHANGE. Program changes
only change the drum set. Now maybe I'm just missing something, but this
strikes me as incredibly stupid. Each pattern is assigned its own set,
so you can simulate drum set changes by creating an identical pattern
and assigning a new set to it. But there is no way to simulate pattern
changes with drum set changes, of course. This ridiculous limitation
makes it impossible to change patterns with your feet, as I need to when
on guitar. This wouldn't be so bad since you can just make songs, except:

-No song looping. Basically, thanks to relatively minor issues, this thing
is useless for dynamic, live solo accompaniment.

I couldn't find any aids for the above in the manual, but if anyone
knows any workarounds, please drop me a line. I find it especially
hard to believe you can't change patterns using a MIDI foot controller.

Having only stereo out is a problem if you want to add external effects
to only drums or only bass. RCA jacks are less than welcome, and one
of them conked out on me (more on that later). The pads are cool for
the bass sounds, but having velocity sensitivity would be really useful
for the drum sounds. I have an Alesis HR-16 that has frightful sounds,
but velocity sensitivity and better programming options, so I generally
use that to program my rhythms and drive the 202 over MIDI. (Program changes
do change patterns on the HR-16, but it only has a one part sequencer.)

Some of the preset patterns are actually pretty inspiring, and 100 user
patterns is plenty if you've got a computer to dump 'em on. Only 20
songs isn't so great, and the unerasable demo song is grating. You can
make 100 custom kits from the 256 sounds.

The roll feature is great in concept, but I haven't been able to get
many useful sounds out of it. You can't program it in relation to tempo,
which strikes me as really weird, but I guess that sorta fits with
the 202's other self-defeating feature designs.

Turn it off, turn it back on, and you're back at the first preset pattern,
unlike the HR-16, which starts with the pattern you were at when you
powered off. This can be very irritating.

9 for features minus 4 points for poor implementation

I love the lo-fi and hip hop sounds. The techno sounds are pretty cool.
The drum and bass stuff was pretty miserable. I programmed some that
sounded good over the headphones, but transformed into complete cheese
through loudspeakers. But the drum and bass stuff, and many of the
sounds that were originally pretty unusable (like the acid jazz sets)
sound great with heavy compression. The compression can turn the bass to
piddle, though, so you may have to choose between one channel of compressed
drums or no bass sounds.

The filters are great, the flanger is cool, the delay and reverbs are okay.

This unit is more or less the noisiest thing in my collection, not helped
by running it through a gateless compressor and having to use the headphone
jack (see below).

I wrapped it up in clothes and stuck it in my suitcase for a busride
home and, at the end of my journey, the left RCA output did not work.
I now use the headphone jack as the main output, which sounds a bit
more noisy. It's worked fine besides that. Unlike the HR-16, it
has never gagged while realtime recording (but I haven't run its
memory to the max, either).

Couldn't find and e-mail address to send questions/grievances to.
I'll try to get it repaired one of these days...

For all my complaining, this is the only drum machine I know of that
does what it does. The Zoom RhythmTrak has good sounds, but its lack
of MIDI out is at least as bad as any of the problems of the 202. Other
more expensive Roland drum machines I've lisetned to have sounds as
cheesy as my HR-16.

If it was stolen I would look at the new 307 Groovebox, but now that
I have a sampler its not so urgent to have a dedicated drum machine. I
wouldn't mind holding out to see if Boss/Roland comes out with a revision
of this machine, which it desperately needs.

To replace all of the features on this would require a much more
expensive piece or combination of equipment, so I have to hand it
to Roland for that. Thumbs down on overall product design, though.
They could have created a much better product with these sounds and
features.

This is real, real easy to use. The sounds are pretty neat and you can make your own kits and tweak the onboard sounds quite a bit. And if you turn some of the bass's octaves up, some sound like pianos or organs. You can jump right in and go crazy with it. My friend made a "bomb" loop in the store one day in about seven point three minutes while I was checking out other stuff.

24 note polyphony, but you can't really have more than three bass tracks on top of each other (in different octaves for a fuller sound) unless they are real minimal. It'll lock up if you gots more than that. It's got decay, resonance, and cutoff knobs which you can record the turning of in real-time. The knobs won't move, but the sound will. You also got flanger and delay/reverb knobs, which are not recordable. They are still real neat. You've even got a few different types of flange and delay/reverb to work with. Nifty. No expansion possibilities. It works with midi, but it's more for triggering samples from an SP 202. That works well and it's pretty much designed for use with it. The sequencer is pretty neat. You do only have 3 tracks (midi, bass, drum), which makes it a pain to wade through a long or full sequence in step mode. It does also crash on you if you have a high bpm or a lot going on. It's even locked-up on me while I was real-time recording, but it did save everything I did. That was nice of it. There's even a song mode. This box could use more memory though, I've filled the 100 loop limit up a few times (I've had it for 8 months), but what was a real bugger was the actual memory. I made a lot of lush, full loops that eat up three or four percent of the memory a piece. And after you get below 30-35 percent memory, it starts to lock-up a lot and act real weird.

It's got a lot of expressiveness and that has a lot to do with the nice reverb knob. The drums sound pretty good, could be better, but ok. The basses aren't very good though. There's a bundle to choose from, but a lot sound alike and only a few even remotely resemble piano or and a keyboard sound at all when you turn the octave up. Effects are real good. The pads are not touch-sensitive, but you can adjust they're levels before or after you input the note or drum. I also think it quantizes really nicely (you can even turn it off), but maybe that's just cuz I got so used to it. The groove templete stinks, though. I makes everything you make sound corny, unless you "groove" it first and then work around that.

It'll save everything you do instantly, but it will mess-up if you run low on memory. You could get away with using it without backup.

Never dealt with.

I'm selling it now, not because I don't like it, but I'm moving on to bigger and better. I wouldn't sell it, but I need the money from it to get other things. I've used it for 8 months. I've never owned a drum machine like it (it being all nice and useable). I own a Mattel one though, but that's another story. I've used quite a few of others and found nothing that compares with it. It's clearly not setup for rock, so I wouldn't even try that. It needs more memory and less preset sounds (although the demo song is good. It shows you all the possibilities of the thing. It took me a while to find out some of the tricks that guy used to make that). I find this box to be a tool which one can be very spontaneous and creative with. I recommed it to all.

This thing is pretty easy to use once you get the hang of it and you understand all the options. I don't think any drum machine becomes fun or usable unless you spend some time leaerning how to play and becoming comfortable with it. Overall, the engine is very usable and allows for much options. I bought this expecting to never use to presets, but I was pleasently surprised by how good they were. I really liked the drum n' Bass, Jungle and Hip Hop beats. Editing patches in realtime is a breeze (it's easy to get that squelching 303 bass sound on the fly) and it's very easy to change kits and basses during a song. The real-time muting is a huge plus and makes for nice breakbeats. the manual is okay and it gets the job done.

I don't know what the polyphonic capabilities are offhand, but I do know that I've never needed to find out or worry about polyphony. There are knobs for resonnace, cutoff, decay, reverb/delay and flanger. The reverb/delay is pretty mediocore but the flanger is very impressive. I think that most people who reveiwed these product did not take the time to really explore the capabilities of this machine. They never mention that the flanger has 4 differnet modes and can be applied to different pads or that preset kits can be bulit which drasticly different knob setting can be created. The MIDI capabilities are there ( works very well with the sp-202). It has a 3-track sequencer ( bass, drums and external source). I was really surprised that such a cheap box could have such extensive editing capabilities.

The sounds are not realistic per say, but they sound like drum machines. I was not really looking for a realistic-sounding thing anyway. It is g4reat for hip-hop, drum and bass and most types of groove music. The onboard effects are great and very flexible. The roll generator is a godsend for D n' B/ Jungle lovers. The pads kinda suck becuase they stick sometimes and are not velocity sensitive. I did find however that the pads stuck less when they were broken in and when they do stick, they stick "to the ryhthm". the bass sounds ( 49 of'em) range from many different Tb-303's to sh-101's to B3 footpedals to synthbasses and pads. they can also be strecthes over 8 octaves and can get some good lead and chord comp sounds. The kits include tr-808, tr-909, 606 and 707 simulations. There are tons of vinyl sounds, and special effects, and cowbell hits and other shit like that (all fully editable).

It's very light and usess up lots of batteries. Use a Ac adaptor. I've dropped it a few times and nothing has happened but I would,nt treat it like a tank

don't know. nO problems yet

I would definatley buy thsi again. As I said before, I believe this box got mediocore reviews because the people who bought it did not spend alot of time exploring it's capabilities. While this seems like a low-price box that gets the job done it is really very deep and has loads of possibilities. i would choose it over the higher priced Roland 303 and Zoom or other boss boxes any day. Just don't expect incredibly realistic sounds. Pair it with the incredible SP-202 and you've got a killer ass workstation. Mark my words, the DR-202 and the sp-202 are going to be CLASSICS

This is the Roland beat-box aimed at dance music people and the presets reflect that. No suprise here. The presets are okay but there is nothing there that is really a knockout in my opinion. Editing different elements of a breakbeat are simple enough and , if you have had experience with other beatboxes, you'll be able to find your way around without the manual for the most part. The manual itself is a barebones document though it covers most of the basic questions a person might have.

My favorite features are the roll generator and the flanger. Honestly I don't plan to use the 202 for much besides the roll generator. This feature gives you acess to many different types of drum rolls. some are pretty intense. I plan to sample these rolls and mangle them. (If you stick with the presets it will be obvious to all where you got your sounds). The flange is deep and metallic though its easy to put too much on a breakbeat. For a box this size I was suprised that the flanger swept that deeply. I like the groove templates also. These are nice becuase you can preview your breakbeat with different types of accents. It also comes in handy when you don't like editing in step mode (which is something I loathe in any case)

The pads are terrible. Some stick and they are very stiff in general. I cannot imagine somebody wanting to hammer out a real time pattern on this esepcially since there is no velocity sensitivity. I've recorded some patterns in real time though I wind up using one of the groove templates to tighten up the beats.

Its kind of cheap feeling. Its plastic and light and can easily be carried. It uses batteries and alot of them if you don't watch out ! You might want to get a power adapter of you want to spend a lot of time with this thing. I've already dropped mine and it still works so it must not be so cheap.

I've not needed to contact Boss at all so I can't rate them in this area.

I would not buy this unit again. Its okay but its kind of cheaply made and for $400 I would expect better quality. I admire their attempt at putting the effects and and features in place but some of the stuff (like the reverb) are just too cheesey for me. The sounds in this unit are for dance which is cool but the presets definitely won't age well. That is, i've already heard alot of these beats in many DIY releases. The roll feature is most cool but again only as a source or starting point for new sounds. This thing is definitely not a toy but it looks like one. Boss has definitely made better drum machines though I think this is their first shot at the dance market. To be fair they do have many of the classic sounds available so you won't have to go far to get access to these. If you are just starting out then this might be nice way to get your feet wet. If you have been at the dance game for a while, then you want to save your money for other stuff.

This is very easy to use and only takes a short time to get the hang of it. The presets are very good if you are into electronic music and the real-time knobs are a lot of fun to tweak. There are some fairly decent flangers and stuff that help to add some flavor.

Forget trying to program any sort of drum sequences from the pads, they suck. Also, you can only save 19 songs. Oh, it says it can store 20 of 'em but one is a demo song that you cannot erase. After listening to this unispiring ditty once I wish I could have erased it for space for my own compositions. I used to have an Alesis HR-16 and I must have had dozens of half-done songs and pieces that I could piece together. With this unit song writing like this is out of the question. Another thing that bugged me about the unit is that you are stuck with the "grooves" that it comes with. You can't tweak and save changes, so it's basically like you are buying a CD with a lot of grooves on it that someone else wrote. I guess this is okay if you are not interested in "making" music.

The sounds are very sweet on this thing. I plugged it into my Marshall cabinet and it shook the windows. Very nice basses. Expressiveness sucks because of the pads however.

seems very reliable, but I wouldn't know because I sent it back after a couple of days. NO adapter came with it and that pissed me off.

don't know

Overall, its a very nice sounding electronic sound source. It sucks as an sequencer and you can't store very many songs and you can't tweak the "grooves" it comes with. I sent it back. I am still looking for a drum/bassline unit that can actually be considered an "instrument" and not a toy. Considering this thing is 400 bucks I wouldn't recommend it. It just didn't inspire any new tunes.