■ Overview
The drum is quite sturdy with metal case and wood end pieces. Although bulky, it not so big compared to mighty linn drum. The color is quite ugly with dark brown, but the interface is quite clear: 2 numerical displays not much fancy here... some nice sliders for volume for each 12 sounds aboard with relative pads (no velocity) and programming section.
■Sounds
The machine offers twelve sounds: bass drum, snare, rim-shot snare, high, mid and low toms, open and closed hi-hats, crash cymbal, claps, block and cowbell. These are stored into 2732 with scrambled data (shame on you!). You cannot edit them much but overall pitch, which is the second shame upon this machine.
I do ignore the resolution and rate, but due to eprom tiny size and maybe companded it would be an 8 bits.
■ Sequencer
You can record real time with metronome (with individual volume and out) selecting the wished LENGTH bar. There are 99 patterns that can be chained into classic songs (same up to 99). Your work can be saved to tape out (tape or wav, whatever). There are some Midi kit available, but the sequencer is quite nice, but the strange SHIFT (kind of Oberheim SHUFFLE) managed by the infamous NE555.
■SYNC
External square feed at 24ppq Roland style, bidirectional, ratio cannot be changed.
Tempo 40-250 range
■ Connection
- Two main outs, individual out for everything.
- TAPE IN and OUT (used for sync)
- Pedal input for start and Accent
- two molex connectors for trigger in (did not figure it out if it works with +5V or short to GND) and another for future expansion . Wow, when?