Boss DR-55 midi and more

One of our customers, Landon Balk, used the uniPulse midi interface to add midi to his Boss DR-55.
He also completely modded his machine and constructed a custom case.
You can purchase the case directly from him: facebook site or website.
This manual shows how to install uniPulse in the Boss DR-55 based on his instructions.
Please read carefully before purchasing the uniPulse mod. If you want this to be done by a tech, get a quote first!

Preparing the DR-55

Unlike most other drum machines the DR-55 needs to be modified a bit before uniPulse install is possible. The modification consists of replacing four jumper wires with diodes. You can use pretty much any kind of diode like 1N4148.

Modifications Boss DR-55

It will be hard to fit the uniPulse board in the original case. An external case like this one is probably a good choice. Here you can see the uniPulse board (on the right) sitting in the case and wires connected to the DR-55 main board.

A close-up shows where to solder the wires from uniPulse. Wires marked 1-5 are pulse outputs P1-5 from the uniPulse.The 5th connection is an extra sound (just the snare ‘body’)

Powering uniPulse

We recommend to power uniPulse from an external 12V-15V DC power supply. Just make sure to connect GND of uniPulse to GND of the DR-55

Configuring uniPulse

You can use the uniPulse configurator to upload your configuration. You need to set up the Pulse outputs as: Positive, Rect, 6V. Linking the velocity to the voltage will give you some velocity control. We recommend to experiment with pulse shapes and lengths.

You can find a configuration file here