Roland TR-626

Advantages: Good early digital drum machine, with good good sampled sounds
Disadvantages: Doesn't have up to the minute 'hip' sounds

...being in production no more), roland released the 626 around '87, as a first digital machine that uses sampled sounds of drums as opposed to the analogue of yesteryear. For uses as a travelling drum machine it is well suited, as it will pump out good authentic sounds for the travelling musician to use. It is also quite good in studio production, but nowadays can't be the no. 1 choice of a producer/musician. It has just 3 snares, and only one of ...
...too 80's to be fashionable. There is a nice smooth rim shot that is quite useful, as well as a classic hand clap (probably the first one to be sampled!) It has quite a good control system, good at changing the pitch, volume, shuffle, and other good features. You can use midi connections to which is useful. It is quite reasonably priced so it can be recommended for someone wanted a mid range machine to start with ... Read review