Old friend brought back to life! TR-606

[ofajen]

I've used my Roland TR-606 since I got it new in the early 80s. It was my favorite drum box for many years. Easy to program patterns and tracks. Eventually I added aftermarket sound controls, and that gave it a lot of new sound options, similar to its big brother, the TR-808. I've used it on probably a hundred tracks over the years.

Here is the TR-606:

Here is the sound control unit I added:

Sadly, about 10 years ago it went crazy and stopped working.

After I had our local shop fix up my Juno 6, SH-09 and Vocoder this summer, I thought "hey, it's an authorized Roland shop, maybe by some miracle they could get the TR-606 going again?" Mind you, Roland doesn't really support this old box, and no parts are available.

Still, I dropped it off in September. Didn't hear anything for months. I called a few weeks back and the repair guy had kinda gotten sidetracked and hadn't even gotten service docs. He did promise to give it a go.

Then out of the blue today he calls back to say it's up and working!

Just a ground trace that had failed and caused the stepper function to fail. A simple repair and now my long lost friend is back in action! I programmed ten different rhythms last night and had a lot of fun jamming on the SX P with my old buddy!

Otto

 

[rufus.K]

That's awesome!

 

[ofajen]

That's awesome!

Agreed!

Otto

 

[MonetBass]

Nice! Glad they were able to get it back up.

 

[mel0dic.bassist]

I love rekindled gear stories! Nothing like bringing a good classic* back from the dead

* classic referring to anything from the past that was just awesome (even if it was just to you)

 

[ofajen]

I love rekindled gear stories! Nothing like bringing a good classic* back from the dead

* classic referring to anything from the past that was just awesome (even if it was just to you)

The original Roland TR analog drum machines really are classics. Their user interface still defines the interface of just about every drum machine on the market today, and you hear TR analog drum sounds or imitations thereof on lots of music throughout the intervening time and even still today.

For me, the familiarity with how it works is really cool, because I can quickly set up a groove and get busy with musical ideas. And in contrast to working on a DAW, working with the TR-606 and tape lets me remain a musician and not have to turn into a computer tech to get things done.

Otto

 

[ofajen]

Steve Albini likes it! Wikipedia attributes this quote about the TR-606 to Albini, and it sounds about right to me:

"When I first got the 606 I carried it around and listened to it like a Walkman, and over the course of a day I would gradually build and re-build a rhythm until it was satisfying to listen to on its own... Drum machines can be cool instruments with a lot of character. I was always disappointed when I heard one being used clumsily, which was most of the time."

Otto