Roland TR-606

Very easy to use, TR style editing. It doesnt have the Ultra easy LCD matrix of the 707 but they 707 deserves an 11 for ease of use anyway

Features for what it does are great. The two trigger outs are essential! I love that you can switch between pattern and edit mode while its playing. You can also easily link up to 4 patterns so they play in sequence, its great! only one output kinda blows but you can mod it easily and get multiple outs. There are also mods for tuning and bass drum and snare decay etc. These are cool, but I think it sound pretty good on its own anyway

606 analog drum sounds, they are classic!

its old, it may need servicing sometimes, can be unpredictable but I'd gig with it anyway

?

Yes I'd replace it! The trigger outs work great to drive arps and sequencers on older gear (specifically on my korg polysix, SCI pro one and jx3p). I've also sync'd it to my midi set up using the excellent future retro mobius sequencer and its a dream! It sounds really good when used with my 707. Great machine!

I never had a manual and I can write beats on it. I would like to download one though so I can string patterns together or fiddle with the triggerouts that everyone here seems to enjoy.

Simple simple simple. I have a DIN_SYNCH box for it so it slaves to my midi sequences..boy is that fun!

The sounds are godlike cool. Something holy about these stupid sounds. 7 little sounds but I am more turned on by them than the vast bank of cool drum sounds on my modern sound modual synth right here. It's an "art" thing. These sounds are expresive and make some kind of inadvertant artistic statement just by using them. I like it much more than the 808 or 909. I think this is the coolest drum machine I have ever heard.

Umm. I think in general these units are very reliable but mine is kind of beat up unfortunatly. I had the money and I always wanted one and some guy had one that worked. I should have held out for one in better shape.

None. None of these companies seem to have decent support anymore. What happened to customer service? EMU are you listening?

Mine broke down for a couple of months and nobody seemed to know how to fix it. I almost cried everyday. Then my brother took it to the desalination plant equipment manufacturer where he works and somehow the guys there got it to work again. It now remembers patterns which mine didn't when I got it. I paid too much for mine and it is pretty beat-up by the previous two or three owners..but it works and it inspires me. I kiss it every night.

I hafe the real thing

Just basic drumbox sounds, All non tweakeble (So where's my 808)
The best thing is it syncs my 303 (The old 808 stopt doing that a year ago)ANNALOG. But the pod for langer decayd bass is a must

I think it's good for those theight break beats and.(not for ACID anway.)

It's one of the reliabilst of the TR serries

DO IT YOUR SELF

It's a good machine, Love the sync and the triggers. But i think my 303 is the reasoni bought it (famaly stiks to gather.)

This one is easier to use than any of the other TR boxes due to it's simplicity. Writing a pattern is as easy as it gets- just turn that knob to pattern write and put the hits on whatever step you want. The track write function is also quite simple, but the way it works, you probably wouldn't realise you were writing a song. The manual makes it quite clear, and there's an online manual available. The sixteen step buttons double as pattern select buttons, so put your song together in real time, you lazy bastard. And of course there are the instrument mix knobs, which add up to an easy to use package. I use it on crowded trains, on the toilet, while I'm drunk as fuck, it doesn't matter.

It's missing nice things like individual outputs and tweakable sounds, but it has some great features that make a very important peice of gear today, like din sync, and TWO trigger outs. For example, I got this to sync with an MC-202, which I use to sequence an SH-2, and the whole system also syncs with a Korg DDM-110. The trigger outs can then be used to drive a synth's arpegiator or more drum machines, like a Boss DR-110 or DR-220. It doesn't have MIDI, but thats why I bought this box above all else. I just find it much more fun to sequence and compose a track in real time by muting instruments and pushing sliders instead of programming music through a computer. Oh, and it runs on batteries as well, which make this thing even more fun.

This drum machine sounds SO realistic! Turn it on, and it sounds just like analog drum machine sounds that you've heard on records. I wonder how they did that. The hi hats are often mentioned, and the are great. Put them throught the right flanger and it's instant Kraftwerk, just like the modulating hi hat sounds on Musique Non Stop and Tour De France. I use this box for electro, and it is perfect. Oh, and guess what- I LIKE the kick drum on this machine. I admit it could be a bit louder, but all you have to do is turn up the accent, turn the other drum sounds down, and TURN THE VOLUME UP! Think guys, think. I like the 808 sounds you heard when people were using it the first time around, on electro records. If you play Akrika Baambata's Planet Rock along side any modern rap record, it has way less bottom end on it. The long, booming kicks are less important to me than the cowbells, clavs and sidestick sounds. Any ways, the 606's "tom" sounds and cymbal really add to the spacy electro atmosphere. The other thing about this one is it's feel. You can get .wavs of the 606 kit anywhere, but that doesn't have the same feel of the real thing. The short decay of the rhythm sounds and the sequencer give this machine a very tight, precise feel, and I really like it. And while there are no external means to modify the sounds, the accent does change them, especially when the knob is turned all the way up. For example, the unaccented snare and heavily
accented snare sound very different.

I guess it's pretty reliable. Just don't be an idiot. And put in fresh batteries before you play live with it.

This machine is a very good value for the money, as just about anything else close to this costs much more. Its also a great choice if you have other pre MIDI gear that uses tigger ins or DIN sync. It's nice and portable too, so take it a jam session and it's a hell of a lot of fun. That's about the best thing I could say about the TR-606. It's fuckin' fun to use and it inspires me to make music, which is all I could really ask for.

Very basic and obvious drum machine. Need a manual for knowing the functions but easy to learn. Because it's abstract and basic, creating longer loops or songs can be annoying and take some time.

Very basic even for a drum machine of this era.

Sounds are really legendary. I would not count the absence of tweaking-possibility as a malus, since the sounds are really good.
In fact the instruments don't really require a tweaking. The Kick is no 909 kick, but i think it sounds many times better than every setting of the 909, reminding me of about 2/3rds of techno/acid/house productions. The snare is very unique, although a more tinny and tight 808/dr110 like setting would be a nice addition. But i think if it would be tweakable i'd use the "original" setting maybe in 80% the time, cause it's the most crispy and electrifying drum-sound i ever heard with a cool snappyness. It sounds really much more rattling than like a simple noise, as u can hear it on the most snares. The metal-sounds are really nice, percussive and lush, i would nearly say authentic for this kind of synthesis.+
The toms are really tiny and "bubbling" and i like them. A tweaking of the tone of the toms and a decay for the cymbal would be a good addition.

it's all-plastic and some keys do not react as well as they should.

I often get problems when i want to find a good mix with the drum-machine's all instruments into a song, the snare sounds to loud and the amplitude difference between normal and accented seems to large, it's also hard to find a good hihat-volume and the kick is simply too quiet.
I guess u have these problems not if u use individual outputs. U can get interesting and spectacular effekts just by eq-ing and fx-ing, so i guess with individual outs the 606 is a special and versatile drum-machine for even every kind of music.
If it would be stolen i'd probably get another one, they are much cheaper than many other analog-vintage drumboxes. I think u can get a boss dr-thing and some newer analog stuff, but the 606 has one advantage to them all: a real character!

if it was any more easy it would probably be illegal......its so little.....

buttons and knobs.....turn a knob poke some buttons...im in love...no fx...no midi....but soon come will be a din sync for groovy acid with my 777...i bought it so i could have a drum machine...and a drum machine it definatly is....compared to the es-1 i have been abuzing for 3 years....the volume knob has ceased to comply and it just loves to shut off right after i perfect my pattern and right befor i save it....the only thing i think the es is good for is learning....and that i did...so comparitivly the 606 will puke baby puke all over the little green and silver pile of shit (well me es-1 has blue and chrome stripes but its still a pos)

i love the tightness on the 606 as small spaces of silence infront of my es-1 samples creates a big anti groove.....at the end of them too...i love this drum machine.....i should have been born in 1978 and my parents should have bought me one for my 5th birthday.....i was always so incomplete

as long as it can depend on my not forgetting new batterys....and he never gets lonley or cold....as its barely ever turned off...damn the thing is older than i am....

it seems like the roland i see in the 606 is not the roland i see now...

i want to buy another so i can have 2....actually i am hoping future retro comes out with a bomb ass drum machine...those people are sent straigt from the swirls of the universe....and a drum machine from them would be absolutly god like

This little box is very easy and straightforward. I bought it yesterday and on the way back home i jammed on it in the train. If you are familiar with rebirth you shouldn't have any problems with this baby.

It' s a limited, you can't tweak the sounds exept for volume but i can live with that. It does have individual outs for every sound so that's cool. Some of them are modified so you can tweak the sounds but i've heard it alters the circuitry permanently. Personally i would buy the electribe for tweakability.

Well it's like a baby 808, not as deep but they are familiar in character. I would rather have a clap instead of the cymbal though but
for this money i can't complain

I've only got it one day, nothing bad happened yet.

This is an ideal beginners drummachine, it's limmited in features but that shouldn't be a problem. Until yesterday i only used software (reactor, pro 5, model e, ppg wave, rebirth, logic, nuendo etc)but you end up staring at a monitor instead of focussing on the music. You can get great sounds out of a pc, especially with reactor but it lacks in directness.

A little wierd to use at first if you have never used anything from the TR/TB series before...but its basically THE cliche analog style sequencer...and it roks because of it. Definately the easiest to use out of the aforementioned roland line.

Super basic. There are 2 non-standard features that definately make it an awesome drum machine though. One is the 2 seperate trigger outs....awesome for triggering other old analog gear (I use them to trigger my Simmons SDS-200 drum brain). This is very cool, not only because you get analog style sequencing for something other than your 606, but it is also very cool since the 606 can be totally edited on the fly making it great in a live aspect. The fact that it IS NOT midi compatible sucked at first...but i eventually picked up a 727 as well, so i basically use the 727 for a master tempo clock and it syncs my midi sequencers with the 606 :)

OK, I admit it...as cheesy as some of these sounds are, they do tend to grow on you in a way that no other drum machine can. What the lack in hardness and punchiness, they make up for in creamyness and warmth. The hi hats are to die for, and i agree with the other reviews here...it does sound sort of "puck-ish"....i think a better word would be "Pluck-ish" But its very funky, and i would bet if modded could be used as a stand alone drum machine anyday. Without the mods though, its nice to have some accompanyment...especially to drown the kick drum.

Concrete except for the batteries.....as long as you remember to change em now and then, youll be fine :). Or just keep an ac adapter handy. The knobs have a tendancy to fall off after extreme writing bouts with it too. Eventually some of the sequencer buttons do get a little tricked out too.

None of my catogories gave it a 9...but it is...in potential alone, this is a drum machine that can kick some ass (if used properly).

Making a standard beat, is fairly simple, and as the beat unravels into something more complex, the tr-606 allows the programer the minipulate the original beat at ease.

As far as I know, without modifications, the sounds are limiting. It provides a very nice old school sound, that is versitile to use in any genre of music.

Highly reliable. It is tight as long as the power source is constant. The memory card allows it's users to return to a beat created months ago.

No version - made in 1981.

I really loved this machine. Bought it in 1981. It had some good sequencing features for the time. You could link patterns into chains and assign Del Siglo and Coda pointers to manually loop to points in a song. I made a complete demo tape of a dozen songs using this box as the sole drum machine.

It has its own unique set of sounds. Very metallic and brite. Not very real sounding except for the snare and hi-hats. Someone said "puck". That is a very good description of the drums. Many of Rolands products in later years have the TR-606 sound set included among the other TR series but there is nothing quite like actually using the real thing.

I think it is very solid. Totally dependable.

I sold it a few years ago. My MIDI studio has evolved a lot and I really had no use for a non-midi drum module. I'd have definitely kept it had it had MIDI implementation but it only had some DIN triggering thing going on so I really don't regret selling it. It could make a nice metronome in a pinch but again there is really no way to tell from the machine what BPM's it is cranking out. So again, I don't really regret selling it. If I saw one for under $20 in good condition I might pick it up. My rating of 10 comes from my feelings towards this machine in 1981 to 1985 when MIDI appeared on the scene. It truly was a great machine in it's time and it still would be if it had MIDI. I still have my TR-707 and I will never sell that guy.