Tama TSQ 1000

The Tama TSQ1000 is the sequencer of the Tama drum brain line. It is a step sequencer much in the same way like a TR-606.
Contrary to that it has to be stoppped in order to switch from write to play mode and to select the voice you want to program. Thus it is not really useful in live situations unless you want to work with pre-programed patterns.
However the strength of this thingie lies in the fact that you can program trigger arrangements for six different voices (plus a global accent). So if you like working things out with analog mono-synths and old time drum brains (like I do) this bit might interest you.
In fact this unit is what I was looking for for quite a long time.
To make it clear: this unit only outputs triggers, so no CV or gate!

This 2u 19'' box features a row of buttons, two knobs and a three digit/ 3x7 segment led. From left to right:
The run/stop button with associated led. The clear button with led. The play/write button with two status leds. Four patch (pattern) buttons. The step amount button plus four leds. 16 multi function buttons with associated leds. The speed knob with downbeat led. The accent amount knob. The on/off switch.
And -most important- on the back are six trigger outs; a run/stop footswitch jack and: a DIN-sync socket with an in/out switch.

If the TSQ 1000 is not running you can select one of its eight banks by pressing one of the first eight multi function buttons, whereby banks 1-6 are four beat (16 steps) and 7&8 three beat (12 steps). The first digit in the display shows you the actual bank number. There are four patterns per bank.
Set the TSQ1000 in write mode and you can select one of the six voices (that is, of course: trigger channels)or accent by means of pressing buttons 9-15; the third display digit tells you the number of the selected voice.
Before you start that thing running you have to select the amount of bars with the step selector; actually if you don't, there'll be just one bar, but you can rearrange that anytime.
So if you have programmed a four bar patch and you want a two bar instead you just change it by pressing the step select button; and if you change back all the data of bars three and four are still there. There are four associated leds, so if you press the button once, the second led will go on, you press twice and you get three bars... The first led also blinks with every step when the machine is running.
So now you have a voice selected plus your amount of bars. Press run and it will repeat the first bar only -unless you hit the step select button. Now it will play the next bar unless you press again. A pretty clever idea that lets you program the bars properly.
Yeah, well and you enter `notes' by hitting one of the 16 buttons and the associated led tells you that and where you did so -like with a TR-606.
If you switch to play mode it will of course loop all the four bars and not just one.
As said -you have to stop the sequencer in order to change voices you want to program.
In play mode you can choose between four patterns (the one selected indicated by the middle digit in the display) while the TSQ1000 is running. In write mode it has to be stopped first. Oh, and sadly you have to stop it to change from write to play mode ore vice versa.
The accent amount knob should be clear -hands on control, always fine.
Great thing: the DIN-sync is 24ppq, Roland that is, not Korg.

So that's it. A six voice step sequencer. I tell you: that's something I've really been waiting for.
I connect up to six analog synths to it and twiddle their knobs. And even though the sequencer itself is of course not at all expressive, the results it helps me to create are. It just gets more complex this way, what with interdependency and all you know...

Yeah, solid 19'' nothing to complain about.
If you have Korg MS or old (monophonic) Yamaha CS synthesizers, you'll have the reversed gate problem -like I do. But infact that's not really a problem at all. The MS-20 as well as CS synths allow triggering with a signal rather than through the trigger input. And with the MS-10 you have to set the sustain to zero (unless you want a permanent tone), working with attack and decay only.

This unit gets me forward a massive heap. You could do the same with three TR-606s of course - but how do you sync more than two units actually? (I really wonder.)
Before I had it I used a TR-707 for the same purpose. Don't think you need the TAMA if you own one of those, `cause usually tom or rim-sounds do the trick.
The only annoyance with the Tama is that you have to stop it to change from write to play and to change voices. But since I usually sample the results anyway this isn't much of a drawback.