Feature:
The only big disappointment. In the old SR-16 there is an A->Afill->B->Bfill function (controled by footswitch) for every patch. This was ideal for impromptu live performance and probably the main reason why a product designed in 1990 is still sold new today! For all of the DR-880s wonderful innovation, how could Boss have overlooked this fundamental requirement for live work? Yes, you can easily create complex songs and modify patterns with multiple fills but there seems to be no option to assign any combination of foortswitches that will move from one pattern to a fill variation, to another pattern, to its fill variation and back to the 1st pattern. C'mon guys, this is no great programming challenge; all of the tools are already in the code!

Quality:
A lower score only because its new.

Value:
I paid substantially less on a discounted promotion but would still consider buying at the current price.

Desirability:
I'm not much for form over function, but I will say that it looks pretty good sitting on my keyboard in a live venue.

Sound:
The best I've heard.

Support:
Not yet.

Overall:
The DR-880 is the best I've seen and I would have given it a 10 if it had the A->Afil... described above. I expect to use this tool for many years.

Quality:
only own it six months, and it has not left my studio, but seems sturdy, and has withstood florida lighting spikes and power outages ok

Value:
it is not cheap, but seems to be worth it.

Sound:
excellent all around sound. since i have not bought a drum machine since my roland 505, this is something out of freakin NASA. fantastic amount of fills per pattern, great intros and endings, and an unreal number of (500) pre set patterns. great nuance in snares and cymbals. NOT INTUITIVE, steep learning curve(for this dummy)but rewarding. i am happy with it.

Support:
no experience

Feature:
No extra accessories, power supply a plus, it would be nice if they came complete with foot pedals cables etc. for $500. It doesn't connect to the BR-8 digitally the way the diagram advertises in the owners manual. Optical is much cleaner & sharper than Coaxial and is digitally more friendly. It is easy though, to take it to a friends house with a guitar & an amp for a simple little jam session.

Quality:
It doesn't bother me that it's made out of plastic. The majority of products today are made out of plastic.Most of the drum machines are. I own probably 50 pieces of electronic equipment, to which almost all of it is made of plastic of some sort. I believe if you take care of it,it will far outlast its useability.I've owned most of my equipment for 20 years and the only problem I have ever had is cables that short out. I resolved that problem with Monster Cables. I just put the DR-880 on a sturdy surface with a non-slip pad underneath along with a dust cover over it when not in use. I don't anticipate any problems,so far it's been flawless.

Value:
Better!

Desirability:
Bought it the day I saw it,by just seeing some of the capabilities!

Sound:
Excellent sound,I've used several other drum machines unable to achieve the punch & clarity + double kick and snare make it easy for 7/4 drum times

Support:
I haven't needed them, but it would be nice if accessories were more accessable. For instance itwas very difficult finding the FS-6 pedal to purchase. I found your web site somewhat of a dissapointment as well in describing the equipment you sell. I would find it helpful to see represenatives @ some of the main music stores giving workshops or sending free newsletters on upcoming equipment. Overall I am pleased with the DR-880 and won't find the need to purchase another drum machine for quite some time Thanks!

Overall:
10-20 years ++++

Feature:
Overall would be a 10 but including the foot switches and a case at this price would make it a 10. Also the computer interface could use some work. It is very basic. Given the power of USB some type of software to allow writing patterns/songs on the computer, even a basic one, would also be nice.

Quality:
Great sounds and lay out. Only a small deduction for the plastic case. In fairness all the models I compared used similar construction. Seems sturdy enough and may be a non-issue but I will be carefull.

Value:
Great value. Like I said you will pay a bit more but the sound quality is worth it.

Desirability:
Like most roland/boss gear it is well marketed. Just go and see the demo videos on the Roland/Boss websites.

Sound:
Costs a bit more than some but the sound is where the pay off is here. The drums and groove options really make this usable as a real sounding drum part.

Ease of Use:
I am a guitarist, so the learning curve is there. However, as advertised, the EZ Compose feature gets you up and running with serviceable patterns for performance. Once you spend a few hours with it, you can start doing good things. This is probably better than most drum machines.

Support:
I haven't needed them. The web site and user group has been informative.

Feature:
It came with the foot pedals for a little extra but they come in handy. the guitar or bass input lacks something like power or cleaningness. Although I have no use for that feature other than to practice some riffs with the drums I created before I record the other parts it's not a bad feature to have.

Quality:
There is quite a bit of plastic for the price it should more metal. I can't afford a back up so I'm pretty careful with it. It might last a few years if I'm luckey.

Value:
It was maybe worth the price only because I needed the product in a bad way.

Desirability:
It is very attractive like most music toys. I like the size and the cool colored lights and quick to set up.

Sound:
Very realistic drum sounds especially to record songs with. The quality is great you can even tweak if you have to. It achieves what I need it for and more. You can Rock, swing, jazz or even do some latinish numbers on it. By itself it sounds like you have your own drummer in the house and not a machine. I think even live the Dr 880 would sound great. I use Mackie Pa systems, Marshall and Fender Amps and PRS guitars, Fender Strats and Ibanez. The instruction needs to be a bit more self explanitory for the lame person. An instructional DVD would be great since I am a visual kind of guy.

Ease of Use:
Not real intuitive but if you spend time reading the manual and tinker with it a while you can eventually come up with some bad ass stuff. It is fairly easy to start playing with the DR 880 but there is a learning curve to build your own patterns and putting a beggining and ending together. Looping is no problem though.

Support:
I have not had to use it.

Overall:
It would be several years before I look for something else. I will probably supplement it. I would probably look for another only if it was complete drum patterns already looped including fills ready to apply to recording with the option to make slight changes to them like dynamics, ambience etc. They would also have to catagorized Jazz, Blues, rock, Latin Jazz Etc. This product sounds better than the SR- 16 by alesis.

Feature:
The features are what makes this machine shine. To begin with, it's packed with 500 very useful preset patterns. No bank after bank of mambo and cha-cha here (yes, they're in there too, but the DR-880 is mainly about rock, alternative, hip-hop, etc). You can take any one of those patterns and build a song very easily. The DR-880 is equipped with a fill-in library that can be combined with any of the patterns. You can easily select where in the pattern you want the fill to occur and then save that pattern to a user slot for your song. (There's 500 of those too). It has an intro and ending bank as well, so all your songs don't begin with a click track. It makes things sound a little more polished. Then there's the groove modify feature. Wow! Take any pattern and you can make the machine play ahead of the beat or on the backbeat and choose by how much. Or maybe you want to add some ghost notes? No problem. You can not only choose to add ghosts, but also how many ghost notes to add to the pattern. This is helpful for giving your songs a "live drummer" feel. By varying your patterns and using these features, it's easy to put a song together. There's another handy feature called EZ Compose. It allows you to mix/match high hat/ride beats, bass/snare beats, percussion beats, etc to create new patterns on the fly. Save them and you can apply the groove modify to them as well. When you're done creating patterns, programming a song is simple. Just chain your patterns together and voila! Beyond that are a built-in tuner, an effects processor, and a built in arranger. I've not even got into these yet.

Quality:
My only complaint is that it's made of hard plastic. I prefer a mure durable product. However, my machine won't be mobile so it's more of a pet peeve than a necessity. Overall, the product looks good and appears to be made well. There were no loose parts or cosmetic blemishes on my unit.

Value:
This product is absolutely worth every penny, even if you have to pay full retail price. I would have gladly paid much more if I'd known beforehand how excellent the DR-880 really is.

Desirability:
The sexiness of this product to me is in its quality, ease of use, and the satisfaction of knowing I bought the best unit on the market for what I needed a drum machine to do.

Sound:
The DR-880 is quite simply the best drum machine I've owned, and I've owned several. In fact, to call it a mere drum machine is insulting. I consider it an instrument. It is packed with top-notch sounds. You would literally have to spend thousands upon thousands of dollars to purchase the many percussion instruments represented. My only complaint is that I wish the pads were as responsive in real time as they are when you're in record mode. I've maxed the pads out on their sensitivity and they're still well below where I want them.

Support:
I have not had reason to deal with the company itself yet.

Overall:
My favorite feature is the fill library. My only complaint is that I wish BOSS would issue some updates as well. If this product were stolen from me today, I would replace it with another just like it.

Feature:
Great features,though it cant sample.

Quality:
NEVER DROPPED IT,SEEMS STURDY.

Value:
Seems like it'll last me until I get a MPC.

Desirability:
no sexiness

Sound:
The sounds get repetitive after a while !

Ease of Use:
THE PADS ARE TOO FRIGGIN SMALL !THATZ WHY I'M PURCHASING A MPD 16 TO CONTROL THEM I'M TIRED OF HITTING THE WRONG PADS AND MISSING THE PADS !

Support:
Good,I called once to see if it was compatible with a MPD 16.

Overall:
Good overall.

Feature:
The best feature is the guitar affects. You can play anything from classical to thrash metal with a beat.

Quality:
So far. I havn't had any problems with this drum machine. Knock Wood!!!

Value:
It is worth every penny.

Desirability:
I married it. LOL!!!!

Sound:
The sound is outstanding. I thought there was a drummer in my sound room.

Ease of Use:
It takes a while to figure out. But, once you do. You will be amazed what this thing can do.

Feature:
Did not rate the special features in particular. EZ compose and all that jazz aren't precise enough for my needs.

Quality:
Good quality. Yes it could be made out of gold-plated, bullet-proof titanium, but if you actually look after it and don't drop it infront of a tank or something then I don't see what difference it makes.

Value:
I got mine for £263 which was the cheapest I could find it. I'm sure I spotted it for under £250 before the credit crunch, but hey, it does almost everything I hoped it would do. Except change tempo mid song. Therefore, it loses a point.

Desirability:
For me, I needed this for live performances. Now I've used it, it fared very well. Basically my live performances are centred on it. But if you have a drummer and just need something to arse about with, get something cheaper and simpler. If only you could change tempo mid song...and it was made out of gold plated, bullet-proof titanium.

Sound:
Great sound quality, if realism is what you're after then this has it. Used it live and it sounded great. Pad sensitivity is a bit rubbish as it seems to only have about two levels - hard and soft. Output is pretty low. I wouldn't play my guitar through this if I could help it as I generally don't rate it's ability in this area.

Ease of Use:
Big learning curb, but once you've mastered the basics it's pretty intuitive. Programming songs takes a VERY long time. Lack of tempo change in song is a major blow and really is the biggest downer on this product.

Support:
Haven't required yet. Which I guess is a good thing...

Overall:
Very good. I was going to give an 8, but the lack of tempo change is really dissapointing.