When you live in a town with a slow or nonexistent music scene it can be hard to get out there and jam with a lot of talented people. Sure, there may be a few wayward souls that are out there rocking out and doing their own thing, but often times you really need that personal connection to really put out some of your best stuff when playing with someone. If you just can’t seem to find that in your town the next best option is to pick up a rhythm machine.
Boss pedals makes a really great one called Dr. Rhythm that I’ve used for a while now when I don’t want to get out and jam with real people. Sometimes it’s just more comfortable to jam along with the person you know best – yourself.
The DR-880 is a massive machine with more options than you could ever explore in your own personal time. If you took all of that time you might as well join the Boss pedals development team because you’ll probably know as much as they do! Anyways, it’s got over 1,000 patterns, 500 of which are preset. The remaining 500 are up to you to create, and they make it easy to do so with a super simple interface that just breeds creativity. It’s so easy to sample a track, slice it up and then put down a beat over it. Then you can plug in the guitar and lay down a couple licks or riffs over it and maybe throw in a bass line or some synth and you’re off to the races.
Without a rhythm machine, those of us who are more proficient in stringed instruments would be pressed for luck when it came to coming up with a fully fleshed out sound. What would you do without percussion, especially if you didn’t know any solid drummers in your town? You’d probably have to go to some program like Fruity Loops and mess around with that, but then you’d be dealing with very poor quality samples and wouldn’t be able to play them yourself. You would have to program them which ends up sounding robotic and uninteresting. There is just something about being perfectly on time that is off putting to the professional musician’s ear. I know it is to me, at least.
Dr. Rhythm solves all of these problems by being the tool you need to accompany yourself. Even if you had a drummer in town you’d need to get the beat in your head into his hands and there’s no telling if that’s ever going to happen exactly the way you want it. This tool allows you to do that with total control – something an artist is very familiar with, but often does not get. It’s hard to argue against the Boss Dr. Rhythm. If I had to say one thing I would mention that it’s a bit costly but in my mind it’s a price worth paying for the best digital friend you’ll ever hav