All the musical ideas, playing prowess and flash hardware in the world won't make your band sound good - unless you get the most out of rehearsals. Trevor Gilchrist offers some clues.

Roland TR505

Roland find another home for some 707/727 drum voices, and come up with a digital successor to the Drumatix. Trevor Gilchrist waxes lyrical on the best budget drum machine yet.

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

Digital Drum Machine

Expandability comes to drum machines, with an affordable unit that offers four ROM expansion slots, plus the added bonus of onboard user sampling. Trevor Gilchrist checks it out.

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.