Roland Tr707 HOMEPAGE

Roland Tr-707

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Roland Tr-707 (1985)

Often called the "poor's man tr-909" for its similar design and for sharing some samples PCM! now considered a classic vintage drum machine.

The Tr-707 is very appreciated for the old school sequencer, the multi outs and its synching I/O.

track pattern

DRUM MACHINE All plastic chassic (weight 1.5Kg) white and orange colors dominating the '80 design.
The main panel features a rotary pot for Master Tempo, 16 push buttons for main functions, a cartdridge slot for RAM, 16 non-dynamics pads for sound trigger and Step sequencer entries.
->TECH<- pads can transmit assignable Midi notes (no length) but it has to be set to "midi mode 2". There's also an instrument mixer with 12 sliders for each percussive sound.
The back panel has these connections: eleven separate outputs, main Stereo outs, Headphones out, footswitch input for Start/Stop (same as in the panel), Trigger out +5V, Tape I/O, Midi I/O and sync-24 I/O.

Power supply is external with standa Roland/ Boss 12V DC with negative tip in center and low amperage feed (around 200 mA).

VOICE Main core is a Hitachi Hd6303X CPU.
TGhe PCM sound is held on Eprom memory for a total of 15 samples coded at 6 bits resolution: Bass Drum / Snare Drum / Low Tom / Mid Tom / Hi Tom / Rimshot / Cowbell / Hand Clap / Tambourine / Hi-Hat / Crash / Ride.
->TECH<- The wavetable can't be expanded.
Some samples like Crash & Hihats / Rides are straight from Tr-909 wavetable, but unlike the big brother, you can't edit sounds in any way except some external modding (the most common is pitch tuning).
->IHMO<- So you have to deal only with the internal generated sounds ... but hey, these have pretty good dynamics as the PCM path is going to DACS stages, a Low Pass analog filters and Preamplifier. The overall sound is good punchy, maybe sounds a little "outdated" for the mass, but a lot of fan-geeks still love it for its cheap kit, included the plastic-like bassdrum.

SEQUENCER features 64 RAM patterns and up to 4 songs.
Programming is based on classical Roland 16 steps grid (similar to Tr-505 and Tr-626) with Shuffle and Swing option and Variable Quantisation resolution.
Two different notes entry modes:

- Classical Step by step : three different ACCENT velocities OFF / Mid Accent / Strong
- Real time with Audio Metronome.

The main tempo is set from internal clock or synchronized from three external sources: Midi clock/ Tape sync/ DIN Sync-24 pulse (see also "Sync 24" section below).
This is the kind of machine you have to learn its logic and the relatives key combinations, but once you manage the whole the drum box is a real source of rhythm improvisation and real live fun (mixer part helps) .

SYNC24 works at 24 PPQ resolution,really precise and stable, in fact is is really appreciated for a live gigs chaining other machines such as Tb303 or tr808.
But this box is also useful as Sync- Midi communication bridge, a link from past technology to modern one - well, If you consider Midi protocol as modern.
The Trigger Out (generated Square at +5V) is triggered by the RIM SHOT and it is perfect to drive some analog arpeggiators or sequencer like Roland Juno 60, Roland Sh101 or Elka Synthex.

MIDI If hardware sequencers are not your cup of tea, just use the Midi triggering: simple and quick! It manages channels 1-16 or OMNI and various Velocity levels .
The good news ends here: no Midi Control Changes and no intelligent exclusives system management.

FX NONE.
->HINT use separate instruments ouputs with various external boxes such as effects or dynamics outboard for a lot of creativity.

MEMORY Memory is non volatile and works with 2 X 1.5 stilo batteries; If the machine is not used for a long period, do not forget to remove the batteries to avoid acid leakage over precious ICs.
->TECH<- you can't use the drum machine stright on batteries as these are only for memory purposes

Backup your works on 64 Kb memory cartridges model "M64C ", theses are getting pretty hard to find around, a trick is to use more common 16k model "M16C" but it works partially and MAY cause randomly error on your tr-707 or even behave odd: you've been warned.
A second way is using the analog tape I/O data dump : long and painful.

FAMILY RELATED
The Tr- 727 is exactly the same machine: the only difference is the blue prints and the internal wavetable with different sounds latino- oriented.

Original factory TR song

Other demo

Test: tr707 vs. S6000 vs. Kontakt

Tr707 directly sampled from separate outputs to S6000 , then the same waves have been imported on Kontakt and digitally rendered with Cubase SX. Nota: velocities are not perfectly matched, consider this as a quick experiment.

Roland tr707

Akai s6000

Kontakt