The Doctor Rhythm DR-110 Graphic is a drum machine introduced in 1983 by the

Boss Boss may refer to: Occupations * Supervisor, often referred to as boss * Air boss, more formally, air officer, the person in charge of aircraft operations on an aircraft carrier * Crime boss, the head of a criminal organization * Fire boss, a p ...

product division of the Japanese

Roland Corporation is a Japanese manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, electronic equipment, and software. It was founded by Ikutaro Kakehashi in Osaka on 18 April 1972. In 2005, its headquarters relocated to Hamamatsu in Shizuoka Prefecture. It has f ...

. It was the second entry in their DR series, following up on the much simpler DR-55.

History

Boss were better known for producing

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...

accessories such as

effects pedals An effects unit or effects pedal is an electronic device that alters the sound of a musical instrument or other audio source through audio signal processing. Common effects include distortion/overdrive, often used with electric guitar in ...

, and the DR-110 is similarly small and lightweight in size (190×110×30mm, and only 450 g), and like most Boss equipment, could be run from a 9 V

d.c. DC, D.C., D/C, Dc, or dc may refer to: Places * Washington, D.C. (District of Columbia), the capital and the federal territory of the United States * Bogotá, Distrito Capital, the capital city of Colombia * Dubai City, as distinct from t ...

supply egative centreor

batteries Battery most often refers to: * Electric battery, a device that provides electrical power * Battery (crime), a crime involving unlawful physical contact Battery may also refer to: Energy source *Automotive battery, a device to provide power t ...

. Although not designed as a high-end

studio A studio is an artist or worker's workroom. This can be for the purpose of acting, architecture, painting, pottery (ceramics), sculpture, origami, woodworking, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, industrial design, ...

product, The DR-110 nonetheless featured some noticeable advances in technology compared to previous Roland drum machines. It has an

LCD A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat-panel display or other electronically modulated optical device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals combined with polarizers. Liquid crystals do not emit light directly but i ...

graphic display, showing a step-programming grid for the various drum voices. Rubberized touchpads each represent one of the DR-110 voices, and can be used to build a pattern in realtime as well as to enter and edit note data. The DR-110's synthesized drum "voices" (synthesizer sounds) use

analog synthesizer An analog (or analogue) synthesizer is a synthesizer that uses analog circuits and analog signals to generate sound electronically. The earliest analog synthesizers in the 1920s and 1930s, such as the Trautonium, were built with a variety of ...

circuits.

Tempo In musical terminology, tempo ( Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (ofte ...

is continuously variable between 45 and 300 bpm. The DR-110 used a four-

bit The bit is the most basic unit of information in computing and digital communications. The name is a portmanteau of binary digit. The bit represents a logical state with one of two possible values. These values are most commonly represented a ...

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HD44790A44 CMOS

microprocessor A microprocessor is a computer processor where the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit, or a small number of integrated circuits. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circu ...

and 0,5 KB of μPD444C

RAM Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to: Animals * A male sheep * Ram cichlid, a freshwater tropical fish People * Ram (given name) * Ram (surname) * Ram (director) (Ramsubramaniam), an Indian Tamil film director * RAM (musician) (born 1974), Dutch ...

memory. In 1985, Boss released the smaller DR-220 with eleven voices. These devices had much the same functionality as the DR-110, but relied upon digital button-press control of parameters rather than knobs.

Drum sounds

The DR-110's six synthesized drum voices were: *

bass drum The bass drum is a large drum that produces a note of low definite or indefinite pitch. The instrument is typically cylindrical, with the drum's diameter much greater than the drum's depth, with a struck head at both ends of the cylinder. T ...

snare drum The snare (or side drum) is a percussion instrument that produces a sharp staccato sound when the head is struck with a drum stick, due to the use of a series of stiff wires held under tension against the lower skin. Snare drums are often used i ...

*open

hi hat HI or Hi may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Hello Internet'', a podcast hosted by CGP Grey and Brady Haran * Hi (magazine), ''Hi'' (magazine), teen-lifestyle publication * Hi (Ofra Haza song), "Hi" (Ofra Haza song), a song by Ofra Haza, Is ...

*closed hi hat *

hand clap A clap is the percussive sound made by striking together two flat surfaces, as in the body parts of humans or animals. Humans clap with the palms of their hands, often quickly and repeatedly to express appreciation or approval (see applause), b ...

* cymbal As with most previous Roland drum machines, the bass and snare voices are generated by a "damped tuned

resonance Resonance describes the phenomenon of increased amplitude that occurs when the frequency of an applied periodic force (or a Fourier component of it) is equal or close to a natural frequency of the system on which it acts. When an oscillat ...

" oscillators. The cymbals and hi-hats are created by VCA-shaping and

band-pass filter A band-pass filter or bandpass filter (BPF) is a device that passes frequencies within a certain range and rejects ( attenuates) frequencies outside that range. Description In electronics and signal processing, a filter is usually a two- ...

ing a combination of

white noise In signal processing, white noise is a random signal having equal intensity at different frequencies, giving it a constant power spectral density. The term is used, with this or similar meanings, in many scientific and technical disciplines, ...

and four non-

harmonic A harmonic is a wave with a frequency that is a positive integer multiple of the '' fundamental frequency'', the frequency of the original periodic signal, such as a sinusoidal wave. The original signal is also called the ''1st harmonic'', ...

ally related

square wave A square wave is a non-sinusoidal periodic waveform in which the amplitude alternates at a steady frequency between fixed minimum and maximum values, with the same duration at minimum and maximum. In an ideal square wave, the transitions b ...

oscillators (generating a much more realistic sound than white noise alone). The clap sound uses only shaped white noise, but was triggered by a multiple pulse train, to create a

reverberation Reverberation (also known as reverb), in acoustics, is a persistence of sound, after a sound is produced. Reverberation is created when a sound or signal is reflected causing numerous reflections to build up and then decay as the sound is abs ...

effect. No tonal variation of the voices is possible; however (as with several earlier Roland drum machines), the relative balance is variable between the bass and snare drums versus the hi-hat and cymbal. An

accent Accent may refer to: Speech and language * Accent (sociolinguistics), way of pronunciation particular to a speaker or group of speakers * Accent (phonetics), prominence given to a particular syllable in a word, or a word in a phrase ** Pitch ac ...

(volume increase) can also be added on any pattern step; the amount of accent is globally variable with a knob.

Rhythm patterns

The DR-110 offers 16 preset patterns, and 16 memory locations for the user-created patterns. Each pattern can be divided into 16 or 12 steps. The DR-110 also has two "song" memories, each of which allows chaining of up to 128 bars of patterns. A small battery retains memory content when the DR-110 was switched off.

Interfacing

A "V-trig" clock pulse (+6V, 10 ms duration) can be used, via a 3.5mm mini-jack, to allow other "slave" synthesizer units (e.g.

arpeggiator A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis ...

s) to

synchronize Synchronization is the coordination of events to operate a system in unison. For example, the conductor of an orchestra keeps the orchestra synchronized or ''in time''. Systems that operate with all parts in synchrony are said to be synchronou ...

to the DR-110 accent section. The DR-110 has a 10kΩ impedance unbalanced mono audio output, available on a ¼" phone connector socket. This output can be plugged into a

keyboard amplifier A keyboard amplifier is a powered instrument amplifier, electronic amplifier and loudspeaker in a wooden speaker enclosure, speaker cabinet used for amplification of electronic keyboard instruments. Keyboard amplifiers are distinct from other ...

PA system A public address system (or PA system) is an electronic system comprising microphones, amplifiers, loudspeakers, and related equipment. It increases the apparent volume (loudness) of a human voice, musical instrument, or other acoustic sound sou ...

. The socket is also configured as the "Roland P-bus," which meant it can be used as a simultaneous audio input, the input source being mixed with the output signal. A separate 3.5mm

headphone Headphones are a pair of small loudspeaker drivers worn on or around the head over a user's ears. They are electroacoustic transducers, which convert an electrical signal to a corresponding sound. Headphones let a single user listen to an ...

output socket is also present. The DR-110 does not offer any kind of external "sync", but can be fitted with third-party DIN-sync interfaces available from other companies.http://www.acidlab.de/ acidlabs Internally, the DR110 runs at 12ppqn (pulses per quarter note), so extra circuitry is needed to interface it with the Roland DIN-sync standard of 24ppqn. To access the Test Mode function, users press and hold both the Start and Stop buttons when turning on the unit. The entire LED screen shows. The user presses the blue buttons one at the time, a big "OK" appears in the programming grid after last button. The user turns the unit off and then on to exit test mode and go back to normal mode.

References

*Boss Dr. Rhythm DR-110 Owner's Manual (Nov.1983) *Boss DR-110 Service Notes (First edition, Feb.1984) ;Notes {{Roland Drum machines Musical instruments invented in the 1980s Boss Corporation