Although not designed as a high-end studio product, the DR-110 nonetheless featured some noticeable advances in technology compared to previous Roland drum machines.
Rubberized touchpads each represent one of the DR-110 voices, and can be used to build a pattern in realtime as well as to enter and edit note data.
The clap sound uses only shaped white noise, but was triggered by a multiple pulse train, to create a reverberation effect.
A "V-trig" clock pulse (+6V, 10ms duration) can be used, via a 3.5mm mini-jack, to allow other "slave" synthesizer units (e.g. arpeggiators) to synchronize to the DR-110 accent section.
[3][4] Internally, the DR110 runs at 12ppqn (pulses per quarter note), so extra circuitry is needed to interface it with the Roland DIN-sync standard of 24ppqn.
To access the Test Mode function, users press and hold both the Start and Stop buttons when turning on the unit.