Boss DR-01s

I needed easy-to operate drum machine to support practicing at home and to create backtracks to my band members. I plan to use the device some rare occasions when performing.

After couple of months I can say the device met my expectations. There are certain limitations but I was aware of them. Use of foot-switch eases to operate hands-on-the-instrument.

Pros:
- good price
- large variety of pre-programmed rhythm patterns
- easy to operate
- sounds are superb
Cons:
- lacks possibility to create and save A-B parts for one song
- lacks possibility to create custom rhythms from the scratch

Overall opinion. I strongly recommend the device if You need it for home practicing and if You are looking for simple addition to Your acoustic guitar or folk music playing.

I play acoustic guitar and ukulele, so didn't want a full drum-kit sound overwhelming my instruments and voice. This drum machine fits the bill perfectly with more suited to acoustic drum sounds.

What's good:
You can adjust the volume of each instrument within a created drum pattern so if you want the kick louder and the bongo lower on one particular pattern it's easily done.

The built-in speaker is nice and loud for home use.

There are more traditional drum-set patterns within the metronome setting and also some ambient sounds like the sea and birdsong.

It's easy enough to navigate the basics and save patterns.

I've used it in a live setting and it sounds great through a PA.

The bad:
I bought a separate Boss F5-6 footswitch and was looking forward to assigning e.g. a cymbal crash to a pedal for a saved pattern, and then e.g. a triangle to another pattern and so on, so that each drum pattern had its own extra sound, triggered by the footswitch.

BUT while you can save multiple drum patterns, you can only assign one footswitch-operated sound across all of the multiple patterns. It's not quick or intuitive to change this extra footswitch sound and you've to press lots of buttons to do so. So, this limitation was a big disappointment for me.

The cymbal sounds aren't great.

There's quite a lot of hidden functions by pressing two buttons at the same time and these are hard to remember if you want to save or change things when out playing live. If you want to change things while out and about, you'd need to bring the manual with you.

Conclusion:
When I first got the drum machine I was a little disappointed in it mainly because of the footswitch and I found it initially hard to grasp how to store patterns and edit them, but if you delve in and take the time to understand the machine and how to create, edit and store patterns as favourites it really comes into its own.

Apart from the limitation with the footswitch sound I'd recommend this to acoustic musicians.

I have tried many accompaniment machines from way back with Alesis SR16, korg mini, both Beatbuddies, Trios, SDrum, Finhols, looper add-on drummachines, etc as well as manual Kickpedal & cajon, or homemade or commercial stomp boxes. Whether for home use, or gigging - this one, to me, is the best. It is small, light easy portable , battery or plugin power, can be DI into PA or amp. For acoustic just use as it comes - you can even do cafe gig if plugged into your PA. It's very intuitive and does what you expect it to do and the rhythm patterns suit all genre of music - styles are easy to create on the hoof, but also 50 memory slots gives a good selection for prepreparation for a performance. It is well made so all is good! - BUT - I look forward to the 2nd Generation which I would ask/hope includes a pedal option for "fills" to break the monotony, an option to override the speaker mute when DI-ed (I wish this existed on more low power amps to use as monitors), and thirdly built-in battery rechargability. They're not cheap to buy, such embelishments probably come at a cost - but I would pay a little extra for perfection! Well done Boss!