Bad Gear - Boss DR-202 - Dirtiest Drum Machine of all Time

[Music] [Music] welcome to bad gear the show about the world's most hated audio tools roland's impact on modern music history cannot be overestimated bringing fx units to the mainstream defining the sound of hip-hop r b techno and house and last but not least taking care that this channel will never run out of gear to review today we are going to talk about the dr groove dr202 released by roland's alter ego boss in the year 1998. this literal drum and bass machine is part of the dr rhythm range and while most of the other members of that product family were released as serious and arguably a bit bland jamming partners for guitar players and songwriters the dr202 is loaded with samples for dark and dubious 90s dance floors i'm in at the first glance the dr202 is ticking all the this would be the matrix drum machine if the matrix was red boxes plenty of rubber pads some of them backlit some of them not a bunch of real time controls the jog dial is really nice and as it is of course tradition the display and abomination the 207 lo-fi drum sounds can be pitched and arranged in two kits with 13 sounds each hip-hop [Music] jungle and drum and bass [Music] four to the floor stuff and a few more conservative drum hits there's an eclectic collection of 49 even more lo-fi bass sounds as well [Music] all this can be triggered using an easy to use pattern-based sequencer straightforward quantization a maximum pattern length of 8 bars portamento for the base real time and step mode cool the real-time modifiers can be applied to all instruments [Music] drums and to every instrument separately yes that's right there's a filter and basic envelope for every single part of your kit don't expect the sound quality and versatility of a real synth though [Music] these tweaks can be recorded to patterns [Music] i like the very dje reverb delay flanger fx and the base region of your grooves can be inflated beyond the reason by boosting lows [Music] and eliminated by cutting them dr202 offers surprisingly complex roll patterns muting and unmuting parts is a bit confusing and you can add groove quantization to your patterns [Music] as we are talking about a piece of late 90s dance music gear the rca and mini jack connectors don't come as a surprise the unit can be powered using an fx pedal wall wart or batteries midi implementation is slightly janky and yeah there's a song mode keep in mind that the machine is very noisy and the workflow is not without flaws dr202s are not as rare as you might think and prices are okayish the boss dr202 is a stylish low budget retro drum machine with plenty of dirty low-fi sounds maybe a bit too dirty and low-fi by today's standards you have already heard dr groove in today's intro tune the drums are fat but also a bit spongy and the base samples are no substitute for real synth i would say the green and black design of the ira range is a nice visual counterpoint [Music] now that's a massive low end the roll functionality lets you create complex patterns fast but the non-velocity sensitive pads are limitation when it comes to programming dynamic grooves however it would take me a little more time to actually get good at using the dr202 anyway time to take a shortcut here and add the beatstep pro to the equation [Music] if you are searching for a drum machine that sounds like a trap kit recorded to aid in a filthy basement rehearsal space look no further the raw output of the dr202 always sounds well kinda raw i wanna know if we can make it sound like a record in this future jungle retro drum and bass post structuralist break beat pacifier [Music] do [Music] verdict the boss dr202 is indeed a very dirty drum machine i like the underlying sample library but quite similar to its sampling sibling the instrument seems like it was hastily put together during the late 90s hype around affordable groove machine what is more the overall sound is a bit blurry and the filter resonance sounds awful when pushed too hard which brings us back to the almost rhetorical question can you make it sound like a record i would say yes if it's a very nineties and very dirty sounding record thanks for watching and see you next time hey guys i hope you enjoyed the episode feel free to like subscribe become a patron and leave a comment what other kind of gear you would like to see and hear on the show

Channel: AudioPilz

Views: 17,174

Keywords: bad gear, boss dr-202, dirtiest drum machine of all time, boss dr. groove, boss dr. rhythm, roland dr. rhythm, drum machine, 90s techno, 90s music, drum'n'bass, jungle, hip-hop, best drum machine for hip-hop, akira (1988), dance voldo dance, nelly - hot in herre, soulcalibur, digital drum machine, rave, dr. groove, meme video, music production, electronic music

Id: wLdiCuo9CrA

Length: 9min 0sec (540 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 17 2021