And another Drum machineTuesday 17 June 2008

My second recent ebay purchase has just arrived. This time, the reasonably obscure Sony DRP-2. Yes, you did hear that right, a drum machine made by Sony!

I remember my friend Colin Stillman, from the band Zero Point Zero, had one of these in the early 90's and I was always very jealous (ha ha). It's about the size of a dictaphone but comes with 13 sampled sounds including that 80's staple, the barking dog! (Or doggie as it's labelled on the drum machine). It can also switch between 4/4 time and 3/4 time and runs off two AA batteries.

The strangest thing about it though, is it doesn't have a headphone output, instead having a fixed mono output pre-wired onto a trailing lead! So, that will be the first thing to go, to be replaced with a more sensible jack socket. Space looks tight though, so I might have to be a bit creative.

Not sure at this stage what other tweaks will be possible, I'd guess some pitch shifting at the very least. But like I say, space is tight.

Watch this space :)