I had some money to burn and bought a BOSS DB-90. Here’s my review:


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The Boss DB-90 is 122mm wide, 37.5mm high and 164mm deep and weighs around 450gr battery included. The case is kept in dark grey plastic. The front panel houses a 48x40mm LC display, a 50mm speaker and all control buttons and sliders as well as a microphone. Buttons are in black with white writing, the so called rhythm level sliders and the Tempo/Value dial is in bright orange. The labelling of secondary functions and connectors is moulded onto the front panel and being grey as the panel itself hard to decipher. Speaking of connectors, the DB-90 is well equipped with them. On the right side we find an input jack that connects to an electric guitar or bass. A small dial next to it adjusts the input volume. The second jack on the same side connects to a trigger pad such as a Roland V-Pad. On the left side there are two jacks for headphones, one ¼” jack and a stereo miniature jack. Both headphones jacks can be used at the same time. A ¼” start/stop jack connects to a foot switch that allows starting and stopping the metronome. A ¼” Memory jack connects to a footswitch that can be used to shift the memories up and down. The connections are complemented with a DC IN and a MIDI IN connector. Located at the back of the metronome are the battery compartment (a 9V block is required, included) and a stand. The stand is made of flimsy plastic and I don’t even dare to use it for fear of breaking it. At the top the DB-90 houses a thread to attach the metronome to a cymbal stand. The metronome comes with an adapter in case your cymbal stand uses a M8 thread. Also supplied with the DB-90 is a “soft case”, a thin plastic cover that should help to protect the metronome. Since this soft case can’t be closed the metronome happily takes every opportunity to slide out of it when you aren’t watching. Makes this accessory a wee bit redundant I reckon.

After you have inserted the battery you can get started. Press “power” and switch on the unit. All the important information is shown in the display. If you find the display to dark, press “light” to switch on the backlight. The backlight stays on for ca. 5 seconds. In order to have the backlight on all the times you have to press “light” and “power” at the same time when you switch on the unit, let go of the “power” button and that’s it, the backlight stays on. But be careful it sucks dry your battery. Using the metronome is relatively simple. Press “TEMPO” and you can change the bpm using the dial (from 30 to 250). To choose the number of beats in a bar press “BEAT/PATTERN” once. Using the dial you can set the number of beats in a bar. The DB-90 offers you everything from 1 to 9 beats per bar as well as odd meters in different groupings: 1+1, 1+2, 1+3, 1+4, …., 2+1, 2+2, 2+3, …, 9+9. All in all you can choose from 90 different settings. Press “VOICE” and use the dial to choose from 4 different metronome sounds. The manual describes them as wind-up metronome sound, electronic metronome sound, electronic click sound, human voice. I found that the voices sound different when played through the speaker or headphones. The electronic metronome sound for example sounds good with speakers but is unbearable with headphones (ear piercing, ouch). The Human Voice is counting the beat, which is ok at low tempo and might help to practise complicated rhythms, but it is annoying at higher speed. My daughter used to annoy me with high speed counting. Apart from that, shouldn’t we learn to count out loud ourselves? I personally would like more click sounds to choose from, like a cowbell, a wood block etc. I can’t understand why the choice is so limited.

If you want to practise along a drum beat pattern, you press “BEAT/PATTERN” twice and use the dial to choose from 30 programmed patterns, simple drum beats to blues, techno, reggae, salsa, you name it. IMHO most of the patterns sound terrible, any cheap keyboard provides better once. Now you can set the Rhythm Sliders. The sliders are nothing else than volume controls for accent and different notes within the bar. The first slider (from left to right) adds an accent on the 1 beat in the bar, the second slider adds the quarter notes, the third slider adds eighth notes, the fourth slider adds sixteenth notes and the fifth slider adds triplets. You can mix your own rhythm by using different volumes for those notes. I really like this function. You can easily practice eighth against triplets or sixteenth against triplets emphasizing either the triplets or the other notes using different volumes for each of them. The last slider is the master volume control. Having set everything hit the START/STOP button and the DB-90 starts clicking. In addition to the click sound, you see red lights flashing in tempo and a smooth tempo meter is visualizing the tempo in the display, looks a little bit like the old wind-up metronomes. You can change all settings while the metronome is running. Just press the button in question and set with the dial, is as easy as that. If you want to find out the tempo of your favourite song, tap your finger on the “TAP” button and the metronome sets the tempo accordingly - nice.

The DB-90 can store up to 50 settings in its inbuilt memory. The 50 memory slots are preset with factory settings. Press “MEMORY” and choose a memory from 1 to 50 with the dial in order to see the settings. You can change the preset and press write twice to save. You don’t have to use the memory button first though. If it happens that you found the right setting, just press “WRITE” once - that lets you choose a memory slot - press “WRITE” again and your settings are saved. The first 20 memory slots are preset with click sounds; in the remaining 30 we find our drum patterns again. Those 30 patterns can be edited (within limits) and you can create your own drum pattern track. You can also overwrite the memory patterns with normal click tracks. Don’t worry changing them, you are not changing the 30 drum patterns that you can choose with the “BEAT/PATTERN” button.

The Loop function lets you play all memory settings in succession. You can choose the number of repeats per memory individually for each memory. This function can be handy for practicing different tempi or changes of meter or tempo within songs.

50 memories are plenty in my opinion and the loop function is handy but at the same time here we have the big flaws of the DB-90. If you change the battery, the memory is lost, completely. The manual has a very good tip to avoid data loss: “… . To protect yourself against the risk of loosing important data, we recommend that you write down important data on paper (when possible).” YOU GOT TO BE KIDDING ME. What if I can’t write?. Here we are, living in an era of mobile phones, sim cards, memory cards and USB sticks and they telling me to use pen and paper to back up my data. Can’t BOSS use modern technology to avoid that hassle? Can I ask for something like that in a device that cost 300 AUD? Next problem is the loop function. The loop function plays the content of the memories in succession, from 1 to 50. If you don’t want a memory to be played you can set the repeats to zero. Why can’t I choose individual memories to put together a loop and store that loop for further use. I would like to create building block that I can put together for my practise routines. Well, that’s not possible with the DB-90. To be honest my cheap mobile phone has more memory options and it cost me only 50 AUD. Dear BOSS Company, please get real.

I just want to mention some of the other functions, although I haven’t used some of them (yet).

DB-90 offers a coach function that helps to practice (1) playing in time, (2) acceleration and deceleration, and (3) internal timing. For (1) you plug in a trigger pad or use the inbuilt microphone. You play along a click track and the metronome shows you if you play before, on or behind the beat. (2): the metronome accelerates (gradual or in steps) to a set maximum speed and decelerates again. (3): the metronome plays four measures, mutes the next four measures and plays normally after that, so you can check whether you are still in time.

The DB-90 can play a reference tone (from C2 to B6). You can set the reference pitch (A4) from (438Hz to 445Hz).

The DB-90 can be implemented in a MIDI environment. I haven’t used this function. If someone has, please let us know how it works.

You can use the DB-90 as a “pocket” amp. Just connect your e-guitar or bass, press the right buttons and you can play along with the click.

Well, I reckon that’s about it. The DB-90 is a very nice metronome and certainly an upgrade from my old Wittner. I’m happy to own it for my practice sessions. It has many well designed functions with plenty of room for improvement: more voices, better memory functions, flexible loop function. The DB-90 is an expensive metronome, totally overrated if you ask me. My tip is to buy an AC Adapter too. The battery goes flat very quickly. I would not recommend buying the boss AC adapter. In the music store they sell it for 70 AUD!!!!!!!. I told the guy he can keep it and I bought myself a 9Volt 0.8Amp (max) AC adapter with a bunch of connectors from the nearest electronics store. I picked the right size connector and figured out the polarity [the centre part of the BOSS connector is (-)], and that works just fine for only 20 AUD. Wouldn’t you expect a 300AUD device to come with an AC adapter anyway? Every cheap Christmas tree light does.

If you want to add your experiences with this product, please feel free to do so

Cheers