Boss Dr. Rhythm DR-880 Drum Machine

The Boss DR-880 Drum Machine is a rhythm-programming powerhouse which is equipped with world-class drum, percussion, and bass sounds from Roland’s famous SRX library. Boss DR-880 Drum Machine includes a dramatic collection of original waveforms.

Boss DR-880 Drum Machine

Patterns can be use deeper with the “Groove Modify” feature, where a variety of groove and triplet senses can be applied. Guitar and bass players can join the action by plugging straight to the DR-880′s guitar/bass input jack, and playing through the built-in COSM drive/amp models and multi-effects. Ghost notes and fills can also be added automatically. With the Pattern mode, you can select and combine pre-programmed phrase combinations to create new patterns. Push the Chord Progression button to select chord-progression templates. Through the Fill-In button, you can choose phrases from the Fill-In library, and put them into the pattern. The library encloses various phrases, ranging from simple fills to bombastic breaks.

An extraordinary new collection of top-quality, custom sounds were created for the Boss DR-880. The DR-880 Drum Machine is equipped with some of the most famous sounds from our renowned SRX library Read more »

Drum Machine or drum set is an electronic musical instrument designed to simulate the sound of a percussion instrument like a drum.

The original drum machines were referred to as rhythm machines because they only played preprogrammed rhythms such as mambo, tango and others. Drum sets are typically programmed by specifying which sixteenth notes of a bar a given drum will sound on.

By stringing differently programmed bars together, fills, breaks, rhythmic changes, and longer phrases can be created. Drum machine controls typically include Tempo, Start and Stop, volume control of individual sounds, keys to trigger individual drum sounds, and storage locations for a number of different rhythms. Most drum machines can also be controlled via MIDI.

A brief history of programmable drum machine

For more than a hundred years, mechanical devices have been used to help musicians keep the beat while practicing, but these had never been intended for performances.

In the 1960s, makers of home electronic organs began introducing the first drum machines, intended mainly to liven up home playing or to provide small bands of limited means a substitute for a live drummer. These early drum machines offered a narrow range of pre-set percussion sounds and generally did not sound much like real instruments.

The technology of digital electronic music took a new turn in the late 1970s, when the first programmable drum machines became available. The first stand-alone drum machine, the PAiA Programmable Drum Set, also happened to be the very first programmable drum machine. It was first introduced in 1975 and was sold as a kit with parts and instructions which the buyer would use to build the machine.

In 1978, the Roland CR-78 drum machine was released. It was one of the first programmable drum set, and had four memory locations which allowed users to store their own patterns. The following year, Roland offered the Boss DR-55. It was the first fully programmable drum machine.

Many musicians say that the real breakthrough was engineer Roger Linna LM1 of 1979, manufactured and distributed by his company, Linn Electronics.

Discussion on Programmable Drum set

Drum machines can either be programmed in real time or in step time, where the user specifies the precise moment in time on which a note will sound.

By stringing differently-programmed bars together, fills, breaks, rhythmic changes, and longer phrases can be created. Most drum machines can also be controlled via MIDI. If the drum machine has MIDI connectivity, then one could program the drum machine with a computer or another MIDI device.

By the year 2000, standalone drum machines became much less common, being partly supplanted by general-purpose hardware samplers controlled by built-in or external sequencers, software-based sequencing and sampling and the use of loops, and music workstations with integrated sequencing and drum sounds.

A drum kit consists of 13 pads x 3 banks equalling 39 sounds per kit. Sound sources can be freely selected and assigned to the pads. Fine-tune parameters such as pitch, level, and panning to create original drum kits. A large number of phrase variations including intro, fill-in, and ending patterns are also provided.

About the Author: Victor Epand is an expert consultant for guitars, drums, and synthesizers. You can find the best marketplace for guitars, drums, and synthesizers at these 3 sites: guitars, bass guitar gears , drums, programmable drum sets, and synthesizers, keyboards.
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Getting together the right drum kit is not only a matter of proper knowledge, but also of patience and network. A drum kit (drum set or trap set) is a compilation of drums, cymbals and occasionally other percussion instruments arranged for apt playing by a single drummer. Quite a lot of primary and secondary percussion instruments may be tried and employed by drummers though all may not be practically considered part of the standard kit.

The fundamental of getting together the right drum kit includes a bass drum, snare drum, two rack mounted tom toms (or toms), a set of hi hat cymbals, a ride cymbal, a floor tom, and a crash cymbal. Fusion kits are generally used where the drum sizes are somewhat smaller and there is just a single rack tom. Some drummers prefer to add other tom toms and a selection of extra cymbals to the central kit. Hardware is the collection of stands, racks and pedals and typically forms an important part of the kit.

There are other secondary instruments in the kit; for example, tambourine, a china cymbal, cow bell, and wood blocks. Electronic drums are a kind of percussion instrument where the sound is produced by an electronic waveform generator or sampler instead of by acoustic vibration. The electronic drummer has virtually boundless prospects for configuring many different sounding drum kits from one set of electronic drums, simply because of its capacity to assign diverse sounds to any given pad. So to attain the right tune the drummer has to be into getting together the right drum-kit.

The drummer has to take into consideration the occasion. The precise anthology of components to a drum kit varies greatly according to musical style, personal preference, financial resources, and transportation options of the drummer. So considering all the physical and financial constraints the drummer has to go through some customization and improvisation in getting together the right drum kit

For a drummer in a scenario of rock & roll music the essential drum instruments are generally the hi hats played with the sticks, bass drum and snare drum. The ride cymbal follows this combination. These instruments are the one to help the drummer make the time and establish the fundamental beat.

Here, the main importance is given on the second and forth beat of a four beat measure. The fills and the short transitional phases are utilized by the tom-toms and crash cymbals.

In case of the jazz music the choice for the drummer are the ride cymbal and the high hats. The combinations with these are the foot and snare, with which the time is kept. Tom-toms are used more harmoniously and the bass drum is treated like just an additional tom toms. It is evident that getting together the right drum kit is a challenge for many professional drummers.

Drummers, generally, tune their drums to particular musical intervals. This means that the distance (the interval) between the tuned note of one drum and that of the other one is consistently identifiable. This can guarantee that the tonal connection between one drum and the next is constant from any starting pitch.

The drummers always need to check the integrity and condition of the drum shell. Bearing edges and shell condition are the primary areas of concern; still it does not hurt to check the hardware, and the general state of the drum.

About the Author: Victor Epand is an expert consultant for guitars, drums, and synthesizers. You can find the best marketplace for guitars, drums, and synthesizers at these 3 sites: guitars, drums, drum sets, drum kits, and synthesizers, keyboards.
Source: http://www.articlesbase.com