Hip Hop Beats Maker

Everybody knows that the first drum machines were made by Roland, and Boss is now the same company as Roland. From Synthesizers, bass machines, and early drum machines, Roland paved the way. All of the classic old school hip hop sounds you know and love and grew up with most likely came straight out of Roland’s early line-up of electronic beat makers and drum machines.

Things have come a long way since the early days of old school hip hop and rap beat making, but some things never change, and Roland/Boss are still the go-to brand for drum machines and beat machines. Their line Dr. Rythm drum machines have been used by thousands of beat makers over the years, and there’s a reason. The sounds are what makes these machines great.

But hold up, what about modern times? Not only does the BOSS Dr 880 Drum Machine have 440 drum sounds and 40 basses, but you can plug your microphone, guitar, or bass in to it to play along with or record out to. That is something we never had in the early drum machine days. Not only that, but the DR 880 also has built in amp-modelling for your guitar and bass sounds, and also has a USB port. What?!

That’s the good news, and I want to be honest here. The cons of this beat making machine are that it’s not so great as a live, stage ready system. For one thing, it has limited memory with no expansion options. So, if you want to make 15 songs and be ready to play them live on stage with this you might be out of luck. Better to get yourself something along the lines of the Akai XR20 Drum Machine, which allows you to trigger beat patterns from the pads during live play.

Also, the Boss Dr. Rythm 880 isn’t great for improvisation – say if you want to hit a fill or roll button and switch to another pattern spontaneously. You can purchase a series of footswitches to trigger different patterns or fills (there are four footswitch inputs) if you need, but there is no button on the front panel to just press and change beats, like an A/B beat function.

This is definitely a studio musician’s drum machine. If you want to make beats, add drum or guitar tracks and add some vocals, this will do it (though I’ve heard that the guitar/mic inputs are a little on the weak side, but the amp modelling and effects may make up for that).

All in all, if you need classic sounds which you can edit and add instruments and vocals to and even connect to a computer via USB in your studio, I would highly recommend the Boss Dr Rhythm 880.

Specs:

- 440 Drum sounds
- 40 Bass sounds
- 100 Preset Kits
- 100 User kits
- 500 Preset Rhythm Patterns
- 500 User Rhythm Patterns
- 100 user songs
- Maximum Note Storage approx. 30,000 notes
- Resolution Per quarter note: 96
- Tempo Quarter note: 20 – 260 bpm
- 20 Pads, velocity sensitive
- Custom LCD backlit display

- 3 independent insert effects (EQ and compression), TSC (Total Sound Control) featuring 3-band EQ and high-quality ambience

Connectors

Rear: Master Out L(Mono), R (1/4″ phone type), Master Out L, R (RCA pin type), Individual Out A, B (1/4″ phone type), Digital Out (coaxial), USB, CTL 1/2 jack(1/4″ TRS phone type), CTL 3/4(EXP Pedal) jack (1/4″ TRS phone type), MIDI In, Out, AC Adaptor jack

Front: Phones (stereo 1/4″ phone type), Guitar/Bass Input (1/4″ phone type)

Power Supply
AC Adaptor (BOSS BRC series)
Current Draw
600 mA (Max)

Owner’s Manual, DR-880 Driver CD-ROM

If you need something a little more versatile for live stage shows, check out the Akai XR20 Drum Machine, which I’ll save for another review.