Budget Beats

A beat on the cheap?

Yamaha RY20

Beatbox rejuvenated

Yamaha's RX21 Drum Machine offers a lot of sound for very little outlay.

Yamaha RX21

Strip a digital drum machine down to its bare essentials, and you have Yamaha's bargain-basement percussion offering. The price is low but there are a few sacrifices, as Simon Trask discovers.

Programmable Rhythm Machines

Yamaha's first-ever self-contained programmable drum machines have PCM-encoded voices and MIDI. Kendall Wrightson gives his verdict.

cheap digital drumming

Rhythmcheck

£249 buys this little beauty. Bob Henrit, of course, is much cheaper

now the cheaper drum machine

Trevor Gilchrist takes a look at Yamaha's Latin adaptation of their RX21. Is it as usable as its more conventional brother?

To Call It A Drum Machine Would Be An Insult!

The pace of change never slackens at the Nippon Gakki factory. The piano makers turned motorbike manufacturers roar in with a new digital rhythm machine, the RX5. Review by David Mellor

Programmable Digital Drum Machine

Is it worth spending nearly a grand on a non-sampling digital beat-box in 1987? Trevor Gilchrist, after testing the RX5, comes to the inevitable conclusion that it is.

Drum Machine

One hundred 12-bit PCM sounds and comprehensive programmability make the latest addition to the Yamaha RX range of drum machines one to watch. Howard Massey is on the beat.

Digital Rhythm Programmer

Two years on from their impressive, RX5 drum machine, Yamaha have slimmed down their flagship to give us an affordable 16-bit beat box. Chris Many reckons it could be a hit.

For over a year now Alesis have had the 'budget' 16-bit drum machine market all to themselves, but the release of the Yamaha RX8 provides musicians with an alternative. Besides 16-bit sound quality, Yamaha's new machine boasts a broad range of 43 sounds, flexible MIDI control, RAM card storage, and more. Paul Ireson checks it out.

Portable Drum Machine

Nigel Humberstone checks out Yamaha's latest miniature marvel — a drum box with a difference.

Take your beat to the streets.

Drum Machine

As the drum machine goes from strength to strength, Yamaha give it a new dimension by adding a synth-style "bend" wheel. Simon Trask wonders if the beatbox will ever be the same again.

The Feel Factor

Martin Russ rydes with the rhythm as he explores Yamaha's latest percussive product.

Rhythm Sound And Artist Cards

Martin Russ looks at how Yamaha have drummed up card support for their successful RY30 drum machine, with new cards containing the sounds and rhythms of big name drummers.

Win a drum machine

Mammoth Electro Fest: Simmons' contender, the UP5, Yamaha's RX15 drum machine, new Digisound chips for the Drumulator, Quicksilva's Drumkit program for the BBC micro...

Time Machine Revisited

An add-on for last month's Time Machine project that allows direct synchronisation of the Yamaha RX15 and MC202.