1) MINIPOPS JR.

Typical of the first generation of standalone, organ-oriented preset rhythm boxes, the Minipops came into its own when it was offered a job with Echo and the Bunnymen. Gratefully accepting, it helped to establish the credibility of drum machines in pop which directly influenced the manufacturers' attitudes to drum machine development.

2) ROLAND CR78

The first user-programmable drum machine, the CR78 offered high-class sounds (although still a little Latin-American, organ-accompaniment influenced) and could be treated sufficiently to give it a powerful sound — as on John Foxx's Metamatic album, which defined the direction of electro-pop for years to come.

3) BOSS DR RHYTHM

Bringing programmability to the masses, the DR55 wasn't outstanding on the sound quality front, but provided an introduction to programming techniques for thousands. Still widely used for rehearsal and composition, you won't hear one on record too often, but that doesn't detract from its importance in the history of the field.

4) ROLAND TR606

The next step up from the Dr Rhythm, and enormously versatile once you'd penetrated the secret meanings of its owners manual. The first cheap drum machine to offer song programming, and so a favourite for both rehearsal and recording, and one which could easily interface to synthesizers and sequencers.

5) ROLAND TR808

An old classic now finding a place in scratching and electro music again. Top of the range in its time, offering very complex song composition, fills and intros, variations, full programmability and a decent memory capacity. Still a bargain today — if you can find one.

6) LINN LM1

The mother and father of all digital drum machine, the LM-1 got over the TR808's memory limitations with tape dump, sonic limitations with sampled sounds, control limitations with computer displays and so on. Initially indistinguishable from the real thing, it soon became recognisable due to unimaginative use of its sounds. Then Roger Linn launched alternative sound chips — problem solved.

7) SCI DRUMTRAKS

The last of the classic Sequential Circuits models in the Prophet 5 mould, the Drumtraks offered most of the potential of the Linn with several additions — MIDI input and output, programmable tuning and volume within a bar, and more recently tuning control from a MIDI keyboard during programming or playing. Very desirable.

8) KORG DDM110

Bringing PCM sampled sounds to the masses, the DDM110 is currently the cheapest MIDI-equipped, sampled drum machine about. An ideal introduction to the field and packed with programming and editing features, it really shows what can be done when designers are put under pressure from a bit of healthy competition.

9) LINN 9000

The first digital drum machine to include a multi-track MIDI sequencer — or is it the first multi-track MIDI sequencer to include a digital drum machine? Either way, the Linn 9000 packs all the expertise from the Linn LM-1 and LinnDrum into its percussion section and adds step time programming, velocity sensitivity, autorepeats and lots more. The most expensive drum machine commercially available, but again, there is that little matter of 32 channels of MIDI sequencing...

10) EMULATOR SP12

The first drum machine to offer user sampling as standard (early Linn 9000's needed to have it retrofitted) and clearly based on the Emulator II sampling synth. The SP-12 (it stands for Sampling Percussion — "Drumulator II" wasn't thought dramatic enough!) seems to show the way ahead for big-budget drum machines, and over the next couple of years many of its features are likely to appear on budget machines too.