Boss DR-3

The beauty of this piece of gear is that it is so extremely easy to use, yet is able to be extensively customized in a myriad of ways.
Changing the various patterns in a style, or changing to another drum kit\bass variation, or adding embelishments to the patterns, or muting instrument parts, or shaping the sounds using EQ\Compression and Reverb, or changing the tempo or key, etc...can all be easily done from the front panel by a simple push of the button and\or spin of the wheel. A backlit display and logical button\pad layout (with buttons that light up) really help with fast access to what's needed for performance and recording. The DR-3 also offers an enormous amount of flexibility in setting up to 2 footswitches that can be used to control so many things it'll make your head spin! The 126 page manual is a nice compact size for carrying around and is actually one of the better written Boss\Roland manuals (not including older Roland gear from the 80's through the 90's, I've owned the Boss BR-8 and BR-532 recorders, the CDX-1 Disclab and the JS-5 Jamstation...so believe me when I tell you, this is one of their better productions!).

Where do we start? 120 different drum and percussion sounds (including special soft, double, and buzz shot sounds for realistic snare ghost notes); 12 different bass sounds; 50 preset and 50 user drum kits (each with 13 drum and 13 percussion sounds, and 1 bass sound); 100 different preset Styles in various musical genres (Rock, Jazz, Blues, Country, Latin, etc.) each made up of 8 patterns...for a total of 800 preset patterns, that are each from 1 to 4 measures long; 100 user Styles that can be created by copying\editing existing preset styles, or by recording your own (using the onboard dynamic pads in realtime or step recording modes), or by recording via MIDI in realtime (using a hardware\software sequencer or another piece of MIDI gear, like a keyboard or drum machine); up to 100 User Songs can be created and stored onboard (with each song composed of a maximum of 250 patterns); Lots of editing options, including Quantize (5 different values), Transpose, Velocity and Note Edit, Volume, Panning, Copy, Insert, Delete, etc; In Song mode you can switch patterns with a footswitch and various loop points can be set
for repeated playing; Song Chain Mode allows continuous playback of up to 100 songs or you can repeat a single performance; "Total Sound
Control", with Sound Shape (3 band parametric EQ\3 band Compression) and Ambience (Reverb) effects...consisting of multiple parameters
that are saved to 8 preset and 8 user settings each; Maximum Polyphony is 12 notes (the low end of the scale among drum machines but in real usage shouldn't ever be much of a problem); Timing Resolution is 96pqn (pretty standard among drum machines); Beats can be set to 2/4, 3/4 through 8/4, 4/8, 5/8 through 16/8; Tempo is adjustable between 20-260 bpm (Multiple tempos can be used in a song); Dedicated button for Tap Tempo function; Dedicated Key Shift button for transposing the bass parts within a range of 1 octave lower or 1 octave higher; When recording bass parts using the 13 onboard pads, you can shift between playing the notes in normal range or 1 octave up or down; the 13 pads are capable of dynamic expression (volume changes depending how hard you touch the pads and is user adjustable); The reference pitch for the bass part is adjustable within a range of A = 438 - 445 Hz); 3 Dedicated Variation buttons for creating different arrangements within a song; 2 different modes
for playing Styles...Manual Mode lets you switch patterns by pressing the appropriate pads...in Auto Mode patterns are switched automatically (with 8 different values to choose from) every 8 or 16 measures (which allows for some nice jamming possibilities!); using MIDI, you can sync the DR-3 to digital recorders\sequencers\computer\MIDI capable guitar fx processors...and yes, you can use an external controller device to play the DR-3's internal sounds; the DR-3 recognizes the following MIDI messages: Start, Stop, Timing Clock, Continue, Song Select, Song Position
Pointer; The Drum and Bass MIDI channels can each be set separately (OFF, 1-16); 3 different Sync modes to determine how DR-3 responds to
external devices (whether DR-3 operates as the Slave device...it only has a MIDI IN port); judging by the MIDI note numbers listed in the
Appendix, it appears that the DR-3 is General MIDI compatible (nice for transfering some of my extensive collection of MIDI drum patterns from the computer); 2 footswitches can be used for controlling the DR-3, even though there is only 1 connector (by using optional cable with stereo 1/4 inch connector on one end and 2 mono 1/4 connectors on the other end); 2 sets of outputs (1/4 inch...left side is used for headphones...and RCA phono) with 3 different choices for which sounds are output from the unit (ALL, DRUM, BASS); Functions that can be assigned to the footswitches include: choosing the various patterns of the song being played...choosing the same variations as on the front panel (Pattern, Kit, Mute)...Tap Tempo...switching

Expressiveness/Sounds: All in all, the DR-3's sounds and styles are of above average quality, at least to my ears (I'm comparing them to the Boss Jamstation, the Zoom 234, and several Yamaha PSR arranger keyboards, all of which I've owned). I can find no mention of the sampling rate used (must be at least 44.1kHz because everything is extremely clean with no apparent sonic artifacts). Lots of punchy kickass kicks and snares and by using the onboard EQ\Compression, you can make things even phatter or go lo-fi. All of the cymbals and gongs ring naturally and trail out nicely. My only complaint has to do with the choice of musical genres represented. Could definitely do without the token Hip Hop, Techno and House Styles (though I like the Rock & Street Hop). With memory as cheap as it is, why can't Boss at least double the number of available presets to include more standard and usable progressions in the Rock, Blues, Country, Jazz, and World Ethnic genres? I don't mean to whine too much but the Jamstation had 200 preset styles onboard.

Made in China (like virtually everything else these days), with a high-impact hard plastic case with metal bottom (except for plastic
battery door cover); buttons on top seem to be very sturdy; overall design and workmanship appear to be top-notch and I expect this piece of gear to last a long time with normal care (just like almost all of the Roland\Boss gear I've owned in the past).

Support is via Roland\Boss web site (with a new support forum) or via a toll call to their US offices in Southern California. Still
find it hard to believe that they don't post downloadable manuals (like Yamaha and Zoom). In the past, I've been able to reach support when needed (not often, thank God!) and most queries have been answered to my satisfaction.

In the price to performance ratio, this is one of the best gear purchases I've ever made! If circumstances demanded, I would
definitely buy this model again but not from the same seller on eBay (proaudiomall). Been doing business (buying and selling) on eBay since 1998 and this was the absolute worst experience ever! This was such a nightmare transaction that I'm taking the drastic step of posting warnings on every audio forum I participate in...as a public service for other buyers of audio\music gear. Please contact me for details...I have documented everything!

It's my first drum machine, i'm a guitarist and i was jammin with it after seconds. still you can edit and program everything you want. you decide how deep you want to dig in it....

it's the cheapest boss drum machine and it doesn't lack anything-despite a saving option to a external unit eg pc. it's not too polyphonic (12), but that's enouhg for me. it has touch sensitive pads (you can switch that easily off), you have hundred preset styles, each style has 3 verses, three fills, an intro and an end. tht's not all, there are one variation of each style, a mute button for soloing (you can choose what the unit mutes) and a kit button where the drum set changes. you can program or copy preset styles to hundred user banks and combine the patterns to hundred songs. lot?s more than the other machines? the disply is much more comfortable as the zoom 123 one and its backlit. it has an quite sophisticated eq (I did not mess with it right now) and ambiance settings can be done as well. you can assign two footswitches to any two buttons/functions you want! it lacks one thing: you cant save your songs despite to the memory of the unit. some reviers of the dr 660 complainted, that you cant switch bacj and forth between verses/chorus. here you can switch to wherever you want. it even has an auto mode where it plays through the songs as long as you want, very cool for the 12 bar blues. because of the missing saving out i'll give a 9.

i like it, but to be honest i don't have a lot experience with drum machines. to my guitarist ears it sounds very real and thats what i want. i use it for rock blues country and hard rock and heavy metal

it's made from plastic with a tin bottom. i would not drop it. but t would youse it without backup. looks reliable. i'll give a 8

never messed with them

i bought it because we couldn't find a drummer. it doesnt consume as much beer as a drummer. if i would lose it i would return to the store and buy it again without hesitating. i love that unit. very cool that you can dig in as deep as you want. it's very everybody, if you just want to jam right away, okay. if you want to program everything, it's there. it's a much better value than other drum machines.

I have just started to work with the unit and the manual.
The manual takes on a practical approach giving you instructions to achieve things. Unfortunately, the author is not very good, and you need to experiment before you get things right. Got the pencil thing happening.
I have tried to record some simple rhythm and then tried to delete the sounds as instructed, but the process is not smooth as other experiences with synth modules.

As you expect from a Boss drum machine it has bass sounds as well.
The unit has rca and 1/4" out jacks, midi in (no out), foot switch and volume control.
The interesting features are "Sound shape" and "Ambience".
Still too inexperienced to comment on these but I believe you can pre program these and set them to variation sounds aswell.

The presets indicate some useful sounds live in this unit.
I still need more time.
If only the manual was good, I probably would have done more work with the unit.

Nothing to report here, I am only a studio hobbiest.

Nothing to report.

I am not sure if this is a good buy, on first impressions it appears to be very uninspiring.
Again I am disappointed in the manual, it is hard to follow and some instructions lack the proper detail, maybe they assume the user is already experienced with drum machines?
If I lost it, I probably would not buy it again.