Boss Dr-5 Drum machine

rpetersen · Post by **rpetersen** » 18 Mar 2004 12:00 pm

Is there anyone within a decent driving distance of the Quad cities, Iowa (Davenport etc,) that uses a DR-5? I would sure like to spend a little time with someone that uses one of these - To help me with setting mine up
thanx........Ron

------------------
Ron Petersen &
The Keep'n Tyme Band

Kevin Chriss · Post by **Kevin Chriss** » 19 Mar 2004 2:57 am

I had a Boss DR5 and it took hours to do anything useful with it. I sold mine on Ebay and bought Band in a Box. BIAB takes about 5 min to get a good song backup. I cannot say enough good things about BIAB. It will be the best investment in music you'll ever make.

George Kimery · Post by **George Kimery** » 19 Mar 2004 4:14 am

Ron:

The instructional video worked for me. Made it pretty simple, really. They sell for about $40.00. I am out of practice right now with it, but when I was up to speed, it wasn't all that time consuming. Certainly more than BAIB, but not bad. I first did a number chart for the song, then did the arrangement for each number. Of course, a lot of the numbers are repeats, so it goes pretty fast once you get a verse and a chorus programmed in.

rpetersen · Post by **rpetersen** » 19 Mar 2004 4:24 am

Thanx for the replys - George - I have the video with it and it is very poor quality - very hard to understand the guy doing the talking - I just need to spend more time with it I guess - I have band in a box and I never cared much for the sounds - That was probably operator error too!!

------------------
Ron Petersen &
The Keep'n Tyme Band

George Kimery · Post by **George Kimery** » 19 Mar 2004 6:26 am

I know what you mean about BIAB. I had a free download that was good for 30 days. All I could get out of it sounded like something out of a childs $5.00 toy. Big Jim Baron sent me some files to listen to in a Ray Price shuffle style, but he is on a PC format and I couldn't open them on my Mac. I bought some rhythm tracks from Herb Steiner and I understand that they were done on a BIAB and they sound fine. So, like you, I am just very leary of my ability to get anything out of them that I can live with. I am not very computer savy, so that may be the problem. Like you, I guess I need a personal tutor, then it would be clear. I know others are getting good stuff out of BIAB. I guess if I broke down and bought the darn thing and messed with it enough, I would get something happening.

Kevin Chriss · Post by **Kevin Chriss** » 19 Mar 2004 8:04 am

It's not BIAB that sounds bad. BIAB only creates instructions for your sound module (sound card).

Larry Clark · Post by **Larry Clark** » 19 Mar 2004 8:50 am

Has anyone tried using BIAB to trigger the sounds in the DR5. It should be possible. Seems like that would give you the ability to use pre-written BIAB programs with the better quality synth module of the Boss. Just an idea....

Kevin Chriss · Post by **Kevin Chriss** » 19 Mar 2004 10:21 am

Sure, I've used BIAB to trigger a DR5. It's limited but it sound pretty good.

George Crowder · Post by **George Crowder** » 21 Mar 2004 3:51 am

Ron, You didn't say if you have a DR 5 with the Billy Cooper program. Billy's program was specifically developed for steel players and is easy to use. You can email Billy at coopersmusic@hotmail.com
George

rpetersen · Post by **rpetersen** » 21 Mar 2004 4:58 am

Hi George - I do have Billy's program on it - I guess I was a little dissapointed in the songs it included for the money. I wanted to go farther with my own songs - I know I need to spend more time with it, I was just hoping there was someone within a couple hours of driving distance that was using one.

------------------
Ron Petersen &
The Keep'n Tyme Band

Ken Fox · Post by **Ken Fox** » 21 Mar 2004 1:39 pm

I have used one for about 5 years. It's storage capacity is limited for number of songs. That was easy to overcome. I use a Peavey Midi-Streamer. I can download a new song from the DR-5 and store it on a floppy disc. I then just put the floopy (will hold lots of DR-5 tunes) in the Midi-Streamer and let it trigger the DR-5.

The DR-5 is not like a Sound Canvas or other Midi-sound module. It only has 4 midi channels, not he normal 16 channels like BIAB.

The old Midi-Streamer is not in a format my computer can read. It formats the disk differently. There are other librarians or filers that might work well, thus allowing storage on your local hard drive.

Here is a link to some software that would help with your DR-5 and local comptuer interface:
http://www.rubicsys.demon.co.uk/dr5edit/