If the only thing Roland ever released was the TR-808, the company would still deserve a place in the music gear hall of fame. The 808 is arguably the most important instrument since the creation of the electric guitar. It’s been a cornerstone of hip-hop, electronic, and pop music for 45 years now, used by everyone from Rihanna and Whitney Houston, to Outkast, Talking Heads and RP Boo. Roland was undeniably one of the most innovative companies in music technology during the 1980s and ‘90s, releasing iconic analog synths and pioneering drum machines.
But for much of the 2000s the company seemed lost, pumping out forgettable all-digital products like the D-2 GrooveMachine and VariOS. And for the last 10 years or so, it’s been primarily focused on trying to remind everyone of its glory days, often in ways that felt misguided or, at worst, exploitative, pushing a subscription service and running away from its analog roots.
Roland constantly invoked its heritage with its naming schemes, but these instruments had almost nothing in common with their namesakes.
Now, for the first time in a long time, it feels like Roland is actually taking its legacy seriously with the TR-1000 Rhythm Generator, rather than simply treating it like fodder for a marketing deck. The TR-1000 is a serious (and seriously expensive) instrument that embraces Roland’s heritage with real analog circuits.
By the end of the 1980s, Roland had gone all-in on digital, almost completely abandoning the analog technology that powered its most iconic instruments. Roland wasn’t alone in deciding that the future wasn’t analog. But emerging musicians started shifting away from digital in the 2000s. This was in part a reaction to the cold and clinical sounds that dominated late ‘90s and early ‘00s pop, but it was also because analog gear could be bought for cheap on the used market. Despite this shift in tastes and the burgeoning vintage synth market, Roland stuck to its guns.
Eventually Roland realized what people really wanted wasn’t some glorified toy keyboard with the Juno name slapped on it, or a gimmicky “GrooveMachine” with what appears to be a sniper reticle on it. But, rather than deliver modern takes on analog sounds or reissue faithful versions of classic instruments, Roland decided to focus on digital modeling, trying to capture the analog sound through code. The company had been investing in its digital technology for decades and seemed reluctant to shift gears. Additionally, analog circuits are harder to work with and many of the engineers who had mastered the art in the 1980s no longer worked for the company.
Roland constantly invoked its heritage with its naming schemes: MC-808, SP-808, SH-201, SH-01, and more varieties of Jupiters and Junos than should be legally allowed. But these instruments had almost nothing in common with their namesakes.
It wasn’t until 2014 that the company finally seemed to get the hint and released the TR-8, which it billed as a spiritual successor to the 808. But this wasn’t some retro analog throwback. It was a garish all-digital affair that marked the beginning of what I like to call Roland’s “close enough” era. Using its Analog Circuit Behavior (ACB) modeling technology Roland released a slew of instruments that attempted to recreate its analog classics through emulation. Consensus is that they sound good, but people clamored for rereleases of the real thing.
Behringer happily cashed in on the demand by building analog recreations of the TR-606, TR-808, TR-909, and TB-303. Meanwhile Korg was delivering modern classics like the Minilogue, the playfully affordable Volcas, and reissuing vintage icons like the Arp Odyssey and 2600.
But Roland seemed content to sell $500 pintsized emulations of its most popular synths as part of its Boutique line (and charge you an extra $150 if you had the audacity to want to play your new synth with a keyboard).
Then in 2018 it introduced Roland Cloud. This subscription-based collection of virtual instruments and soundpacks is certainly the front runner for Roland’s most hated product. Customers felt burned by disappearing licenses, buggy software, and complicated membership structures. And, if your subscription lapsed, it could cut off access to so-called Plug-Out addons for hardware synths like the Gaia 2.
Which brings us to the TR-1000, Roland’s first analog drum machine since the TR-909 in 1983. The company painstakingly recreated the analog circuits of 16 of the sounds from the TR-808 and TR-909 using modern components. While there is a companion app, there’s no need to authorize your instrument through a subscription service to get access to the circuit bent digital 808 engine. There’s no distractingly gaudy lightshow like you’d find on the Aira family. And there are a ton of hands-on controls which hopefully means diving into Roland’s notoriously arcane menus should be kept to a minimum.
The TR-1000 feels like Roland actually listened to its customers for once. It’s delightfully devoid of gimmicks, serious looking and, based on the demo videos at least, sounds great. Initial reaction from reviewers and fans has been overwhelmingly positive. People on Reddit calling it “beautiful, focused, professional,” “the last drum machine you’ll ever need,” and declaring “I have zero complaints, this thing looks fucking epic.” Now, if Roland really wants to make its customers happy, it will build a stripped down version that skips the ACB and samples, focuses only on the analog sounds and maybe costs less than $2,699.99.