In what I hope will be a recurring theme, here's a story about three unexpectedly useful MIDI gadgets that won't break the bank. Don't let their diminutive price tags put you off; there's a wealth of music-making potential lurking underneath.

Each instrument costs less than $300 on the street. (Like cars, musical instruments are usually sold at negotiated discounts.) Two of these instruments make sound; all three can function as MIDI controllers, triggering and shaping sounds on a computer or external MIDI sound module. (For more on MIDI control, see "Look Ma—Hands! Choosing and Using MIDI Controllers" as well as the "MIDI Guitar 101" sidebar.)

To make things interesting, I decided to try a MIDI drum set, guitar/bass, and keyboard. Yep—if you're a Youngbloods fan, you can outfit the whole band for under $900!

The Yamaha DD-55C Digital Percussion controller combines sampled drum and percussion sounds with a beat box and drum triggers. It offers more MIDI functionality than you might expect in a device sold in big-box discount stores.

As an old MIDI guitar fan (old in both senses of the word, I'm afraid) I found the Yamaha EZ-AG EZ-Guitar intriguing. Here's a product aimed squarely at the kiddie market that doubles as a MIDI guitar controller.

And despite its compact size and price, the Alesis Photon X25 keyboard controller is no toy, either. In fact, I've rarely found a MIDI controller with as much power and flexibility at any price.

In the playful spirit of this roundup, I decided to rate these three on a coolness scale of one to five ice cubes. Like a good song, let's start with the foundation.

Yamaha DD-55C

The Yamaha DD-55C stereo-sampled drum kit.

Yamaha DD-55C Digital Percussion

There's something addictive about drums. Face it, at some time or other you've probably sat down at a drum set and flailed away. Not easy, is it? How do those drummers coordinate all four limbs to produce those primal beats?

Although the DD-55C isn't a full-fledged trainer, it has a number of features to teach you how to play drums. You can play along with a metronome or 100 fully orchestrated songs. You can mute individual drum parts or the backing tracks to concentrate on one hand (or foot) at a time. You can play back through the stereo speakers or use headphones (not included) for silent practice. You can unplug the power adapter and pop in a handful of D-cell batteries so you can play down by the lake. Heck, Yamaha even throws in a sturdy set of sticks.

Experienced drummers will quickly take to the simple layout: seven velocity-sensitive pads plus footswitches for kick and hi-hat. (In the default kits the central pad changes from open to closed hat depending on the position of the left-hand footswitch, a nice touch.)

The DD-55C's 211 drum and percussion voices cover all the usual bases: rock, dance, jazz, electronic, and Latin sounds, plus the ever-popular whip snap. Each sound, along with 22 sequences (short fills and phrases) is easily assigned to any drum pad. Likewise, you can configure how each pad responds to velocity (how hard you bang on it), as well as what MIDI info is transmitted. All well and good, but why-oh-why is there only a solitary user memory location to store your custom kit?!

Bang a Gong

Digital drums stand or fall on the quality of the samples. So how does the DD-55C stack up? Not badly, actually:

Overall, I'd put the samples on a par with most inexpensive drum machines. But don't forget you'll naturally vary the velocity and rhythmic feel as you play the pads. With a little practice you'll get quite realistic results.

The DD-55C's 10 "Sequence Kits" are perfect for lazy drummers. With a fixed pattern of drum sounds on each pad, all you have to do is hit something in rhythm to sound like a true drum monster.

The following two audio examples each resulted from a single pad strike:

Because I'm not a drummer, I liked the way the DD-55C guided my practice. I dialed up one of the easier songs, muted just the prerecorded kick drum, and started getting my right foot in gear. After a couple of passes, I added the snare and finally the hi-hat. I have to admit I was grinning like a puppy in a milkbone factory. This is fun!

Now that I can play, it's time to make a record, right? Even though there are two buttons plainly labeled "Record" and "Start/Stop," the record function took some getting used to. Instead of letting you record and save your own new songs, it's intended as a practice tool.

I was grinning like a puppy in a milkbone factory. This is fun!

Here's how it works: after building up my chops by playing along with song number 10 (the euphoniously titled "Hard Rock—Easy") for a few minutes, I punched "Record" and played along. The playback included the original backing tracks and my pathetic attempts to coordinate my feet and hands. No more drummer jokes for me; this stuff's hard!

After a few more tries—and judicious use of the tempo control to slow the rate to a more humane setting—I started to get the hang of it. Okay, so Steve Gadd doesn't have to watch his back. But I bet I could actually learn how to play drums well enough to sequence simple parts using this thing.

I wish Yamaha had thought to provide a stand adapter for the DD-55C; finding a comfortable playing position is a chore. QuikLok sells a dedicated stand, something I'd suggest investing in.

MIDI Veni Vici

The DD-55C is a great little drum trainer with a decent set of sounds. Ah, but plug in a MIDI cable and you can trigger millions of percussion samples on computers or external devices. (To connect to a computer, you'll also need a MIDI interface, which bridges the DD55C's five-pin MIDI jack to a USB or FireWire connector. Simple USB MIDI interfaces cost about $50.)

If you already play drums, you'll appreciate the way the DD-55C lets you interact with your software. Instead of tapping in hits on tiny drum pads—or, worse, on a keyboard—you get decent-sized pads to whack away at. Sure, the two pedals don't have the feel of the real thing, but they do let you use your skills.

For the rest of us, there's something pretty dang satisfying about hitting a drum instead of tapping one. Set the velocity just right and you can use your hands, too. I even tilted the instrument sideways and wailed away with my bodhran tipper.

That said, the DD-55C's user interface is a drag. Get ready for lots of head scratching and button pushing if you want to create your own drum kit with custom MIDI note numbers and velocity response. And remember, you only get one user kit; if you use multiple sample libraries you'd be better off matching the software to the DD-55C's defaults.

DD-55 Controls Customizing the DD-55 from its front-panel controls is tough.

One final note: the only way to replace the song data is via Yamaha's "Song Filer" utility, available as a download at www.yamahaPKclub.com. I wish I could tell you how it works, but I can't. You see, Yamaha hasn't updated the utility since the Dark Ages and it won't run on any of my Macs. But if you are running Mac OS 7.5-9.2 (not Classic) or Windows 95/98/2000 or XP, you can try it and let me know.

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