Drum Machines Have No Soul

Drum machine

BOSS DR-220E Dr. Rhythm

The silver DR-220E shares its compact body with the DR-220A but speaks in a different voice.

The digital drum boom →
BOSS DR-220 pair: electronic DR-220E above, acoustic DR-220A below.November 1986 · Making Music / mu:zinesSource & credit ↗

BOSS dates the DR-220E from 1986 to 1990. The shared DR-220A/E service notes appeared in October 1986, and Jon Lewin reviewed the pair in November.

Sources (6)
  1. Open source 1 ↗
  2. Open source 2 ↗
  3. Open source 3 ↗
  4. Open source 4 ↗
  5. Open source 5 ↗
  6. Open source 6 ↗

Source-led exhibition chapter

BOSS DR-220E: The other half of the little kit

In the 1986 photograph, the DR-220E rides above the DR-220A. They look like variants of one instrument, and in the hands they worked much alike: portable body, compact keys, a small display, 32 supplied patterns and 32 places to make new ones. The distinction is in the voice set. BOSS offered one box for acoustic-style drums, then this one for electronic percussion. The E was a musical choice, not simply a colour change.

The factory documentation lists electronic kick, snare and tom voices alongside metal and percussion colours such as cowbell, China cymbal, Cup and Slap. Naming them is more useful than promising that they all sounded futuristic. A listener can imagine how a pair of related machines might divide the work: familiar timekeeping in the A, harder punctuation or stranger fills in the E. A later listener can also use the E alone. It was a complete drum machine, not an expansion card for its companion.

Silent trigger study

A rimshot or cowbell sends a pulse.

A → E

The A's rimshot can send the documented trigger pulse to the E.

E → A

The E's cowbell can send the documented trigger pulse to the A.

Not MIDI

A TR-707 can drive either unit by trigger; a MIDI-output TR-505 requires conversion.

This is a connection explanation, not timing or sound emulation.

One pattern, a different vocabulary

The shared owner's manual meant the E's programming did not require a second language. A player could tap a part or use the sixteen-step display to place and revise it, then collect patterns into songs. The common workflow left the voice set as the decisive difference.

Jon Lewin's November 1986 review gives a vivid contemporary response to the electronic set. He heard the kick, snare and toms as strikingly different from the A's acoustic kit, and singled out the sharper miscellaneous voices. That is a critic's listening experience.

When the two met

Lewin also described connecting the two machines through their trigger sockets to make a hybrid kit. He identified the output event as the A's rimshot or the E's cowbell. The chosen hit could carry both a musical role in one pattern and a timing role for the other unit.

The distinction between trigger and MIDI matters here. Lewin said a TR-707 could drive either unit with a suitable trigger, while a MIDI-output TR-505 required conversion before it could do the same. The pair belonged to a moment when small rigs were assembled across different control languages.

The November review's £165 recommended retail and a later market survey show how modest size met a real buying decision. In Lewin's judgment the sound and simplicity were impressive, but the price was less comfortably in beginner territory. That counterpoint makes the chapter more credible than treating the E as a universal bargain. Its value depended on whether the electronic voices were the ones a musician wanted.

A photograph of a family

The period photograph places the electronic E above the acoustic A. Their matching outlines made the difference less obvious than their names and sounds: two small instruments offering different kinds of kit.

The E's recording history remains thinner than the A's. An equipment index reports Aeroplane in a video, but the underlying clip has not been inspected. That unverified lead does not yet establish a recording credit. The more grounded history is already substantial: an electronic voice set in a tiny programmable machine, sharing a language and a trigger path with an acoustic sibling. The pair leaves the question a buyer faced in 1986: which half of the kit did you want to carry?

Open the DR-220A companion chapter ↗

The machine in the record

Aeroplane / a video sighting.

A published gear entry reports Aeroplane using a BOSS DR-220E in a video. The video itself remains to be checked, and no track is claimed. It is a lead in plain view: enough to guide the reader to a documented sighting, not enough to turn into studio mythology.

Read Aeroplane’s BOSS DR-220E use ↗

More records in the archive

The machine keeps turning up.

A close view of Chris Carter’s modular patch in the TipTop Boss performance film.
A still from Chris Carter’s 2010 “TipTop Boss” performance film. His accompanying description names the BOSS DR-220E as the patch’s audio source and trigger; the still shows the modular system, not the drum machine.

Chris Carter / the TipTop DR-220E patch

Carter identifies the DR-220E as both audio source and trigger in a documented modular performance patch.

Read Chris Carter’s Boss DR-220E patch ↗
Cover artwork for Slow Danse With The Dead — I Dance Alone.
Slow Danse With The Dead — I Dance Alone: retained artwork identifies the release or source-recording context, not a machine, session or sound allocation.

Slow Danse With The Dead / I Dance Alone

Slow Danse With The Dead credit a 1980s BOSS DR-220E as the drums on “I Dance Alone”, putting the small analogue box plainly in the song’s coldwave pulse.

Read Slow Danse With The Dead — I Dance Alone ↗
Cover artwork for Keith Seatman — Consistently Mediocre and Daydreams.
Keith Seatman — Consistently Mediocre and Daydreams: retained artwork identifies the release or source-recording context, not a machine, session or sound allocation.

Keith Seatman / Consistently Mediocre and Daydreams

Keith Seatman’s release credits list a BOSS DR-220E among the instruments used on Consistently Mediocre and Daydreams.

Read Keith Seatman — Consistently Mediocre and Daydreams ↗
01 // Standard

The electronic half of the pair

The silver DR-220E shares its compact body with the DR-220A but speaks in a different voice. Its factory sound list centres on electronic kick, snare and toms, then makes room for cowbell, Slap, China cymbal and Cup. The choice was clear at the counter: acoustic-style kit sounds in the A, sharper synthetic colour in the E.

Source (1)
  1. Open source 1 ↗

02 // Standard

Two boxes, one hybrid kit

Jon Lewin enjoyed the contrast between the machines and described linking their trigger connections to combine acoustic and electronic parts. The pair could work like a small expanded kit, each contributing its own sound set. To connect them with a MIDI-equipped source such as a TR-505, he used a MIDI-to-trigger conversion — a revealing snapshot of how mixed rigs were assembled in 1986.

Source (1)
  1. Open source 1 ↗

03 // Standard

A shared working method

Both DR-220 models use the same pattern-and-song approach, supplied with a common owner’s manual. Battery-backed memory keeps the player’s patterns alive between sessions, making the electronic version a practical writing partner as well as a voice module.

Source (1)
  1. Open source 1 ↗

04 // Standard

A compact electronic option

The DR-220E’s significance is in the separation of sound worlds. BOSS did not make one machine with a cosmetic choice of presets; it offered two companion instruments whose different voices could be played apart or brought together.

Sources (2)
  1. Open source 1 ↗
  2. Open source 2 ↗

05 // Standard

Aeroplane, reported on video

A gear index reports that Aeroplane used a DR-220E in a YouTube video. The underlying clip still needs direct inspection, so this belongs in the machine’s story as a reported sighting rather than a finished-record credit. It is enough, for now, to point towards a musician keeping the electronic model in view.

Source (1)
  1. Open source 1 ↗

MUSIC HISTORY

In the market

  • 1986-11: GBP 165 — UK review RRP. One DR-220A or DR-220E; review package unspecified Source ↗

On record

  • Aeroplane — Video-documented use; individual recording not named. An Equipboard artist-usage entry identifies Aeroplane using a BOSS DR-220E in a YouTube video. Source ↗
  • Chris Carter — the TipTop DR-220E patch. Carter identifies the DR-220E as both audio source and trigger in a documented modular performance patch. Source ↗
  • Slow Danse With The Dead — I Dance Alone. Slow Danse With The Dead credit a 1980s BOSS DR-220E as the drums on “I Dance Alone”, putting the small analogue box plainly in the song’s coldwave pulse. Source ↗
  • Keith Seatman — Consistently Mediocre and Daydreams. Keith Seatman’s release credits list a BOSS DR-220E among the instruments used on Consistently Mediocre and Daydreams. Source ↗

Sources

  1. Model age and repair support table
  2. Drum Machine Survey
  3. Roland Digital Doctors: Boss DR220A and 220E Drum Machines
  4. DR-220A/E Service Notes, First Edition
  5. DR-220A/E Owner’s Manual
  6. Aeroplane’s BOSS DR-220E use

The visual archive

Further visual evidence.

Sources for images shown earlier (4)
Additional visual sources (2)

Original publications and related image sources.

Machine Museum image viewer

Period image shown in the dossier.