Roland TR-626

Roland’s TR-626 from 1987 is a 12-bit digital drum machine that has 30 drum sounds and can store 48 patterns and 6 songs. It has a grouped 8 voice polyphony system. is Roland’s most utilitarian drum machine in that it can also transmit on any midi note and on more than one channel but also provide a 5v clock pulse to drive functions in other gear like the Juno 60’s arpeggiator as shown here. The 8 individual outputs, individual level control for the main outputs, and tuning control for each sounds make it pretty versatile. The drum sound have just enough character to be present but not noticed although that does not mean you can't give them more character as shown here. It can generate and follow midi clock, song position pointer, start, stop, and continue messages. The sequencer is not only used for the internal drum sounds but can also send out midi to other devices like samplers or other drum machine and they can be on more than one midi channel. Watch a demo here.