Boss DR-660

Heaps of kits available, if you get one that someone else has programed just reset and start from scratch. 255 16-bit sounds in there and a lot of them don't even appear in the preset kits. Manual is finally available from roland online. 7 kits preset, the other 28 kits are re-programmable.

12 note polyphony, has velocity sensitive pads but you are much better off running it from a good keyboard as you won't get the full expression available using the built in pads. All kits are standard midi, so once you learn where the pads are on a keyboard all kits play the same.

Can be programed with the standard, fill, variation, fill format so can actually be played live.

156 different programmable patterns, 100 presets.

Sequencer is limited in that you can not change tempo, you can get around it by linking different songs into one, as each song can have a different tempo. Really only good for two songs at a time this way though.

To all those stinky-faces out there that point out that there is not a full 909 kit on it, the 909 ran 6-bit high hat and cymbal samples, if you cant tweak this back to those sounds with the the pitch, decay and nuance settings maybe you should get a beret and a a pair of bongos.

Onboard effects are serviceable, individual level settings for each pad, flanger will give you some freaky sounds for sure. 2 assignable outputs beyond the stereo mix are all you really need. One for kick and one for snare, leave the high hats and toms on the stereo. 4 outputs total is just right for a machine.

Will work best programed with a keyboard or something that can output a broader range of midi velocity. The pads are really hard to get subtle differences out of.

Accepts expression pedal input for nuance, nice for programing realistic, natural sounding drums.

Japanese made, nothing cheap inside, the pad triggers will work forever. They are the sealed-sheet membrane style, no dust can enter. This is a billion hit machine, your fingers will be dirt before this stops working. Just change the battery and you are good to go for another century.

Don't abuse the plugs on the back as the case is all plastic, and the plugs are mounted on the main circuit board.

You could drop a grand on an 808, and have the headaches that come with it (no midi, rotten triggers, limited sequencing abilities and patterns) or you can get this. It is a roland, the 808 samples are true, and convincing, good brushes. Pedal high-hat pretty realistic. Cymbals are all a little crashey though.

The basket-ball kick rings and rocks, as well ability to layer and scale the sounds via velocity with the cross fade. IE Combine pad bank A and B via velocity, hit a pad soft and get a brush snare, hard and get a stick with a nice blend/crossfade between the two. Only a couple of the presets are cross fades but it gives you the right idea. Since you can only play 1 set of 16 pads at a time the best way to set this up is with layered sounds on each pad. Eg. 2 snares at a time, 2 kicks with different decay rates, hard stick and a high hat, etc. That is the secret to this box.

Wish you could run it off batteries, for those long bus rides.

It is easy to use. I prefer to use it as a module and trigger sounds through MIDI with my sequncer..but it's fun to have a spot where you can store a few beats. I just wrote a mindblowing beat a few minutes ago. You can get a cross between old school rap and Peter Gabriel..bonk a few times and you've got a new electronica sound.

As people have said, tweeking sounds acheives impressive results with this unit. if you have ever played with a Yamaha RX-17 from the generation of mid to late 80's digital drum machines or the like you would appreciate how deeply programable these sounds actually are. And..a friend of mine has a real TR 808. I have had a chance to reprogram the 808 sounds on this thing to make a cooler 808 kit. Haven't heard them side by side yet. This is a pretty damn affordable subsitute for a real 808 and if you're just getting into playing electronic music this is a great addition. The other reviewers are right..it isn't a full TR909 kit..but heck..tweek those hi-hats yourself and do something more original. I am still not convinced the TR909 is the mother of all drum machines especially when you play one you HAVE to put your kick on every quater note. But..kido...this 660 here will get you in the game with some 808's and some 909's and ...well..let's see what you got shorty!

The sounds here are ...pretty great and up to the user to show how good they can be. I love them. There is a "plasticy" and 2-D element to these sounds..I really noticed after getting a TR606..but guess what? My TR 606 broke down after two years and my DR660 still runs great after I bought it new in..gosh..'94 I think. In other words, there may be hipper drum machines with cooler sounds..but this thing will turn on and play when you need it to. It's got those 808's..it's got some 909's. And you can make some pretty cool Drum and Bass kits. I made some great R&B kits in the late 90's. Made some D&B kits a few years ago. I had just been taking it back to some straight 909 acid-kinda kits tonight. I can hear some aliasing on the 808 kick. There are sample artifacts here and there..the IDM and industrial guys like that and make it louder.

It just turned on after my being on couch tour, study abroad and caretaking in some pretty but nowhere USA town....it came on tonight back at my folks' house.

Never tried..the manual seems to be enough.

I love this thing. I also like a real 808 and my broken TR606 (waa!), I got some cool sounds on my EMU PK6...only Reason or some Korg module sounds and the real x0x stuff turned me on more. This thing rocks in the right hands. The individual outputs make it pro-worthy.

*The EPROM is unchanged from the factory settings when I first purchased it.
*Customizing "kits" is a breeze. Modifying the settings of individual drums is a breeze.
*Programming "Parts" in real time is a breeze. Make a mistake, hold down the "erase" button and the pad while recording and mistakes dissapear. Now do it over again, this time get it right.
*This Manual IS THE MANUAL that made me want to become a technical writer. ALL MANUALS should be this easy to use!!!

*This is a drum machine. Are you doing "Cream" or "Stanley Clark" fusion jazz cover tunes? Damn, I think you need a drummer. Are you doing R&B (or what passes for it today) and radio "stuff". You should be able to get it done. The pads are touch sensitive and still work well (after 13 years).
*There are "overall" chorus and reverb controls as well as chorus and reverb controls for individual pads. The adjustments can be made in real time and are immediately evident.
*The MIDI capablities ARE AS FOLLOWS. MIDI/IN/OUT AND THRU. THRU and OUT are on the SAME PORT! They are switchable through the software menu under the MIDI menu.
*The on board sequencer is simplicity itself. I have it locked up to my Alesis MMT-8 never a problem and easy to "slave" with the software or turn it back into it's own "master" device when I just want to program it without turning all my other equipment on.

*Realistic? It sounds good. It is a drum machine and again it is easy to use. It can't be as powerful and dynamic as drums because well, it isn't drums and a musician.
*This is drum machine is IDEAL for covering Janet Jackson, R Kelly, Mint Condition (easier Mint Condition), that genre of R&B plus Rap. Expanding the decay on the 808 is the ILLEST SON!

Over the past 13 years my drum machine has been ON most of the time that I have owned it. The battery is still good. The display still works (every segment and dot).

I have Reason 1.0. If this drum machine was gone, oh well too bad so sad. I would miss it! This EXTRAORDINARY drum machine is the standard by which ALL OTHER ELECTRONIC GIZMOS IN THE WORLD SHOULD BE JUDGED FOR EASE OF USE. I used to work as a group home counselor and sometimes to break up the monotony I would bring that drum machine to work so the boys could learn how to program beats and get familiar with the music they were listening to all the time. I showed most of the kids how to program custom patterns, do fills and sequences in about half an hour. IT'S AS GOOD AND EASY AS ADVERTISED!!!

I had a Roland R-5 until I got my hands on my own DR-660, so I was used to the decay, nuance and pitch thing. The drums can be edited while the sequencer is running on tne Boss. No stopping.

Be smart about decay and polyphony. Things disappear and get cut off.

The 808's and cr-78 sounds are cool. You can do crazy stuff with the flanger. It's missing a hard 909 kick.

I have seen other DR-660's get their jacks worked loose, knobs stop working, but I"m talking about major abuse. It will hold up for normal people who don't go around breaking stuff. I got lucky enough to find one new in the box for $250 US. It had been on the shelf at a local music store since 1994.

This machine is out of production. I bet you can't get much help from Roland.

If I lost this machine, I would replace it immediately. I have been DJing for 10 years now, and picked up synth gear here and there along the way. The only machine that compares is probably a Roland R-70, but I have only read specs on that one. I use the DR-660 in almost every thing I do. other gear: Yamaha SY-77 synth, Boss DR-670, Roland R-5, Boss DR-5, Boss SP-505 Sampler/sequencer, Roland TR-505, two Casio Keyboards.

Once you've figured out how to use the DR-660, it's fairly easy and intuitional (RTFM). The manual is okay (at least the german one). Sequencing is very easy, though it's not as easy as the typical Roland-TRx0x way.

Built-in FX sound okay, but not very versatile. Reverb sounds good. Delay and Chorus/Flanger could have at least a higher parameter resolution (only 31 steps).
Another sad thing: No mute feature. Since a pattern does not contain multiple tracks, muting is not available. If you want to "mute" certain instruments (i.e. hihats) you've got to copy the pattern and then delete the hihats.
Shuffle is okay, but again there could be a better parameter solution.

Sounds are okay, lots of natural drum sounds and few electronic ones (like CR78, 808 and 909). Works good for drum'n'bass I think. FX are not very strong, could be a bit more extreme.

Just got my DR-660 and played a bit. Didn't crash yet! ;-)

Manual can be ordered from Roland Corp., but I would prefer a PDF download.

Got mine for only EUR 50 from eBay, but wouldn't buy it again because it does not fit my needs (no track muting). If you do mainly song-writing and need some real drums, then this is your machine.

I'm a bit shocked that others have rated this product so high for ease of use - I think it's awful. Perhaps others wish to show off their techno-prowess. My Roland TR-505 was *much* easier to use. Real-time pattern creation is ok, but overall, usability is poor. The manual is also not especially well-written, and in terms of MIDI capabilities, manual coverage is woefully incomplete.

The feature set is reasonable. Touch-sensitive keys, decent sounds, and advanced editing capabilities. Some expanability would have been nice, and there seems never to have been a software upgrade offered for the device. Skip the onboard effects.

Sounds are good, programming for velocity response is reasonable (if not cutting-edge). Overall, it is possible to get decent sounds out of the unit.

No problems with it. I use it in a home studio, so gigging with it isn't really a factor.

No real experience with customer support, so no opinion. No software updates offered.

If it were lost or stolen, I would look for something with a better user interface. I bought it because I thought it would be a quick and easy way to put together drum tracks for demos. I think I'm happier with the MIDI Drum Editor in Cubase. Overall, if you need a hardware box and need only simple functionality or presets, it's great. Otherwise be prepared to spend some time reading the manual (again and again, if you use it infrequently, because you won't remember the uninituitive controls) and if you want to do advanced MIDI stuff, you'll have to figure it out on your own, because the manual won't help you.

Preset sound quite well. Editing patches is not that much easy: the screen is a little small. Touch pads are good. Manual is OK. MIDI implementation is OK as well.

there are two low quality FX. 255 preset sounds which you can edit, 4 out (2 assignable). Internal sequencer is pretty good.

It sounds well, even the sounds are a bit old. Expresiveness is good enough.

OK.

Well, it's just a rythmn box with 255 sounds, 32 Drum Kits, 100 RAM presets, and a good internal sequencer. Nothing more, this machine will never be a vintage...

Pretty easy to use, once you get the logic involved. Mostly, I use the realtime instead of step programming, and wheel through the patterns I selected.

Lots of great editibility in this machine, from the parameters of the individual sounds to the touch sensitivity of the pads, to the easily programmed time signature changes (different patterns sequence easily). Two things that bothered me with this unit. 1) Inability to change tempo within a song. Once you set the initial tempo for a given song, there seems to be no way (at least none that I've found) to change the tempo as you add patterns to the song, so any change in tempo in a song (ritardando, or tempo change for time sig change, etc) is either impossible, or must be done by hand adjusting the tempo dial as the song plays. 2) Memory, or lack thereof. There seems to be a lot of memory in this piece, but as I started programming different patterns for a song in order to make the drums interesting, I ran out of room several times. For saving more than 3 songs' worth of patterns, it was nearly impossible. As someone said, all the extra crap they throw on it in unremovable patterns, I'd at least have more room to play with, but as they're unremovable, it only irritates me that they're there. Aside from these two gripes, this really is a great machine, especially for the price.

The thing I love most about this machine is the programmability of the sounds. It is extremely easy to edit sounds and save them in your user kits. I found I usually use just a couple kits (for different types of music- rock/metal and electronic), so the rest of that space would be nice if it could be allocated to patterns, but I know I'm dreaming...

The only physical problem I had with this unit is the selection dial wore out after a couple years. It would sometimes roll through selections, and sometimes when you would roll it, it wouldn't move anything on the display. Given that it took a couple YEARS of extensive home use for this to happen, and the unit still continued to function properly otherwise (you can reel through selections using << and >> buttons, just not as quickly), I feel it's a very reliable machine.

I don't know; never had to contact Roland.

Excellent machine, despite any problems I may have had with it- those are merely problems/limitations you deal with when purchasing an affordable item like this. I have recently had mine stolen, so I plan to replace it in some time. It will be used primarily for hashing out ideas instead of fully developing them for recordings. More for 4-track taped ideas to take to band practice.

This thing is quite easy to use. You can tweek just about every setting of each individual drum sound.

Velocity sensitive pads are great, but it is much easier to just plug in into a sequencer. I would have been nice to have drum settings responsive to midi data instead of just sysex.

The most disapointing things about this machine is that it does not have the full 909 set. It is missing the hi-hats. Who in their right mind would include the 909 kick & snare but no 909 hi-hats. It does has some nice 808 sounds and acoustic drums.

The levels seem to drop periodically in a long sequence. This might just be my imagination though. It is a good machine.

I have purchased a Boss DR-202 because it has more techno drums. I think that this a great machine for someone who wants more acoustic sounds.

Incredibly easy to use.

You can tweak all the crappy factory sounds into oblivion.

Does it really matter? It's a drum machine!!! Why would you even try to emulate an acoustic drummer. Besides, acoustic drums are obsolete my friend.

Be careful hooking it up with an external sequencer.

If you want an easy way to write good sounding industrial music then this is definately the way to go.