The Boss DR-550 Mark II : My Favorite Drum Machine

In this video I take a look at my all-time favorite drum machine. This is the Boss DR 550 Mark II. I bought this brand new back in 1992. I have used it on hundreds of recordings.
Now, I am not trying to suggest that this is the BEST drum machine ever made. No, it is simply my personal favorite. In this video I tell you why I love this drum machine so much.
What I love about this machine is the huge range of sounds within. You can use this for pretty much any style of music: rock, pop, metal, techno, country, ethnic, latin, the list goes on and on. The sounds are very crisp and very usable. Up until not that long ago, this thing never let me down. I could always count on it for great results.
However, over the last few years it has really started to show its age. It has fallen victim to the dreaded "sticky pad syndrome", which I covered in an earlier video. I plan to crack this thing open and give it a good overhaul, and try to remedy the sticky pad problem. But that will be a future video. This one is more of a general introduction to this drum machine.
You can program your own patterns, which you can then put together to form songs. Data storage was external (to cassette tape) and it only offered MIDI In, so it would always have to be at the end of a chain of gear. It was small, light and portable. It featured many classic sounds from its distant cousins the Roland TR 808 and the TR 909. It had spaces for original patterns, and there were also some good presets.
This thing was also very affordable, even by 1992 standards. I think I paid less than $500 for it, taxes included. You could run it through an adapter, or you could use 6 AA batteries. You had limited editing ability, and you could assign the sounds to any pad or any drum set that you wished.
Again, I swore by this drum machine for decades, and it very rarely disappointed me. It's a shame that it is really showing its age, but I think with some TLC I can get it back to very good working condition.
Have you ever used this drum machine? What do you think of it? Do you still own one? What is your favorite drum machine? Do you like Boss products? Feel free to leave a comment!
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