To ensure that the TR-1000 met today’s creators where they are, Roland consulted with dozens of artists and producers between Detroit, the U.K., Berlin, Japan, and beyond before even making a prototype.Working directly off this feedback, they began building the machine. “A lot of [musical instrument] companies in general make this product for a certain individual, a certain market, but they never really talk to anybody who’s using this thing,” says Kenny Dope, one half of the legendary house music duo Masters at Work, speaking from his studio in Maryland. He recalls the first time Roland came to him with the idea for the TR-1000. “With the Roland history, [and] what was laid as a foundation—the early drum machines, early synths, and the early sounds used on so many records—we’ve gotta be able to incorporate that in one piece,” he remembers advising. “They showed me a prototype. I said, ‘I like this, I don’t like this. I love this.’ They came back like, ‘Yo, we got it to this point.’ Then I’d say, ‘It needs to sample. It needs to warp. It needs to chop.’ And Roland has had those features in other machines. It’s like one machine does one thing really good, another machine does something [else] really good, but [before it was] not combined.” Kenny emphasized to Roland that, no matter what, the machine needed to be simple.The more features added, the more complicated using the machine might become. Nothing kills creativity faster than clicking through a series of menus to get things done.“You need to be able to look at the machine and say, ‘Alright, you know what? Let me just go,’” he says. “And that’s
Conceived as both homage and evolution, the TR-1000 features sixteen analog circuits recreated from the original TR-808 and TR-909 designs, built with modern components. Crucially, it offers a digital synthesis engine as well. The 808s and 909s are virtually mapped to the analog circuits via Roland’s Analog Circuit Behavior (ACB) technology, allowing for extensive manipulation. And the machine comes pre-loaded with two thousand sounds to get started with, and dozens of effects. If that wasn’t enough, FM and VA synthesis engines are also included, as is a full suite sampler for chopping, programming, and resampling your own drum loops, and a sixteen-step sequencer, which brings back the workflow of the classic TR machines through a contemporary lens. Nearly every knob or fader is assignable, offering a head-scratching number of possibilities. Designed for musicians who could easily rely on the limitless flexibility of digital production tools but purposely choose the constraints and character of tactile, analog hardware instead, it’s a throwback to a bygone era, outfitted with the tools needed for modern music production and performance. “The truth is that much of Roland’s brand equity has been created by artists that found these instruments [later on], and reinvented them,” says Chicoine. “They brought all this new energy and life, and they brought all this attention to these instruments.We developed the TR-1000 in the hopes that, much like the 808 and the 909 spawned new styles of music that we never anticipated, this too may entice creative folks to have new ideas and make new sounds.”
20 WaxPoetics
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