Selling a Korg DDD-1 drum machine, made in Japan.

The unit works. Includes the original manual—with

signs of wear!

The display backlight is broken, and the front cover is missing. It

is intended to cover the slots for the ROM cards, so it has no

relevant function during normal operation.

The unit shows age-related signs of wear but is

in good technical condition.

Manufacturer Info:

The DDD-1 (Dynamic Digital Drums) is a drum machine that was

introduced by Korg in 1986. It was Korg’s first drum machine

with MIDI control and features 14 velocity-sensitive pads and

12-bit samples. It also offers expanded sound capabilities via

ROM cards, six assignable audio outputs, and an LCD display.

Sounds and Functions
The DDD-1 features 18 preset sounds that can be triggered via 14 gray pads on the front panel, as well as additional pads for functions such as Roll and Flam (white), Start and Stop/Reset (blue), Record/Enter (red), and Tap Tempo (white). Below a 16-digit LCD display are a 10-button pad and a cursor with +1/-1 buttons for menu navigation. Tempo adjustments can also be made using a data entry slider. The velocity-sensitive drum pads enable dynamic recordings that simulate real drum playing—stronger strikes produce louder sounds in the pattern. In addition, the DDD-1 offers five selectable dynamic envelopes that influence volume changes based on the intensity of the pad strikes.

The drum machine features 18 sounds, including two types of kick drums and snares, three variations of toms, a rimshot, two sets each of closed and open hi-hats, crash and ride cymbals, claps, a cowbell, a tambourine, and a cabasa. The pitch of each sound can be adjusted within a range of 0 to 127. The sounds can be routed to one of six individual outputs for separate tone control. The voices routed through the left/right jacks can be positioned in one of seven stereo field positions. The machine also features a headphone output for monitoring.
The DDD-1 can expand its 18 built-in drum sounds by using ROM cards, each of which contains up to eight additional sounds. The unit supports up to four ROM cards simultaneously, allowing their sounds to be used together with the internal sounds.