Weird Portable Music Stations of the 80's & 90's pt1.

By the 1980's and 1990's, technological development had lead to instruments that were not only become more sophisticated, but also more compact. Objects began to appear that fulfilled multiple music roles; tone generation, sequencing, effects and even sampling - all of these smushed into a little black box.

1994's DR-5 is such a device and, at around £70-100, I feel is well worth the price of entry - lets take a closer a look.

Bang a Drum

The 90's BOSS units, DR-550, DR-660 and indeed the DR-5, draw from a rich pool of BOSS/Roland samples. The DR-5 contains many waveforms lifted directly from the legendary Roland R8 (1989) and that machine's expansion cards. This means, at worst - you can write MIDI stadium rock with big (albeit static) gated snares, or charming shoulder-pad pop pastiches.

At best, the machine's big sounding drums (Mondo Kick, Fat Snare!) are perfect for Industrial music - in which static machine beats are a feature, not a bug. The non-drum instruments consist of mainly basses & guitars - but there's the odd synth sound like "Soundtrack" or "Orchestra Hit"! There's little editability, but the "stock" nature of these sounds give instant low-budget TV thriller vibes, which definitely draws my affection. A number of 808/909 & CR78 sounds are onboard too, though these sound a little too clean and could benefit from further processing.

Weird Science

If the DR-5 ended there, we'd have a fairly dull, workhorse proposition - the equivalent of a MIDI drum machine (there's a fairly advanced sequencer) mixed with a Roland Soundcanvas module - but here's where things get weird.

Firstly, the non-velocity sensitive pads were laid out like a guitar fretboard - as a guitarist, I've long talked about the many happy accidents that can happen when open strings are played against experimental chord shapes, so as a little MIDI writing tool, it's fantastic. This video, complete with Marshall amp stack, ashtray and beer belching, speaks to the DR-5's legacy as a guitar-oriented device.

But perhaps the weirdest thing about the DR-5, it's most distinctive feature - is the monophonic pitch tracker! One may plug a guitar (or bass, apparently!) into the device, take advantage of some extremely basic "amp modelling" and optionally, control the onboard drum or melodic tones with your guitar playing. It's monophonic, it's volume sensitive, it's laggy, it's glitchy - but by gosh I must use it on a track - I wonder if it will trigger with vocals?

That's all for today. Join me next time for a Yamaha device that's just as odd!

Cover image guitar: https://www.andertons.co.uk/jackson-pro-series-josh-smith-soloist-sl7-et-electric-guitar-aquamarine/

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