Boss Doctor Rhythm DR-110
Encyclopedia
The Boss
Doctor Rhythm DR-110 Graphic is a drum machine
, produced by the Boss product division of the Japan
ese Roland Corporation
in 1983.
Boss were better known for producing electric guitar
accessories such as effects pedals, and the DR-110 is similarly small and lightweight in size (190×110×30mm, and only 450g), and like most Boss equipment, could be run from a 9V
d.c.
supply or batteries
.
Although not designed as a high-end studio
product, it nonetheless featured some noticeable advances in technology compared to previous Roland drum machines: it had an LCD graphic display, showing a step-programming grid for the various drum voices, and allowed the drum sounds to be played manually from rubber pads (as well as programmed).
Like all Roland's previous drum machines, the DR-110's voices used analogue
voice circuits.
Tempo
was continuously variable between 45 and 300 bpm.
The DR-110 used a 4-bit
Hitachi
HD33790A44 CMOS
microprocessor
and 1KB
of μPD444C RAM
memory.
As with most previous Roland drum machines, the bass and snare voices were generated by a "damped tuned resonance
" oscillators. The cymbals and hi-hats were created by VCA
-shaping and band-pass filter
ing a combination of white noise
and four non-harmonic
ally related square wave
oscillators (generating a much more relatistic sound than white noise alone). The clap sound only used shaped white noise, but was triggered by a multiple pulse train, to create a reverberation
effect.
No tonal variation of the voices was possible, however (as with several earlier Roland drum machines), the relative balance between the bass and snare drums versus the hi-hat and cymbal.
An accent
(volume increase) could also be added on any pattern step. The amount of accent was globally variable with a knob.
The DR-110 also has two "song" memories, each of which allows you to chain together up to 128 bars of patterns.
Use of battery power enabled these memories to retain their contents which the DR-110 was switched off.
duration), via a 3.5mm mini-jack, to allow other slave units (e.g. arpeggiators) to synchronize to its tempo.
The DR-110 has a 10kΩ impedance
unbalanced
mono
audio output, available on an ¼" TRS jack socket. The TRS socket was configured as the "Roland P-bus", which meant it also could be used as a simultaneous audio input, the input source being mixed with the output signal.
A separate 3.5mm headphone output socket was also present.
Test Mode: Press and hold down the Start and Stop buttons when you turn on your unit. The entire LED screen show. Press your blue buttons one at the time, a big OK appear in the programming grid after last button. Turn off and then on to exit test mode and go back to normal mode.
Boss Corporation
Boss is a manufacturer of effects pedals for electric guitar and bass guitar. It is a division of the Roland Corporation, a Japanese manufacturer that specializes in musical equipment and accessories...
Doctor Rhythm DR-110 Graphic is a drum machine
Drum machine
A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument designed to imitate the sound of drums or other percussion instruments. They are used in a variety of musical genres, not just purely electronic music...
, produced by the Boss product division of the Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese Roland Corporation
Roland Corporation
is a Japanese manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, electronic equipment and software. It was founded by Ikutaro Kakehashi in Osaka on April 18, 1972, with ¥33 million in capital. In 2005 Roland's headquarters relocated to Hamamatsu in Shizuoka Prefecture. Today it has factories in Japan,...
in 1983.
Boss were better known for producing electric guitar
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
accessories such as effects pedals, and the DR-110 is similarly small and lightweight in size (190×110×30mm, and only 450g), and like most Boss equipment, could be run from a 9V
Volt
The volt is the SI derived unit for electric potential, electric potential difference, and electromotive force. The volt is named in honor of the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta , who invented the voltaic pile, possibly the first chemical battery.- Definition :A single volt is defined as the...
d.c.
Direct current
Direct current is the unidirectional flow of electric charge. Direct current is produced by such sources as batteries, thermocouples, solar cells, and commutator-type electric machines of the dynamo type. Direct current may flow in a conductor such as a wire, but can also flow through...
supply or batteries
Battery (electricity)
An electrical battery is one or more electrochemical cells that convert stored chemical energy into electrical energy. Since the invention of the first battery in 1800 by Alessandro Volta and especially since the technically improved Daniell cell in 1836, batteries have become a common power...
.
Although not designed as a high-end studio
Recording studio
A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic properties...
product, it nonetheless featured some noticeable advances in technology compared to previous Roland drum machines: it had an LCD graphic display, showing a step-programming grid for the various drum voices, and allowed the drum sounds to be played manually from rubber pads (as well as programmed).
Like all Roland's previous drum machines, the DR-110's voices used analogue
Analog synthesizer
An analog or analogue synthesizer is a synthesizer that uses analog circuits and analog computer techniques to generate sound electronically. The earliest analog synthesizers in the 1920s and 1930s such as the Trautonium were built with a variety of vacuum-tube and electro-mechanical technologies...
voice circuits.
Tempo
Tempo
In musical terminology, tempo is the speed or pace of a given piece. Tempo is a crucial element of any musical composition, as it can affect the mood and difficulty of a piece.-Measuring tempo:...
was continuously variable between 45 and 300 bpm.
The DR-110 used a 4-bit
Bit
A bit is the basic unit of information in computing and telecommunications; it is the amount of information stored by a digital device or other physical system that exists in one of two possible distinct states...
Hitachi
Hitachi, Ltd.
is a Japanese multinational conglomerate headquartered in Marunouchi 1-chome, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The company is the parent of the Hitachi Group as part of the larger DKB Group companies...
HD33790A44 CMOS
CMOS
Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor is a technology for constructing integrated circuits. CMOS technology is used in microprocessors, microcontrollers, static RAM, and other digital logic circuits...
microprocessor
Microprocessor
A microprocessor incorporates the functions of a computer's central processing unit on a single integrated circuit, or at most a few integrated circuits. It is a multipurpose, programmable device that accepts digital data as input, processes it according to instructions stored in its memory, and...
and 1KB
Kilobyte
The kilobyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. Although the prefix kilo- means 1000, the term kilobyte and symbol KB have historically been used to refer to either 1024 bytes or 1000 bytes, dependent upon context, in the fields of computer science and information...
of μPD444C RAM
Ram
-Animals:*Ram, an uncastrated male sheep*Ram cichlid, a species of freshwater fish endemic to Colombia and Venezuela-Military:*Battering ram*Ramming, a military tactic in which one vehicle runs into another...
memory.
Drum sounds
The DR-110's six drum voices were:- bass drumBass drumBass drums are percussion instruments that can vary in size and are used in several musical genres. Three major types of bass drums can be distinguished. The type usually seen or heard in orchestral, ensemble or concert band music is the orchestral, or concert bass drum . It is the largest drum of...
- snare drumSnare drumThe snare drum or side drum is a melodic percussion instrument with strands of snares made of curled metal wire, metal cable, plastic cable, or gut cords stretched across the drumhead, typically the bottom. Pipe and tabor and some military snare drums often have a second set of snares on the bottom...
- open hi hat
- closed hi hat
- hand clapClappingA clap is the sound made by striking together two flat surfaces, as in the body parts of humans or animals. Humans clap with the palms of their hands, often in a constant drone to express appreciation or approval , but also in rhythm to match sounds in music and dance...
- cymbalCymbalCymbals are a common percussion instrument. Cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys; see cymbal making for a discussion of their manufacture. The greater majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs sound a...
As with most previous Roland drum machines, the bass and snare voices were generated by a "damped tuned resonance
Resonance
In physics, resonance is the tendency of a system to oscillate at a greater amplitude at some frequencies than at others. These are known as the system's resonant frequencies...
" oscillators. The cymbals and hi-hats were created by VCA
Variable-gain amplifier
A variable-gain or voltage-controlled amplifier is an electronic amplifier that varies its gain depending on a control voltage .VCAs have many applications, including audio level compression, synthesizers and amplitude modulation....
-shaping and band-pass filter
Band-pass filter
A band-pass filter is a device that passes frequencies within a certain range and rejects frequencies outside that range.Optical band-pass filters are of common usage....
ing a combination of white noise
White noise
White noise is a random signal with a flat power spectral density. In other words, the signal contains equal power within a fixed bandwidth at any center frequency...
and four non-harmonic
Harmonic
A harmonic of a wave is a component frequency of the signal that is an integer multiple of the fundamental frequency, i.e. if the fundamental frequency is f, the harmonics have frequencies 2f, 3f, 4f, . . . etc. The harmonics have the property that they are all periodic at the fundamental...
ally related square wave
Square wave
A square wave is a kind of non-sinusoidal waveform, most typically encountered in electronics and signal processing. An ideal square wave alternates regularly and instantaneously between two levels...
oscillators (generating a much more relatistic sound than white noise alone). The clap sound only used shaped white noise, but was triggered by a multiple pulse train, to create a reverberation
Reverberation
Reverberation is the persistence of sound in a particular space after the original sound is removed. A reverberation, or reverb, is created when a sound is produced in an enclosed space causing a large number of echoes to build up and then slowly decay as the sound is absorbed by the walls and air...
effect.
No tonal variation of the voices was possible, however (as with several earlier Roland drum machines), the relative balance between the bass and snare drums versus the hi-hat and cymbal.
An accent
Accent (music)
In music, an accent is an emphasis placed on a particular note,either as a result of its context or specifically indicated by an accent mark.Accents contribute to the articulation and prosody of a performance of a musical phrase....
(volume increase) could also be added on any pattern step. The amount of accent was globally variable with a knob.
Rhythm patterns
The DR-110 offered 16 preset patterns, and 16 memory locations for the user to program their own patterns. Each pattern could be divided into 16 or 12 steps.The DR-110 also has two "song" memories, each of which allows you to chain together up to 128 bars of patterns.
Use of battery power enabled these memories to retain their contents which the DR-110 was switched off.
Interfacing
The DR-110 could output a "V-trig" clock pulse (+6V, 10msMillisecond
A millisecond is a thousandth of a second.10 milliseconds are called a centisecond....
duration), via a 3.5mm mini-jack, to allow other slave units (e.g. arpeggiators) to synchronize to its tempo.
The DR-110 has a 10kΩ impedance
Electrical impedance
Electrical impedance, or simply impedance, is the measure of the opposition that an electrical circuit presents to the passage of a current when a voltage is applied. In quantitative terms, it is the complex ratio of the voltage to the current in an alternating current circuit...
unbalanced
Balanced audio
Balanced audio is a method of interconnecting audio equipment using impedance-balanced lines. This type of connection is very important in sound recording and production because it allows for the use of long cables while reducing susceptibility to external noise.Balanced connections use...
mono
Monaural
Monaural or monophonic sound reproduction is single-channel. Typically there is only one microphone, one loudspeaker, or channels are fed from a common signal path...
audio output, available on an ¼" TRS jack socket. The TRS socket was configured as the "Roland P-bus", which meant it also could be used as a simultaneous audio input, the input source being mixed with the output signal.
A separate 3.5mm headphone output socket was also present.
Test Mode: Press and hold down the Start and Stop buttons when you turn on your unit. The entire LED screen show. Press your blue buttons one at the time, a big OK appear in the programming grid after last button. Turn off and then on to exit test mode and go back to normal mode.