Here I will be reviewing the difference between the Korg Beatlab BTL-1 and the Boss Dr. Beat DB-90.
I’ll start off with some photos of each of the two products:
As I write this review, I’m writing about the various details of each product as I see them in order of importance. You’ll also note that I call the Boss unit by its model number and the Korg by the name of its series. The reason for this is that in the Dr. Beat range there is also the DB-88 and possibly others, and with the Korg unit, it’s pretty well never referred to by its model number. So this is hopefully to avoid any confusion on the reader’s part. Note that I will not be going into detail about the advanced modes of these two models, such as rhythm training and creating your own song forms.
I/O:
As can be seen, the DB-90 has many more sockets on its sides than the Beatlab. The Beatlab has an ungenerous ¼” headphone output and a standard 9V centre-negative power input (just like on most pedal power supplies). The DB-90, however, has the following (in order, from top to bottom):
LEFT SIDE:
MIDI In
DC In (9V centre-negative, same as the Beatlab)
Memory Up/Down
Start/Stop
Phones (¼”)
Phones (1/8”)
RIGHT SIDE:
Trigger In
Input Level
Input
On the top is a 6mm size screw hole and a Kensington type lock hole.
MIDI on the DB-90:
Ok, so if you are looking to buy this to be a MIDI metronome for your DAW (Pro Tools, Logic, Reason, etc), like I did, then you should know – IT FAILS. By that I don’t mean fails as in not work, but it sucks. Let me explain…
I’ll just firstly point out that I’m looking at this from a studio perspective.
My old Korg TR keyboard that I had was great when synced to Pro Tools – When you hit play or record on PT the tempo LED would flash in time with the software click, and all the arpeggios and tempo controlled features of the keyboard would keep in time happily with the DAW. SO, this proves that Pro Tools (and many other audio applications) can send out a digital “click” down the MIDI line.
Now, Boss, in all their wisdom, decided they would completely disregard this incredibly useful MIDI information. Instead, they have an alternative method: The metronome (once you actually get it to sync – explained in a moment) only receives the start/stop information from MIDI, and possibly the bpm too (hard to tell). What this means, is that the metronome starts fine, and sounds like it’s in time, but is it really??? The short answer – NO. Because of this major setback, the metronome starts counting at it’s own pace. It will stay in time for a minute, maybe two, or if you’re lucky, three. Any longer than that and the metronome is noticeably out of sync with whatever is sending it the MIDI data. If you’re like me and you like to record yourself jamming for an hour or so, then this metronome cannot be relied on. If you’re doing a verse or chorus of a song you should be fine, but anything much longer and you’re going to start running into timing problems. This means that ultimately you’re going to have one heck of a job editing tempos, or have to record your tracks all over again.
Getting it to sync – Ok, so this is utterly stupid. You first have to select the same tempo on the metronome as your DAW is set to. That’s the key point and it took me ages to figure that one out. From there I have managed to make it change tempo with the DAW (well on Pro Tools anyway) a couple of times, but I don’t think it’s a listed feature. I’ve done it before but it doesn’t always work and I haven’t figured out the reason why. Maybe Boss didn’t figure it out either so that’s why they didn’t point it out as a feature (off the top of my head here). Who knows…
For those that are curious as to why I’d want to use a metronome over the DAW click – I like the idea of whoever is in the live room to be able to adjust the click as they please – Bring in offbeats and triplets, change volumes, etc. It saves me stuffing around in the settings of Pro Tools changing it all for them, and it’s probably more flexible too.
So, all in all, the DB-90 metronome controlled via MIDI = FAIL. I think potentially Boss could release a firmware update for this (which somehow you’d have to upload via MIDI…? Sounds hard…), but in reality will they ever do this? I doubt it. When a known brand finally releases a decent metronome with this feature (preferably as a rack unit) I’ll be a happy man – But until then I’ll stick to the default Pro tools click. Heck, maybe I’ll just build one myself and market it.
Battery Life:
Korg Beatlab – 4x “AAA”
Boss DB-90 – 1x “9V”
While on the subject of how much the DB-90 sucks, I’ll point out the battery life between the two. Now this one is a shocker. My Beatlab is generally the one that is often found on my desk or lives in my bass case. Main reason – The batteries last around 6 months or more. And in saying that, some days I use my metronome for roughly 5-6 hours. On average, I’d say that per week I use it for around 12-15 hours – All on battery. So using it that often and for the batteries to last around 6 months… Well, you do the math.
Now here’s the kicker – The DB-90, in all its glory… Battery life = About 2 hours. Say what!?!? I mean sure, the batteries of the Beatlab have maybe up to twice the capacity (just guessing here), but as you can tell the difference is HUGE. So that is exactly why at the end of the day the Beatlab travels with me everywhere, while the DB-90 sits on a shelf in my cupboard.
I can’t perceive how such a great difference can come about, but when compared to Korg, Boss sure screwed up this one! So the Beatlab is clearly the winner here, while the DB-90 gets trampled over by even the cheapest of metronomes.
Offbeats:
So here’s another big difference between the two. This section is about bringing up the 8th, triplet, and 16th sliders. Personally I don’t have a preference between the two models; I find both to be very handy.
I’ll start with the Beatlab again… While all of the sliders make a different pitch so you can distinguish between them, each one clicks on, and off, the beat. By this I mean for example, if I were to pull up the 16th slider with the others down, I would hear 16 tones per bar (in 4/4). Now the DB-90 only makes a sound on the offbeat. So if I were to do the same on the DB-90, I would hear 16th rest, 16th click, 16th rest, 16th click, etc. This is all very confusing so really it’s easier just to look at the photos below of close-ups of the screens/sliders. The DB-90 actually shows the details of the sliders on the screen quite clearly. Note that the triplet feature of the DB-90 clicks on every beat, much like the Beatlab.
An important feature to note here of the Beatlab is the “GROUP NOTES” button. Pressing and holding this while bringing up a slider allows you to access 20ths (5), 24ths (6), 28ths (7), 32s (8), 36ths (9). While these numbers are getting huge and most people probably won’t use them (although drummers might like the 32s) it’s good to know that the Beatlab can handle these values, whereas the DB-90 can’t. If you’re into your jazz and/or crazy time signatures like I am, then this is definitely a selling point. For example, I find it quite handy when I’m playing in 5/4 to bring up the 5 slider and the crotchet slider together to outline each beat and the start of every bar, respectively. Pity it doesn’t do 11’s, 13’s, and 17’s, haha.
So to sum up, the Beatlab hits on each beat that you specify, while the DB-90 hits only on the offbeats of the selected slider. On both models the triplets hit on every beat. The Beatlab has the added flexibility of going right up through 5-9 clicks per quarter note.
Sounds:
Ok, so the DB-90 is loaded with four different sounds (“voices”) to choose from. The first one is an awful bell type sound, the second a respectable “click” (which I always use). The third is a click on the accent and a sort of drum sound on every other beat (which unfortunately is the same sound on every slider and therefore is hard to distinguish), and the fourth is a voice counting “One e and a two e and a” etc (or whatever you have the sliders set to), which when you increase the tempo can’t keep up.
The Beatlab, on the other hand, has a preset tone that can’t be changed (note that it has a different pitch between sliders). Although this might be seen as a downside, personally I think it’s great as it’s clear, and easy to distinguish the different hits. It might just take a few minutes to get used to.
To recap, the DB-90 has four different voices to choose from, although really only one or two are useable. With the Beatlab you don’t get to choose the sound, but it’s a very defined and somewhat pleasant sound that fulfils the task at hand quite nicely.
Tempo limitations:
Once again, the Beatlab outshines the DB-90.
Beatlab – 30~300 bpm
DB-90 – 30~250 bpm
You might be thinking: “But who needs over 250 bpm anyway!?” Well, you’ll be surprised. Even the 300 bpm limitation of the Beatlab has been frustrating for me at times and I’ve had to change to using the 8ths instead of quarter notes and half the tempo. So if you’re into your high tempos (especially you bebop cats out there!) then this is something to watch out for.
Selecting your tempo is something I’ll discuss here too. The DB-90 has a nice big wheel to select your tempo, as well as all other values. While this is great to some people and it is super fast, it’s kind of annoying that they didn’t put any up/down buttons on the unit too. When onstage if you’re in the middle of the song and you need to knock it up about 3 bpm because it’s dragging, the last thing you want to do is wind the wheel and find it jumps up about 20 bpm. I’ll outline once again though, that the DB-90 is my studio metronome, so this doesn’t worry me as I have a choice between which I want to use. But if you were to only have the DB-90 then think about this as a limitation. Now the Beatlab however is completely different: It’s has the up/down buttons for those finer increments, as well as a 0-9 keypad for punching in the exact value that you want. Personally I think this is much better, especially because you don’t have to read the display. Also I don’t really trust encoders (or “jog wheels”) like the DB-90 has, because they do wear out. In saying that mine is fine and the others I’ve used (which get totally thrashed by all sorts of bands on some of the stages I play on) also don’t seem to have any problems. So I think Boss did think about quality when they built this product (I’m not saying Korg didn’t – It’s just as robust).
I’ll also just throw in my personal experiences with usability here. The Beatlab is great – For all the features I have no problems finding the buttons I’m after and getting it to do what I want it to. It may not pack the features of the DB-90, but it sure is great to use. When using the DB-90 however, I somehow always find myself lost and confused as to which button to push. Firstly all of the buttons look the same, and understanding the meaning of them isn’t always that simple. Sure, I don’t use it as much as the Beatlab, but every time I want to do anything much further than changing the tempo, I’m always pushing all sorts of buttons trying to figure out which one does what I’m wanting it to do.
So while both models can go down to 30 bpm, the Beatlab has greater tempo margins than the DB-90. Selecting the tempo value with the DB-90 can potentially be faster than the Beatlab, but not as accurate. The Beatlab also has the very handy up/down tempo buttons for finer selections, which unfortunately the DB-90 lacks. The DB-90 also lacks user friendliness in my opinion, whereas the Beatlab is nice, simple, and quick to use.
An additional brief note on beats per bar:
The Beatlab is limited to 9 beats per bar, whereas the DB-90 also goes up to 9 beats per bar, with the added functionality of being able to do two-bar forms without having to program it, such as 3+4 (one bar of 3/4 and one bar of 4/4). This is handy for those more complex time signatures such as 13/8 where you might want to count in 7/8 + 6/8.
Physical Info and Mounting:
Firstly let’s take a look at the weight. These masses are taken from each of the manufacture’s websites (including batteries):
DB-90 – 0.5 kg (1 lb)
Beatlab – 0.24 kg (0.53 lb)
Yep, that sounds about right. Picking up the DB-90 is a brick compared to the Beatlab. It’s twice the size too! Let’s take a look at the dimensions (from manufacturers):
DB-90 – H / W / D – 38.1 / 122.2 / 165.1 mm (1.5 / 4.81 / 6.5 inches)
Beatlab – H / W / D – 27.9 / 142 / 103.9 mm (1.1 / 5.59 / 4.09 inches)
So as can be seen the DB-90 is a bit “chunky” as opposed to the sleekness of the Beatlab. Have a look at the following photos of the two side by side with a standard pen in between them to give perspective.
So with that all said and done, let’s take a glance and how to mount the two. Here the DB-90 has a couple of great advantages over the Beatlab. First off, I’ll point out that unfortunately the Beatlab has no mounting or stand features other than two small rubber feet. Yes, two. Two rubber, and two plastic nipples. Why? Probably cost. At least the rubber feet stop it from sliding all over the desk – I’m probably quite grateful for this feature, even if it is a little mundane. The DB-90, also, oddly enough has the same two rubber and two plastic feet configuration. With this unit however, due to the bulk of it, the rubber feet don’t actually do that much. The thing still slides around on my desk. I think the rubber isn’t as good quality as on the Korg unit either. On both models the feet are down the bottom of the unit which seems to be the most sensible place to put them. Four would have been nice, but I’m not one to complain about such insignificant things.
Now for the additional features of the DB-90 that the Beatlab lacks. Firstly, there’s a nice little plastic pop-out stand on the back of the unit, as shown in the photo below. While it’s a handy feature, I probably wouldn’t want to use it too much as it’s very “clunky” and isn’t all that robust. In actual fact it looks and feels like it could fall off and the clips to snap if you put too much pressure on it. Good thing it sits flush with the back of the metronome when not in use, otherwise I think it would be long gone by now! So if you own one of these, be careful with it if you want it to last.
Now the other feature of the DB-90 is a handy 6 mm screw hole up the top-centre of the unit. Also included is a “Boss nut” which is a 6 mm to 8 mm screw adaptor, which from what I understand allows the unit to be directly screwed onto a cymbal stand. The manual here is quite vague and there’s something about an “MDY-10U” cymbal mount attachment which is available separately. I can’t really figure this part out so if you’re interested in stand mounting then it pays to check out the manual/website or even have a look at this attachment in store. I can however tell you what it doesn’t do – It doesn’t screw onto a mic stand. I was under the impression that it did (I think I was confused with a cymbal stand), and when I wanted to mount it on a mic stand at a gig I found out that it wouldn’t fit. So possibly Boss could’ve included an adaptor for a mic stand, maybe even instead of the cymbal stand adaptor, as I think realistically it might have been more useful. Those kind of things are actually really hard to find it turns out (here in NZ anyway). Just on the point of this stand mount, I probably would’ve preferred to see it on the rear of the unit instead of the top. I just personally think it would’ve been a little more user-friendly that way.
In summary, both of these units have a couple of rubber feet at the bottom, which I think is the bare minimum, especially on the DB-90 considering it still slides around. The DB-90 however, surpasses the Beatlab with the handy, although somewhat flimsy; plastic rear stand, as well as the addition of the cymbal stand mount on top.
Price:
The DB-90 appears to be retailing at around $220 USD where the Beatlab is much lower at $130 USD. Here in NZ when I bought my DB-90 it was on special for $200 NZD down from $300, and the Beatlab was at $180 NZD, which has now dropped down to $150 NZD.
When summed up with the features I think these prices are both quite reasonable. Now that they’ve been around for a few years each it’s good to see the prices dropping a bit.
Overall Summary:
I think both of these units are great. Personally, I love owning both. The biggest set back of the DB-90 as I clearly outlined earlier is the less-than-satisfactory battery life. I find it useful to have floating around in my studio so long as I have a 9V pedal power supply handy. It’s also very unfortunate about the MIDI functionality, as this would’ve been a great feature if it worked correctly. As this was the reason for me buying it (I bought it some time after the Beatlab), if I had known this earlier I most likely would not have bought the DB-90. But now that I do own it, as I have expressed I do find it useful, but really only in the studio. The advanced features of the DB-90 certainly come in handy from time to time, but it spends most of its days sitting in my cupboard when my studio is not in use.
The Beatlab is great – I love it, and I would have to say that for my uses it is my preferred metronome. I can put it on the table, set up a click, and it’ll sit there for some time without turning itself off (it does after I think 15 minutes). It’s small, reliable, easy to use, and great to practice to. For my purposes, that’s really what I want out of a metronome. Although with the somewhat limited connectivity of having only headphones out and external power supply in, these are probably the two main features you’ll use as far as connectivity goes. If you were to buy a metronome without a headphone output, you would probably soon find this quite limiting, so that’s definitely a huge advantage here.
So really, I can’t say which is better; it depends on what you want to get out of your metronome. They sound different (remembering the onbeat/offbeat differences), they are used differently when selecting tempos, and you have to bear in mind that if you’re looking to use the DB-90 then you would probably want a power supply for it and have it semi-permanently set up. This is where the Beatlab is great for throwing in the case with your instrument and taking it everywhere with you (even listening to it on the bus/train!) There are several more advanced features of both of these models, which will not be discussed in this review.
Ratings (out of 10):
DB-90:
Usability 4
Features 8
Battery life 1
Sound 8
Price 7
Average 5.6
Beatlab:
Usability 8
Features 6
Battery life 10
Sound 7
Price 7
Average 7.6
Conclusion:
As can be seen, I score the Beatlab higher than the DB-90. I think that for most users the Korg Beatlab would be the best option, however if you’re after all the extra features that the DB-90 has to offer (great for drummers) and battery life doesn’t concern you too much, then maybe the Boss DB-90 is more for you.
Thank you for reading. I hope that this review has shed some light on the many blanks on the internet about these two metronomes. Feel free to post any questions below and I’ll do my best to answer them.
