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My Music Gear

This is really just another test of linking in Gemini, but also I'm thinking of chatting about some of my music gear here. In school I played coronet, then later guitar. Now, I like to play a little bit of everything, but have been getting more into keyboard/drum machine land. Here is some stuff I have.

Drum Machines

Akai XR20: The Akai XR20 is in many ways very similar to the Alesis SR-18, except it has a focus on hip-hop style drums. Like the SR-18, you can also put bass on patterns, but it feels better to ignore the bass, IMO.
Alesis HR-16: A classic from back around '87. Smashing Pumpkins use this in the intro to '1979', Godflesh use it on their whole 1st album, and it's used elsewhere. Pretty easy to use and flexible. It has 4 outputs as well, which makes processing the drums nice. Pattern length can be crazy long.
Alesis SR-18: A sequel to the more widely known SR-16, it has more sounds and the ability to program bass accompaniment, but I find it an uninspiring machine.
Behringer RD-6: Behringer's clone of the TR-606, and it clones it as well as you'd ever need. It sounds like a cheap old thing, which the original was, but it's easy and flexible. Original used by Big Black on their early stuff.
Boss DR-5: Arguably a full-blown predecessor to the "Groove Box" idea, but pitched to amateur guitarists. It is a flexible drum machine, but it also has 3 additional tracks in patterns that can be programmed with accompaniment. The instrument sounds are mediocre, but you could reverb 'em up. Its ease of use is a big plus.
Boss DR-202: This was a partner with the SP-202 sampler. It is a drum machine aimed at hip-hop and electronic genres, and you can individually effect and filter all of the drums. You can also do bass accommpaniment, and it has a 3rd track you can record MIDI to. Presumably it was imagined you'd record yourself playing samples off the SP-202 on that track, but it could be any outboard MIDI gear.
Boss DR-550mkII: I had the original mkI version of this in High School, and this just adds more sounds. A quality sounding 16-bit drum machine, nothing special, but totally does its thing.
Roland TR-707: The classic 707 is not as popular as the 808 or 909, but I like it. Individual outs on everything, can sync a variety of ways. A couple famous songs it's on include Michael McDonald's "Sweet Freedom" and most clearly, INXS's "I Need You Tonight." Great '80s synthwave-type vibes possible off this.

Groove Boxes

Boss DR-5: As mentioned above, I switch between just considering this a drum machine and a proto-groove box. It's not as cool as later groove boxes. It has a bit of a "boring guy plays blues licks to cheesy background accompaniment" vibe to it.
Boss DR-202: I also debated including this as a groove box. It is mostly a drum machine, but the bass and the 3rd track you can record MIDI into make it something a bit more, and a bit interesting.
Korg EMX1: Totally a groove box. This baby has great drums, then it has this fairly simple synthesis engine you can use for 5 sounds. Sadly each of the 5 is monophonic, but there is flexibility there. Also, effects routing is available. I like some of the Jungle drum samples, and the Linn Drum sounds, among the most standard ones available.
Roland JD-Xi: This doesn't come in a Groove Box form factor, it's like a mini-keyboard. But, it has a fun 4 track sequencer thing going on, very flexible drums, great sounds, you can totally make a fully fleshed out thing happen on just this alone.
Roland MC-303: The original device that coined the whole "Groove Box" thing, the MC-303 is a little clumsy to use, but I like some of the sounds buried in it.
Roland MC-505: The follow up to the MC-303, it is said this was used by artists such as M.I.A. and Peaches. It is much more capable than the MC-303 but still can be a little clumsy to use. Using it as a sound module with a sequencer seems like a solid option though.

Samplers/Sequencers

Akai MPC 2000: The classic. I have this baby fully expanded out to 32 MB. I swapped the floppy drive out for one of those USB stick floppy emulator devices. Known historically for being a sampler beloved by classic hip-hop folks, it is also a great sequencer of external gear.
Akai MPC Live: This is Akai's return to real, full MPCs. It kind of feels more like taking a modern computer DAW sort of workflow into hardware.
Alesis MMT-8: This is a sequencer that was used by a number of classic electronica acts. You get 8 tracks, but each can contain all 16 MIDI channels, and you can mute and unmute the tracks, or go between patterns. It is well liked, looks just like the Alesis HR-16, which it was often paired with.
Korg KROSS 2: This is what you might call a workstation keyboard. It can do it all internally, samples, full sequencing of 16 tracks, etc.
Roland SP-555: This baby is a sampler, in the same lineage as the SP-404. It is very similar, but a bit expanded and a little more rare. These samplers can be used for anything, but most famously there are used in lo-fi hip-hop style tracks, all dark and wobbly and with the sloppy drums, etc. Doesn't have to be that, but it's what's most associated with 'em.