The D-Beam is probably the most maligned feature in the history of gear
And I feel it's my duty to make a case for it once and for all
I had an SP-808
It was...interesting, let's say
But it had an inbuilt synth
It had a massive bank of awesome Roland effects
And it had a D-Beam that let you perform/modulate pretty much every parameter on the entire machine
You wanna crank the portamento and play the synth like a theremin?
D-Beam got you, dawg
You wanna perform dub-ish delay/reverb explosions like a fucking sorcerer?
D-Beam is on the case, homeslice
You wanna fuck with the bitrate with a wave of the hand?
D-Beam fucked your mom last night, asshole
Do you want your electronic performances to look like a data entry job?
Or like a fucking sorcerer on cocaine who just got a used MC-303 at Guitar Center for $89.99?