Korg ER1 as a MIDI Sequencer

The Korg ER-1 is a great little machine, and one of the first pieces of kit I ever owned. It has a built in sequencer for saving up to 256 beats. Each of the pads can trigger MIDI notes, so I hooked the MIDI OUT up to a synthesizer to see what would happen... Second part of the video has the AUDIO IN from the synth running into the ER1. Slight issue in that INPUT 1 not only allows the audio to be triggered...but it also triggers a MIDI note.

Korg DDD-5 Drum Machine

Another 1980s drum machine, this time from Korg - the DDD-5. It features nice 1980s drum sounds, and the best velocity sensitive pads I`ve ever used...unsurpassed imo. Each drum pad has two sounds, selected by pressing the `shift` button.

Roland R8 Drum Machine

An absolute beast of a drum machine, in both stature and sound. None of the sample kits you hear of this thing ever sound quite as punchy. The 16 assignable pads are exceptionally sensitive, and the quantity of built in sounds is (was) staggering. It has two input slots for sound expansion cards; I personally had the Jazz Kit `SN R8 05` but it wasn`t used in this video.

One of the best features is the `flam` button which triggers multiple hits for each press of the pad, the rate of which could be altered. It is no wonder that this machine was used on many a seminal 90s dance album.

It also features the best loading screen ever seen on any music equipment: 

Boss DR-550 Drum Machine

The Boss DR-550 drum machine, controlled via MIDI clock from Cubase. It`s not the best drum machine in the world (No MIDI out) but does at least feature some authentic sounding 808 and 909 kits.