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Digital Drum Machine Drum Machine

BOSS DR-550 MkII Dr. Rhythm

Digital Drum Machine

The DR-550 MkII is the upgraded version of the venerable, original DR-550.  A big difference from the original model is the fact that the base ROM has been almost doubled and now features 91 drum sounds.  The machine works at 16-bit and is fairly clean and punchy.  Many of its sounds remind of its bigger sister, the Roland R-8.

Useful features include “tone color”, that allows you to modify the basic filter frequencies of each sample, and “decay”, that obviously lengthens or shortens the sample.

There are 64 preset patterns on board, and 64 more slots for your own creations.  Also, as in other drum machines in the DR-series, you can chain patterns to forms songs – In the DR-550 MkII, up to 8 songs consisting of up to 160 measures each.

A big improvement from the previous 220-series is the inclusion of a basic MIDI IN port, which allows the unit to be synchronized to a sequencer, or another drum machine.  There’s no MIDI OUT though, so in order to save your created patterns, you have to resort to the old-fashioned way of storing to cassette tape, using the tape interface.

BOSS DR-550 MkII audio demos

There are seven factory demo songs programmed in ROM, that show off the capabilities of this machine:

Boss DR-550 MkII Drum Samples (44.1MHz, stereo .wav)

BOSS DR-550 Mk II photos

BOSS DR-550 Mk II manual

Reset the Boss DR-550 Mk II

Power on while keeping pressed the “-1/<” and “>/+1” buttons; then press “Start”.

BOSS DR-550 Mk II specs

  • extremely light and portable;
  • easy to program;
  • high quality sounds.
Year of release1992
Polyphony 12-note
Number of drum sounds91
Display Yes
Preset Patterns 64 preset and 64 user
Songs8 (max of 160 measures)
Pads Twelve pads
Pads respond to velocity
Pads respond to aftertouch 
Sound generation methodPCM
MIDIIn
Sound expansion capabilitiesNo
OutputsStereo outs; headphone out
EffectsNo
Controlsbuttons
Pedal controlsYes
Tape Sync No
PowerAC adapter; batteries
Dimensions 188mm (W) x 157mm (D) x 41mm (H)
7-7/16″ (W) x 6-3/16″ (D) x 1-5/8″ (H)
Weight 510 g. / 1 lb 2 0x (including batteries)

BOSS DR-550 Mk II links

www.boss.info

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