Good idea Leon, He's right there are quite a few advantages with drum machines via midi. You can use them as controllers and as slave devices as well. Here's some examples... I know someone who has a Yamaha DD55. He also has a Zoom drum machine.. He uses his Yamaha DD55 to play the sounds of his Zoom.. This way he can play that sounds of the Zoom like a real kit using sticks and the large pads of the Yamaha. I'll often midi the drum machine up to my keyboard and use the keyboard to contol the drum sounds... It's a nice feature to have.. Other machines will vary with midi functions.. Many have both midi in and out, and I think some take more than one footswitch.

Squeak