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 release | 1992 |
| Polyphony | 12-note |
| Number of drum sounds | 91 |
| Display | Yes |
| Preset Patterns | 64 preset and 64 user |
| Songs | 8 (max of 160 measures) |
| Pads | Twelve pads |
| Pads respond to velocity | |
| Pads respond to aftertouch | |
| Sound generation method | PCM |
| MIDI | In |
| Sound expansion capabilities | No |
| Outputs | Stereo outs; headphone out |
| Effects | No |
| Controls | buttons |
| Pedal controls | Yes |
| Tape Sync | No |
| Power | AC 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