THIS IS ONE of the cheapest drum machines currently available. Also one of the ugliest. And it boasts a list of facilities which is little short of amazing. These include interchangeable sounds, extensive programming options, MIDI... and a 32-character LCD, otherwise known as a big, friendly electronic display. Plus, with the optional extra of a trigger interface and a set of pads (also made by Cheetah), the MD8 forms the basis of a complete electronic drum system.

The machine comes loaded with eight digitally sampled sounds: bass, snare, two toms, open and closed hi-hat, crash cymbal and claps. These can easily be swapped with a whole range of others available from an expanding library of low-cost data cassettes. The choice here covers everything from different types of acoustic basses and snares, through the "pew-pew" variety of electronic drums, to more off-the-wall sounds like "Tick", "Tock", "Clank" and "Clunk" from the so-called "Metal Work" collection. Any combination of voices can be installed, subject to memory limitation (60K). Loading from tape is a slow business, though, particularly with longer sounds.

In terms of sound quality, most of the voices are pretty good. Some sounds fall into the category of rough and ready, but the important thing is that they give the machine a definite character, and as anyone into hip-hop will know, character can often be more crucial than ultimate quality. In any case, each voice can be routed to one of four separate audio outputs, so if you've got an external mixer (like the ones built into four-track cassette machines, for example) and some effects units, there's a lot you can do to clean up and enhance the sounds.

On the programming side, you can tap in as many as 99 patterns, in either real time or step time. So you can use your own natural sense of rhythm to get the beat in motion (real time) or simply touch the buttons in the order you want the sounds to appear, and forget about time-keeping (step time). Either way, if you have the optional interface you have a further choice of hitting the buttons on the MD8's front panel or striking external pads - the latter is obviously preferable if you have any experience of actually playing drums.

For each rhythm pattern you program, you can set a different amount of "quantization". In step time, quantization determines the number of steps in a pattern and, set at maximum, allows very detailed programming. In real time, it acts as a useful auto-correct device to ensure your programming is strictly in time. So your banging and thrashing needn't be quite as accurate after all.

Although you can't adjust the individual level of each drum sound, a programming function called Track Assignment lets you alter both the volume and the stereo position of different voices within each pattern. A series of demonstration songs shows how this can be used, but in practice it's a complex and time-consuming process; to get the most out of it, you need to do a lot of careful pre-planning. And if you're new to drum machines, the simplistic manual doesn't help much, either.

Once you've got your basic drum patterns sorted out, combinations of them can be organised into up to 16 songs. Like patterns, songs can be named, which helps you keep track of your progress. A song can consist of up to 255 "steps", a step being up to 255 loops of a single pattern. As songs are playing, you can tap along and add other sounds "live" as well.

The MD8 can memorize tempo settings as part of the pattern (anywhere between 48 and 244 BPM, or Beats Per Minute) but it can't record tempo changes. In other words, if you want your song to speed up or slow down halfway through... well, it won't!

Using the demonic powers of MIDI, the MD8 will happily communicate with other machines. So you can create rhythms incorporating percussive or melodic sounds from synthesizers and samplers. Or get it to run in time with other beatboxes and sequencers, starting or stopping them as appropriate. The MD8 can also generate and respond to tape sync codes at the same time, which makes it ideal for use in small studio situations where instead of recording the drum machine on tape, you run it "live" during the final mixdown, along with recorded material.

Turning the MD8 into a complete electronic drum kit involves acquiring the Cheetah Sensitivity Module (£40) and DP5 Power Play kit (£150). The latter consists of five octagonal pads mounted on a robust and versatile rack, and since it also accepts other manufacturers' hardware, further additions to the kit can easily be incorporated. The Sensitivity Module features eight rotary controls which tailor the system to your playing style - hard, soft, or somewhere in between.

By anybody's standards, the MD8 is a remarkable machine. Simply as a beatbox it's pretty comprehensive, but it also has that rare ability to grow along with your equipment list. Proof that cheap doesn't have to mean obsolete.

CHEETAH MD8 DRUM MACHINE: £150 inc VAT

INFO: Cheetah Marketing, (Contact Details)