Internally & sonically, its very similar to the Acetone FR6.
Controls: volume, balance, tempo, up tempo, power on-off, touch start
Dimension: 130 (H) x 380 (W) x 235 (D) mm (5.1" x 15.0" x 9.3")
In that year (1972), Roland also released the TR-33 & TR-77
She weighs about 4 kg (8.8 pounds) & has 13 buttons & 4 knobs.
The Start-stop Electro-static touch sensitive switch is a great feature.
You will see these on the Roland TR-77 also.
The diode above the on/off switch flashes in time with the beat.
The Up-tempo button is a double-time switch
There are 10 voices (split into 6 channels) & 10 patterns: Bossa Nova, Samba, Mambo, Cha-Cha, Rhumba, Beguine, Rock N' Roll, Ballard, Slow Rock, Waltz.
The variation knob splits the rhythms into two parts.: 2 Beat & 4 beat
- 2 BEAT: bass drum, bass + snare, foxtrot1, swing1, march and parade
- 4 BEAT: bass drum, bass + snare, foxtrot2, swing2, swing3 and tango
The 10 voices are : bass drum, low conga, high conga, cowbell, rim-shot, claves, snare drum, high-hat, cymbal, maracas
Sadly, there is no real way to mix the voices, however, the BALANCE knob does alter the balance between bass/snare & hi hats/maracas.It allows you to cancel the HH sounds on every pattern - or to mix them to the pattern as loud as you want.
This is the base of the TR-55. It's quite portable. and comes with a carry handle.
bass/snare and hahats/maracas
Sadly there is no way to sync the drum externally.Back panel jacks: main out low & high, plus a start/stop pedal switch.
This is ripe for modding. It's all analog with tons of trimpots begging to be tweaked
If you pull off the backplate and tweak the trimpots you can get that 808 bass and it's decay can be set to last forever !!!!
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For more info on the history of Roland Drum Machines click here
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