WE SAY

The Korg DDD-5 is one of the new breed of preset/programmable digital drumboxes, with straight and latin sounds, programmable tuning, and a host of other useful facilities. You'd never believe it, given the DDD-5's manual.

This 64 page volume is a classic of obfuscatory prose, purporting to explain the comprehensive and complicated workings of the DDD-5, while actually acting as a deterrent to the would-be user. How can you play the bloody thing if you don't understand how it works? Excuse me while I just bang my head on the desk.

The DDD-5 is really two separate drum machines in one, preset or programmable, with interchangeable front panels which detail the functions of each mode. Common to both are the drum sounds, and their arrangement into any one of six different 'kits'. Amongst the 29 onboard sounds are three bass drums and three snares (including big boomy gated settings), toms, latin percussion, and sampled bass guitar. Each of these sounds is individually alterable from beat to beat for tuning, pan, level, and decay, giving the programmer (me) extremely close control over the dynamics of the drum patterns.

Tuning allows pitch change of around an octave - but take care, as some of the sounds become distinctly grubby when shifted around (unless you detune fully to 000, when for some reason, the digital noise disappears; a damping circuit?).

Preset mode offers 24 basic patterns, from Rock, Rap and Heavy Metal, via Ballads, jazz, and R&B to the more esoteric Mambo and Merengue latino types. Confusingly these presets are referred to as 'Songs', and each comes with useful Intro and Fill Patterns, unsurprisingly activated by the Intro/Fill button. The preset patterns and fills can subsequently be arranged into more complex structures called Combinations (normal persons might prefer 'songs', but Korg already used that). Combinations allow you to compose a 'thing' with two different main rhythm parts joined by a drum fill. You swop between the patterns bv hitting the Intro button. Another excellent addition is the Ending facility, which will terminate your preset with a suitably drummy fill. For the soloist, all these beezer goodies are controllable by footswitch (not supplied).

The programmable operation of the DDD-5 offers few surprises, but great versatility: tempo memorising, a flam button, a roll button, a tap tempo controller. Song (as in song) writing and pattern writing is simple, and the control the DDD-5 gives over individual drum sounds is quite astonishing.

DECISION

Big thumbs up, really, even though it is horribly complicated. I wasn't entirely happy with the sounds when I'd fiddled with them, but RAM and ROM cards give plenty of alternative noises, and I was listening to them in isolation. Basically, the DDD-5 is as good and as realistic as you're prepared to make it - it requires effort from the user to learn the intricacies of the machine, but that effort is repaid by the added dynamism of the drum patterns you can write. Watch for competition from the Kawai R50, though.

KORG DDD-5 DIGITAL DRUM MACHINE £499