All user reviews of 4/5 for the Yamaha RY30

The Yamaha RY-30 Rhythm Programmer is a classic drum machine, that is decades old, but still very usable today. The drum sounds are 16-bit, 48kHz PCM with digital multimode filters. The RY-30 can store up to 100 user patterns and 20 songs, and it comes with 100 preset patterns in various styles for instant drum accompaniment.

The RY30 has over 80 waveforms, including acoustic drum and percussion samples and electric drum sounds. There are 6 analog waves, including sine, triangle, and saw waves. Two oscillators can be layered to each voice, and the voices can be pitched and played via MIDI or the modulation controls on the unit. It has 16-note polyphony, including a voice dedicated to the metronome. There are 12 touch sensitive pads dedicated to a certain type of drum sound, including bass drum, four tome, snare, two hi-hats, ride cymbal, crash cymbal, and two misc percussions. There are 96 drums sounds built-in (12 banks of eight). Additional sounds and patterns can be brought in with ROM cards for the RY30/RM50, including the Tommy Aldridge RSC3072 card, which I happen to own with this unit.

UTILIZATION

This unit can be utilized for many different things. You can play live drums using the pads on the front, you can program drum beats and songs for use with live shows and such, and you can even play the drums with an external midi control. You can even use it as a sequencer, to send midi data to another drum machine or computer.

SOUNDS

For a unit this old, the sounds are surprising good and usable, both the acoustic drums and electric drums. It's not merely a practice unit, you can certainly record professional tracks with this thing!

OVERALL OPINION

Overall, the Yamaha RY-30 is one of the more legendary drum machines that were ever made, and if you're looking for something vintage but still very usable, this certainly works.