Ibanez AD-202
 
Analogue 19" multimode effect. I got it specially for use as a delay on the inserts of the UE400 because that last one lacks a delay-reverb effect. It also has 3 other modes but as you can only use 1 at a time and the UE400 has already a phaser and chorus I use it mostly as delay.  It has 2 mic inputs where one of them can also be change to a instrument input. A bypass jack for use with a standard footswitch, a dry out and a FX out.  

A bit of a strange bird on the reverb market. Original from the ex-DDR, this thing put a big smile on my face when I first checked it out, the spring-verb sounded so smooth, warm and sweet like strawberry ice-cream on a hot summer day.  It's name says it all. It's a nice retro looking and sounding spring reverb effect with some extra additions.  Including stereo in and outs, cv-gate( or audio ) trigger inputs to go together with the VCF-VCA part. This last part can also be used without the spring effect to create some strange unusual sounding effects.  A sweet and creamy sounding spring-verb with some nice addition from the crazy Vermona people. It sounds like it's named after. The only bad point I can think about it is the strange size of it. It's just to big to fit in a 19" space what's a bit a pity. I guess it's made to put on an amp-head or something. 

I always loved the overdrive in the UE400 but as it isn't really a TS-808 or TS-9 ( it come pretty close though ) I got curious about the real deal. When I found out those original TS'ses go on ebay for about 300-400 $ I looked for one of those newer remakes. Eventually I got a TS-9 with Ashbass mod.  He's a nice guy who sells on ebay modified pedals and some remakes that he produced himself. He's pretty cheap if you ask me. I couldn't even find a cheaper TS-9 anywhere even without modifications. The mod include the original op-amp IC found in the 80'ties TS-808, some more bass and overdrive level and the 'brown mod' which replaces some resistors to make the TS-9 more creamy sounding.  It's sounds just the same as the overdrive from my UE400 except for it's extra creamy sound added by the 'brown' mod.  Great pedal, great mod, get it cheap while you still can !

RAT Deucetone by ProCo   

A nice dual distortion pedal. The cool thing about it, is that you can use it as 2 different distortion pedals or as 1 pedal with the 2 distortions following up each other, for really really really ;-) heavy distorted sounds. Each distortion can also be set to 3 different kind of effect-emulation, giving you a lots of choice.  The only bad thing I could come up with is when I first plugged in, the jack socket got bended and I had to fix it with some pliers.  It also only accepts mono jacks like a lots of pedals out there. 

Great, cheap spin-off from the famous TR-909. It's not analogue but it uses heavy compressed samples from it's bigger brother. I looks a bit like the RX-5 from Yamaha with the mixer for each sound but without the sound edit capabilities of the RX-5. I find this machine the most underrated of the whole TR series. It's my favorite for step programming, the step knobs feel great and let you edit fast and easy. Also the little screen is a handy tool.  The snare of this things is really great, that's why I love it so much. The bad part is that the midi implementation is a disaster, well actually you can Din sync it or let it trigger from midi notes but that's about it.  Midi out mode just works in Track mode and you have to disable the internal sounds what makes it pretty useless as midi controller. Ok, you can assign 1 pattern to 1 track each time but this is a time consuming workaround and you still won't be able to use the internal sound to get midi out of it. If you like step programming it like I do, you can save the patterns to a M-64C cartridge and open them on a TR-909, who is able to transmit midi without a workaround. The 7-0-7 is nice little addition to any drum setup and gives a killer combo with a 909 or 808. The second hand prices of this baby are cheap like hell compared to his TR friends. 

The smallest of all TR's. From the same time of the TR-808 and TB-303 and made in the same case like that last one.  The concept was simple, together with the TB the 606 made a bass-drum combo to accompany a keyboard or guitar player.  A TB could be slaved to it with Din sync and the output 606 could be feed into the TB again so you only needed 1 channel to amplify. This little boy is the only one of all TR's who can switch between play and edit mode when playing, so you can live edit the patterns. This makes it fun to play with.  The sounds are not such a big deal although the toms and hats are pretty recognizable in many records. If you mod it with some separate outputs ( for each sound one output ) you can obtain much nicer results when putting it true a mixer. As this thing has no midi whatsoever I also added a Kenton KADI port to mine so I could trigger the sounds from midi in combination with the Kenton pro-2000 which has the KADI option of course.  A nice little drummer and it works on batteries, so with some headphones it's great for on the road, train ,in bed, at the park, ...

Roland TR-808

One of the first things I got, one of the last things that is going to go.  I hope it never dies because I really love this machine. It's BD is so unique, so deep and dark. Together with the other typical 80'ties sound which are created by a fully analogue path by the way,  this is how every drumcomputer should be. Darn sexy looking, super warm and dark sounding and handling super smooth.  The only bad thing, they don't come cheap these days and still are going up.

The most versatile digital drummer of it's time I think. The samples are only 12 bit but hey, it sounds so great if your looking for those typical 80ties sounds. It was the flagship of all RX-drumboxes and the only one who had separate outputs for each sound. All internal samples can be loaded to a button of choice and they are fully midi programmable, they can be edited and saved as a different sample and can be store on those RAM4 cartridges. Basicly these carts store the edit templates of the sounds, patterns and songs.  Yamaha made also Wave Rom Cartridges ( WRC 01-04 ) which contain more samples of different styles. The RAM-4 and WRC carts are the same format like in the DX7II's. A strange thing is that the sounds on the standard WRC-rom that came with the RX-5 contains the same sounds as the WRC 01 so I think that's why you almost never see this WRC 01 second hand because nobody got it in the first place. The most recognizable sound of this RX-5 is the instant reverse of the sample. It's great for getting those strange and deep rolling kicks. Check out 'Strasse E' and many other tracks from DJ Rush, the RX-5 in all it's glory if you ask me. But not only for Dance and Techno this is a great box, the jazz and rock WRC-roms are great for other styles also.  It has a mixer with little sliders like on the TR-707 but this one has full midi specs. There was also a stripped down rack version, the PTX8, where you can hook up actual drum pads or drum triggers.  The successor, the RX-7 provides most goodies of the RX-5 but has only a stereo output instead of the multi outs. Also the WRC option has been dropped but it stores around 100 samples internally, providing as much as the whole WRC-rom catalogue.  I really can't say any bad thing about these boxes. They are built like a tank, made for hitting and slamming those button like it's hammer-time. So if the RX-5 is such a great deal, why couldn't it compete against the TR-terror of Roland ? It doesn't program like those X-0-X type boxes what in my opinion made the TR's such a success. So if you are really looking to make some 4x4 tracks, it's more time consuming then it's competitors. But anyway, still one of my favorite 80ties sounding drum machines. They where very expensive back in the days but now get sold for incredible low amount of money what can't be said about the Ram and Rom carts which go sometimes as much as the machine itself does.