Rolands TR-1000 is the ultimate drum machine

It took way too long, but Roland finally caved and gave the people what they want: a proper analog successor to the iconic TR-808 drum machine. The 808’s sound, especially the kick drum, is embedded so deeply in the DNA of modern music that it would be a gross disservice to try and boil its influence down to a single sentence or a list of artists. (Note: Not all of the songs linked necessarily use an actual 808, but they at least feature samples or approximations of its sounds.)

But, in typical Roland fashion, the company didn’t just re-create some iconic analog circuits. No, the TR-1000 also has digital emulations of other classic Roland drum machines. It has FM synthesis, PCM samples, and a built-in sampler with looping and chopping abilities. Not to mention dozens of effects, the ability to layer sounds, and a modern sequencer with probability, automation, and microtiming. In short, if there is a feature you wish a drum machine had, the TR-1000 probably has you covered. But that also means the TR-1000 is an intimidating piece of gear with an equally intimidating $2,699.99 price tag.

Just looking at it can be a bit daunting. Roland has at times trended toward garish or toylike designs, which it’s rightly been criticized for. Now the company may have overcorrected. The recent Gaia 2 and SH-4d synthesizers are utilitarian, almost boring-looking. The TR-1000 continues that trend, but it carries a gravitas that those two instruments don’t. Roland’s flagship drum machine means business and looks the part.

The stark gray-and-black scheme gives it an industrial, almost brutalist vibe. There are 16 satisfyingly clacky keys across the bottom for the step sequencer, firm sliders for each of its 10 audio channels, plus buttons and knobs galore. Roland heard you wanted more hands-on controls and decided to give you all the hands-on controls.

The result is that you can do a lot on the TR-1000 with minimal menu diving. If you’ve ever used a step sequencer before, you should be able to bang out a simple beat immediately. There are dedicated knobs for tuning and decay so you can easily get that ultra-deep, modern 808 kick drone. While the labeling on the other knobs is generic (CTRL 1, CTRL 2, CTRL 3), the screen on the top right shows what they control.

Now, that does not mean there is no menu diving here — this is a Roland machine, after all. But the company has made strides with its UI in recent years. The issue is that Roland still hasn’t gotten a handle on its compulsion to cram every possible feature into every device. Is it nice to have sample chopping and resampling abilities on the TR-1000? Sure. But using them isn’t always intuitive, and the layout isn’t ideal for exploring chops to recontextualize a loop. For sampling one-shots and drum hits, the TR-1000 is great. But some of the more advanced features feel tacked on, buried behind convoluted button combos and cumbersome menus. The result is that I rarely used the looping or chopping features, and instead treated the TR-1000 as a more traditional drum machine.

From that perspective, the TR-1000 is an undeniable, if incredibly expensive, success. The headline feature is, of course, the 16 analog drum circuits that re-create iconic sounds from the TR-808 and TR-909. These are the reasons to splurge on the TR-1000. If you don’t care about having an authentic analog re-creation of the 808 snare, then spend your money elsewhere. There are countless digital facsimiles, including affordable options like the T-8 from Roland, and more free sample packs than I can count. But for those who crave the real deal, this is what you’ve been waiting for.

If you’re into making old-school hip-hop, house, or classic techno, this is the palette you want to be painting from. But I wouldn’t call the 808 or 909 sounds retro. They’re timeless. And the TR-1000 helps prove that point by placing them in the context of a modern sequencer, alongside more aggressively digital sounds.

The analog filter and drive help glue all these disparate sounds together while also highlighting the grit of the analog drum circuits. Turn up the decay on an 808 kick and crank the drive to about 75 percent — this is the sound of the gods. It’s the point where the bass just starts to cross over fuzz territory and hits hard enough to rattle your chest. I found myself returning to this specific sound over and over again when I felt like jamming.

Roland could have just replicated the OG 808 and 909 sounds and called it a day. But in addition to the classic timbres, there are extended controls that give you far more sound sculpting options than were available on the original machines. This includes tuning the 808 kick so you can play it as a bassline, which is obviously popular in modern music but usually requires a sampler or synthesizer.

The TR-1000 also turns out to be a great advertisement for the company’s digital emulations. If you put the analog circuit behavior (ACB) emulation of an 808 kick next to the real analog one on the TR-1000, you’d be hard-pressed to tell the difference — it’s very subtle. I like to think that I have a relatively discerning ear when it comes to this stuff, but when I tried to guess which was which in a blind taste test, I was barely better than pure chance.

The ACB models are also where you’ll find my personal favorite Roland sounds. While I get the appeal of the 808 and the 909, I’ve always been drawn to the more lo-fi sounds of the TR-606 and the CR-78. Now, if Roland wants to give me a real analog reissue of those sounds, I will gladly throw all my money at them.

Despite all the additional sounds and advanced features the TR-1000 offers, I usually found myself starting with some slight variation of the same sound palette: an analog 808 kick, snare, hi-hat, and clap, analog 909 snare, and a digital 808 kick layered with the analog one. Then I’d fill up the other five tracks with various digital percussion sounds that struck my fancy at that particular moment in time.

Because of the quirks of the TR’s sequencer, I also often found myself working with shorter, simpler patterns. Rather than have one long 64- or 128-step sequence, the TR-100 essentially has a 16-step sequencer, with eight variations that you can then change, plus four “fill-in” versions of each variation. So rather than thinking of things as one long eight-bar loop, I would work in two- or even one-bar loops, but then build a bunch of slight variations to swap between.

This workflow actually led to me creating more varied drum tracks, and the piles of hands-on controls actually had me treating a drum machine as a performance instrument for once, rather than a set-it-and-forget-it backdrop for noodling.

My favorite performance tool is easily the Morph slider, which is definitely inspired by the crossfader on Elektron’s Octatrack. It lets you set two different sets of parameters for all your sounds and then seamlessly blend between them. Often, I would use it to switch between a basic version of a pattern and one with the drive cranked, the decay on the kick turned up, and the snares tuned to hit harder.

Another performance-focused feature that I kept coming back to was the Step Loop. Some drum machines allow you to repeat a certain part of a pattern — say, the first half a bar or a single step — to create on-the-fly fills and buildups. But Roland is the only company I know that lets you repeat whichever steps you want in whatever combination you want. Want to repeat steps one, five, and nine to create a looping fill that avoids any snares? Just hold those steps down for as long as you want. It turns playing fills into an active process, rather than just something you program in and trigger occasionally. It’s the rare Roland feature I wish other companies would blatantly steal.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time with the TR-1000. It’s more fun than I’ve had with a drum machine in a long time. But I also feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface over the last couple of months. The looping, time-stretching, and chopping are all things I rarely bother with; the same goes for the virtual analog synth engine — largely because programming melodic passages is an enormous PITA. There are individual outs for each track, which would be huge in a more professional setting, but in my attic office / studio, I only ever bothered with the master out. I also never touched Song Mode. (To be fair, I never touch song mode on any of my gear.)

There’s just so much going on on the TR-1000 that it’s overwhelming. Roland really did build the ultimate drum machine, but it can feel like too much at times, and I preferred to stick to the basics. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that; you should use an instrument in the way that feels natural to you. But if you’re not going to use the TR-1000 to its full potential, the $2,699.99 price tag is probably a deal-breaker.

Photography by Terrence O’Brien / The Verge