Classic digital drum machines get a modern day plugin reboot.
While they aren’t the classic 808 and 909, the TR-707 and TR-727 have their place in music history as vintage digital drum machines which have appeared on too many songs to count. Following on from their previous Roland Cloud instruments, these two get a digital reboot, including new features and improved old ones.
What you need to know:
- Roland have released the TR-707 and TR-727 as digital plugins via their Roland Cloud service.
- The two emulations use Analog Circuit Behaviour modelling to accurately recreate the PCM output stage.
- Roland have added more features than you would be able to access on the hardware unit including tuning, decay and a new look sequencer.
Read all the latest product news here.
Released after their classics, the TR-707 and TR-727 were fully digital drum machines, or rhythm composers as they are referred to by Roland. The two were released as complimentary to eachother with the 707 handling conventional drums and the 727 tackling a Latin-inspired sound palette.
With the plugin iterations now available, there is a modern sequencer which most people who have a DAW will know how to use, alongside the old style sequencer. They retain the low bitrate samples which have a pleasing lo-fi punch characteristic.
Both the TR-707 and TR-727 plugins utilise Analog Circuit Behaviour modelling to achieve the most accurate replication. As it’s a digital synth, you’d think they could just rip the sample out, but as with all things in the physical world, the oddities and processing all the way to the output stage adds character which just the samples wouldn’t do.
Alongside this, both plugins have tuning, decay, PCM clock adjustment and more parameters to tweak that weren’t present on the original unit.
Check out this video below for an introduction to these plugins.
For more information on the TR-707 and TR-727, head to Roland.