I had a DR660. Traded it for a Commodore 64c around 2005, and kind of regret it.

It had both live recording and a step by step mode. Pretty straightforward machine.

It had some arranger features though, didn't it?

Yeah. You could set up different patterns and then arrange those patterns into a song through the song mode.

Right, it had pattern sequencing, but I mean an arranger in the formal "programmable auto accompaniment" sense of the word, where you could not just sequence patterns like a conventional sequencer or drum machine, but also reharmonize them like an arranger keyboard or the Yamaha QY10 or Band In A Box. I thought that was its big, dubious selling point over the regular Dr. Rhythm series.

Also, aren't the pads tuned/laid out in a guitar tablature arrangement? I remember that being part of the marketing too.

I don't know about that.

I'll take it, I've been looking for that mid 90s Boss sound lately.

I'd trade you a nice Mattel Synsonics Drums with the box and the capacitor mod from the service manual to make it (relatively) less noisy.

And a set of batteries since I don't have the AC adapter.

You know how to contact me if you're interested.

90s drum machines have a unique sound, just not a versatile one. They tried too hard to sound realistic leaving something that felt fake while losing the charming crunch that 80s drum machines had.

Yeah, I'm game. I just have to find it. Assuming it's where I think it is, I can ship it out at the end of this month.

I miss my Synsonics Drums. It went missing in the mid-eighties and I never found out exactly what happened. I think a friend stole it and sold it for drug money.

Sweet. They're in great shape, the only issue is I had to peel off the little metal plates that have the labels for the jacks on them when I opened it up to mod it and fix the one problem it had* and they got a little bent. Which is a shame because it looked like new before that.


Anyhow, if you find it hit me up o the Google group.












*I got a deal on it because one of the little rubber shock absorbers that the pads sit on had slipped so when you hit the lower left pad hard it also triggered the lower right one - that doesn't happen anymore, although I'd suggest you further mod it sometime to add trigger inputs so you can control it from real pads or an analog sequencer - that was my plan but I still haven't built my Midibox sequencer and I'm kind of moving away from sequencing and back to just tracking stuff live).