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.
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