The DR-880 is best used in studio settings and not during live free form playing. There is limited provisions for adding fills on the fly and programming is somewhat daunting to say the least. I have owned this unit for over two years and still have difficulty getting what I need out of it; an easy to use drum machine for playing live.

I have owned the 880 for three years, and have only now written a review. The unit does many things very well; maybe better than any other dedicated unit. The sounds are exceptional, and there are a lot of them. The manual is not the best ot the worst I have ever used, but buying the DVD that is available will help a lot. (Not from Boss) Unlike some other units, the acoustic bass is very good. If you buy the avbailable foot pedals, it can be controled on stage effectively. O.K., that's the good news. Here is the bad news. If you plan on using this device on stage with both the bass and drums, and you have placed your arrangement in a user slot, you will be severely limited. Maybe six or seven songs. Yes, that's right, very little memory. I called the mothership to ask about it, and they said it was a recording device, not a stage use device. I could tell they had had this conversation before. The thing needs some sort of memory; memory stick or mini disk. I don't know about you, but I bought it for stage.

I have had the DR880 for about 9 months. So far I have 150 user patterns and 12 songs all with bass lines and have a ton of memory to go. I just make sure I delete patterns that I'm not using. I wish those that talk about limited memory would give some specifics on how many user patterns they programmed and how many songs they have programmed and are they programming bass lines or just drums. I also use the DR 880 in a live setting. Four shows so far and they all went off without a hitch. Sometimes I do the one man band and sometimes I use a human bass player. I just make sure I bring a powered mixer and monitor with me to make sure I can hear the drums onstage. Can't always rely on the house monitors. There is quite a learning curve with this unit but once you get through it and get a few songs done you will see it is worth the effort. I also bought the dvd tutorial which is helpful. I had used the Alesis SR 16 for many years and the DR 880 puts it to shame. Was considering the SR 18 but it does not have enough user patterns available for my needs.

I have noodled a wee bit with this cool looking upgraded version of my Boss DR670 in the music store but need a few bucks more to get it. I write thrash metal songs and smooth jazz instrumentals, which requires building two distinct user drum kits and call up either with ease. MY TAKE ON MEMORY: I do real time patches, building a solid bass drum and snare foundation then add hi-hat etc. while "thinking" like a drummer. Sometimes the song comes quickly with little time spent on complex fills etc. What drains memory is working on the same patch/s in a speed metal mode, slowing it down to nail hardcore technical sections, spending a lot of time on just the intro patch before laying back into a Megadeth groove for the verse. Some sections I can physically play using all fingers, while recording, in one take, which frees up memory. I also mix completed drum/bass songs to 2-track and burn onto CD or just leave on my Korg D1600 Home Recording Studio, which also has a built in drum machine. Having hundreds of patches before running out of memory would be a bightmare FOR ME. I simply delete old platches or save on CD, and it only takes three to four deleted patches to gain back considerable memory. I hope this new 880 shines through on my digital mixer without bass guitar, bass drum and snare dropping out as I create a Freight Train wall of guitars. The best drum machine would feature individual outputs for BD, SD, HH and TT's so you are not locked into controlling the entire drum kit as a whole. Still, its looking like the 880 will soon replace my DR670.

I bought this drum machine to add a little to my guitar efforts and I must say I am happy with this equipment. I run it between my effects and my cabnet to add the drums to spice up my guitar practice and the sound is great. Added benefit of the base effects and the ability to mute the base line (when needed) is a real plus. this is a very capable machine, and I still have a lot to learn about it, as I have yet to actually use anything other than the preset drum patterns the machine has on board. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a drum machine.