Back in 1986, this drum machine broke ground as Korg's first with full MIDI implementation, bringing digital drum power into sync with the synth rigs of the era.
It packs 18 classic PCM drum sounds—kicks, snares, toms, hi-hats, cymbals, claps, cowbell, tambourine, cabasa—rendered in 12-bit samples, all tunable from 0-127 and editable for decay and level. Hit one of the 14 velocity-sensitive grey pads to lay down dynamic patterns, with dedicated white buttons for flam (up to 90ms offset) and roll (to 32nd notes), plus five dynamic envelopes that respond to your strike force. The sloping black-and-white panel hosts a backlit 16-character LCD, numeric keypad, data slider, and a grid of clearly labeled buttons for jumping between pattern/song editing, instrument tweaks, and system setup—100 patterns chain into 10 songs of up to 255 parts. Route voices to six individual outs or stereo pair with seven pan positions, add an audio input for triggering or sampling (2 seconds base, expandable via optional board and four ROM cards), and connect via MIDI In/Out with footswitch jacks for live control.
Vintage enthusiasts love its punchy '80s tone, a step above the TR-707 in pro features like user-assignable pads and individual outs, though some note the step programming feels basic by today's standards.
