The RT-223 is a drum & bass machine for any kind of rhythm play. Small in size and light in weight, this low-profile unit will go with you anywhere. You can get a session going with your very own rhythm section in a flash, even on your desktop.



Seventy different kits from Rock Drum to Voice Percussion

The range of drum kits built into the RT-223 is simply amazing. A total of 70 drum kits are built-in, with acoustic drum sounds for rock, R&B, funk, and jazz. Add an analog rhythm machine great for Techno and Hip Hop. Ethnic percussion sounds are also available. There are also five Human Voice "Beat Box" Percussion kits that are currently all the rage in Hip Hop. Create advanced rhythm tracks where kick, snare, scratch and other instrument sounds are expressed as human voices.



Create your own drum kits

A drum kit consists of 13 pads x 3 banks = 39 sounds. Sound sources can be freely selected and assigned to the pads. Fine-tune parameters such as pitch, level, and panning to create your own original drum kits. The RT-223 lets you store up to 127 user-programmed kits.



Twelve built-in bass sound sources

Choose from electric bass styles such as Pick, Finger, and Slap. Or select Acoustic Bass, Synthesizer Bass, or one of the other bass sources, 12 in total. To create a bass line, you can play the pads with assigned chromatic pitches just like a keyboard. A dedicated switch quickly lets you mute the bass sound at any time.



Two types of effects to control EQ and Ambience

The overall EQ and tonal quality of a drum kit can be adjusted with the Comp EQ effect. The Reverb effects can be used simultaneously. These effects can also be applied to bass sounds. Up to 40 settings for each effect can be stored as patches.



Comp EQ effect

The RT-223 incorporates a multi-band compressor with independent settings for each frequency band. By applying the effect to just the right frequency range, you can tighten up the kick drum, give snares and tom-tom more body, or perform other mastering tricks to spruce up the sound of a drum kit. A resonance filter and Low-Fi effect great for dance music are also built-in.



Reverb effect

Four different kinds of reverb (Hall, Room, Spring, Plate) and Chorus, Flanger, and Delay are included. The effect send level can be set for each sound source individually. For example, you could apply Gate Reverb to the snare sound only, or place the entire drum kit in a hall. Flanger and Delay can be synchronized to the tempo in measure or beat units. Create Flanger with 4-measure modulation or a dotted eighth note Delay. Make your club music explode with novel sounds.



440 preset patterns cover all musical styles

From Rock, Jazz, and Funk to Club and House, the RT-223 comes with 440 playing patterns that can be used straight away. A large number of phrase variations including intro, fill-in, and ending patterns are also provided. By simply combining these, you can whip up a backing rhythm that delivers the goods.



Touch-sensitive pads let you build original patterns

Programming your own patterns is a snap, thanks to the touch-sensitive drum pads. The RT-223 records not only your timing, but also the dynamics of your finger work. You can create and store up to 511 patterns. The process is made even easier through visual cues provided by the self-lit pads.



Quickly create original songs with FAST method

You can combine any number of drum patterns in any order to create a song. In addition to step input where you select patterns one by one, the RT-223 also offers the innovative FAST (Formula Assisted Song Translator) method. With FAST, you use simple mathematical symbols such as +, ?, (, and ) to specify the pattern lineup. This is especially useful for songs with repeated patterns. To play pattern number 12 eight times and then pattern 25 sixteen times, you simply enter "12 x 8 + 25 x 16". By enclosing this in brackets and adding a mult [cut...]