The Rhythm Fever is basically a repackaging, with a ‘stylish-modern-turn-of-the-eighties’ enclosure, of classic Rhythm Ace units such as the FR-6, minus the wood. A few of the rhythm patterns are different (this one has ‘disco’!!), but the internal circuitry hasn’t changed much, if at all. In fact, after comparing the voice board for a few Ace Tone drum machines, I realized that they were all the same!
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I guess this is supposed to be the top-end model of Hillwood’s drum machine lineup, which also includes the smaller HR-2, and it does have three times the amount of preset rhythms, plus a couple of extra sounds and an interesting variation switch… But strangely it doesn’t have the really useful ‘cancel’ buttons of its smaller brother. Now, if this had been available on the HR-30, it could easily have competed with some of the most famous and succesful drum machines of the era, such as the Korg Mini Pops 120, but instead we’re left with a design full of promise that doesn’t fully deliver…
Nevertheless, the ‘super variation’ switch and the big amount of presets makes it a fun and useful drum box. Plus there’s a really original ‘guiro’ sound (that ‘scraping on the ribbed belly of the wooden-fish-looking-thing with a stick’ sound) that I haven’t heard in any other drum machines from the era.
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National is a brand name belonging to Matsushita electronics, who are better known outside Japan under another brand name, Panasonic. I’m not aware of other musical instruments sold under the National name, so I was surprised to see this drum machine show up for sale. Until 2009, Matsushita used the National name almost exclusively for home appliances (washing machines, microwaves etc.), keeping the Panasonic name for audio & video, so a National drum machine was unexpected…
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The Ace Tone rhythm producer is an early attempt by Ace Tone / Roland / Nihon Hammond to create a programmable drum machine. The sounds available are very ‘Rhythm Ace’ like, and the usual preset rhythms can be found on the front panel, but what sets this unit apart is a programming matrix that allows limited control over the patterns, something that was very hard to come by in those days.
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The Roland Rhythm Plus PB-300 was manufactured around 1983, and was designed as a complete accompaniment device, similar to the ones found on home organs from the same era. A keyboard can be connected via midi and trigger bass lines, arpeggios or chords along with the preset rhythm selected. The owner’s manual specifically mentions the HP-300/400 Keyboard and PR-800 Roland devices to go along with this unit. We’ve never hooked up the PB-300 to its siblings, only using it as a standalone drum machine.
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Almost identical to the Korg KR-55, released a couple of years earlier, except it has twice the amount of patterns. It’s arguably one of the greatest preset drum machines ever produced, with individual volume controls and a wide variety of preset rhythms, all of which can be tweaked with the “swing” setting.
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The Korg Mini-Pops 120, also rebranded as the Univox SR-120, was the top-of-the-line Mini Pops model produced, with more features and presets than other drum machines from this series, such as the Mini Pops Junior and 35. It comes in two cabinet styles, a tolex road case or a wooden chassis. Apart from their appearance, both units are identical in every other aspect. My tolex 120 came with a huge “Boss” sticker stuck on it… I couldn’t remove it, I thought it was too funny, Roland being Korg’s biggest competitor in the drum machine market at the time!
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The Roland RE-100 and RE-200 tape delays are the direct precursors to the well-known RE-101 and RE-201 Space Echoes. 200 series units have a spring reverb, while the 100 series don’t, which is the main difference between them, along with the addition of a peak level indicator and a few more settings on the mode selector switch. Apart from that, the internal electronics and sound seem identical.
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Nothing really…! In all honesty, this is the worst tape echo I’ve ever held in my hands! It’s got absolutely no features, the speed control isn’t continuous (although maybe, maybe, this could be useful when you want to dial in the same speed on different occasions… assuming the voltage is steady enough to give you the same speed!), there’s no VU meter, no direct out for the wet signal, no tone controls, and it doesn’t sounds very good… The only redeeming points of this machine are its small size and light weight. For psychedelic sound effects, sound wave destruction or noise music, maybe…
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The Kastam company is a bit of a mystery; I’ve done extensive research on the web, and couldn’t find any information about the company, and no other products except the 8-track units in the ESTECHO collection.
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