One After 909

Following the hybrid analogue/digital design of the TR-909, Roland fully committed to digital sampling with the 1985 TR-707. This chapter explores the complex design of the TR-707 circuits and reveals a good amount of Roland’s analogue expertise still put to work in creatively sidestepping some of the limitations of computer memory and unwanted digital noise. By exploring the TR-707 and its later digital derivatives such as the TR-505 and TR-626, this chapter sets out the case for the legacy and impact of the early 1980s x0x series. Design choices such as the TR-REC programming interface have influenced countless other drum machines from Roland and a host of other manufacturers while the MC-202 is the prototype for the groovebox that dominates the contemporary electronic musical instrument marketplace. The chapter also considers how Roland’s move into the digital age marks some important shifts in creative and conceptual direction. With the complete absence of tone shaping controls in the TR-707, Kikumoto’s desire for a drum synthesizer is comprehensively retired. The underpinning research into the importance of transients in sound design that fuelled the TR-909, however, would form the basis for one of Roland’s most influential digital synthesizers just a few years later with the release of the D-50 in 1987.