Zoom RT223 Rhythm Trak Drum Machine

Pros:* Very easy to program!* Sounds great!* Very long battery life! I've used it for days and never changed the batteries!* Lots of alternate intros, fills, breaks, endings, and verses are possible.* All drum pad keys are extremely programmable!* Beautiful lighted keys light up to show which drum key pad is being played in both record and playback modes!* It has it's own stereo line input that gets mixed with it's stereo audio output. You could connect a guitar to the drum machine, then the drum machine to your amp with no need for a mixer!Cons:* No fast forward or reverse traversing is possible when editing a recorded pattern.* No way to back up your patterns digitally.I LOVE THE LIGHTED KEYS! It looks fantastic. This is one of the most beautiful drum machines in its price range. You have to see it live to appreciate the lighted keys as they dance to the drum patterns being played!I also love the fact that all the keys are programmable! If you look at the key pad in the product picture, you'll see INTRO, VERSE A, FILL A, VERSE B, FILL B, BREAK, and ENDING, printed on the keys. I learned that these are just guides. In song mode, any drum pad key can be set to any type of pattern: fill, intro, verse, break, ending, etc. If you wanted, you could make 3 different intro buttons that play 3 different intro patterns that lead to three different verses! You get to program how each button works. You could make the intro button play an intro pattern, and then jump to any other drum pad's pattern after the intro completes, or even have the intro jump to itself! This is a genius way to use a drum machine!I play keyboards, and having the ability to press a single key on the drum machine to have the pattern jump from verse A to verse B using several alternate fill patterns, breaks, etc., is fantastic! Because any key can be any pattern in song mode, and any pattern can jump to any other key's pattern, you can make all sorts of interesting pattern jumps happen live by simply touching a single key! For example, I can make the top 6 drum pad keys jump from pattern to pattern from the left pad's pattern all the way to the right pad's pattern one after the next automatically, and then jump to my verse A pattern when it's done skipping across all the patterns. All that can be triggered by pressing 1 key! It's these kinds of things that make this drum machine FAR BETTER than the Alesis drum machines. They simply can't do this kind of pattern jumping based on drum pad keys. They are limited to fill A->B and fill B-A. That's way too simplistic for my drum pattern needs. I need multiple fill patterns, multiple verses, multiple pattern jumps, etc. This drum machine can do it!Summary:The ability to program the keys the way you can with this drum machine goes far beyond what other drum machines in its price range can do. It sounds great. And it's easy to use. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS DRUM MACHINE!UPDATE: After 7 years of regular use it still works great. I did have to factory reset it once though, because it got stuck once. Other than that one problem, it's worked flawlessly. Great product.

This drum machine had no 3/4 time in any of its programs. Though the Zoom RT223 had been purchased from Amazon the instructions in the shipping box indicated that customers should contact Zoom regarding defective products. After contacting Zoom they indicated that it was defective and that I should return it to the Zoom Company in New York which I did (after spending another $24. for shipping!).Three weeks after the product had been returned to Zoom i called to find out when it would be mailed back to me. I was informed that it would be at least several more weeks before their repairman could get to it due to the flood damage from Hurricane Katrina. I asked the phone receptionist how long a "several weeks" would be. She would not provide a time. I then contacted Amazon--the company. Amazon indicated that they would replace the product but that the defective machine would need to be returned. I explained that Zoom had the original machine. Amazon explained that they could ship a new product but if they did not return the defective product within 30 days then I would be charged for another drum machine. I explained to the Amazon representative that, I was dependent upon Zoom returning the machine to me within that 30 day limit and that was out of my control. Subsequently, I recontacted Zoom and requested that the machine be returned to me so that I could send it to Amazon.Based on the above experience, I would not recommend this product. Before discovering that it had no 3/4 time in any of its over 300 programs I thoroughly reviewed the operating manual. That was very confusing. This product is NOT user friendly and their customer service is very poor.

I like this little box. It will rock! From a drummer's viewpoint, it makes since and sounds pretty good. Some of the rhythms are a little busy but it is easy to fix them and even easier to build your own. I can play this live like a little drum set and the velocity sensitive keys are remarkable. As a guitarist I love having this thing back me up. Now I did have issues getting the bass to do what I wanted when I wanted it done. It looks like most of the programming is based in the Dorian mode for I, IV, V progression stuff. Getting it to do minor keys was a pain. Playing relative minor keys on a piano or guitar is easy...not so much on this box. (There might be something I'm missing.) I didn't get a owners guide and had to download a pdf. The pdf is 99 pages long and can try your patience but it is absolutely necessary if you are going to take full advantage of this machine. I recommend you do that before you buy it, then, you will have it figured out when it gets to you in the mail.BUY THE PEDAL... (FS01)... Whatever pedal you have will not work with this and you will need it if you want to jam.You will have to have a pre-amp or an effects pedal if you want to hear the guitar. Once you get the gain from the pedal, it is magic. The sound is amazing. It is going to be great to have this backing me up around town! If you are new and don't have an amp I get great sound through the home stereo. The only thing I would change is putting a preamp on the line in. You can drop the drum and bass level through the mix function and get the guitar to balance if you run the box into an amp. If you are going straight to earphones and you match the guitar level by dropping the bass and drums you won't hear a thing.I would buy it again! I didn't give it 5 stars only because I should be able to go straight from my guitar to the box for practice sake.