Roland • TR-505 Rhythm Composer
A cheap (budget) drum machine. It features 16 drum tones which unfortunately, are only mediocre samples. Its memory contains 48 patterns and 6 songs. Unlike its TR cousins it does not have individual drum tone outputs. There is no drum tone editing capability either. It does however feature extensive MIDI implementation, even the pads will transmit MIDI data. The 505 works well with a computer and sequencer or as a stand alone drum machine. It is extremely basic and unexciting but does make a good starter or play-along drum machine. Vince Clarke and Aphex Twin has used the 505.
VISITOR COMMENTS
Comments page 3 of 3
Used it as "click" module for our drummer in our discoband back in 2001... worked well
This machine can sound very good with individual outs soldered to the circuit board. Each output may then have different "EQ's" and "FX" such as reverb added to them. A technician can "wire it up"! I do have the schematics in an old (1986) music magazine, but I have not been able to find it yet. (I have a large collection).
A nice paperweight. The sounds are creepy, and the only good feature is its internal and full programmable sequencer.
I know its cheating in a way, but run it through some reverb and bass boost, get it modded with a trigger output or 2 for cheap and sequence a bass along with it. Sounds awesome!
I've been using one of these dinosaurs since the late eighties. I now use it to trigger a Yamaha RY9. The TR-505 is extremely easy to program in comparison to the RY9 (which has the most ridiculously convoluted programming process I have ever encountered - but the voices are great). The 505 is very limited as far as sounds go, but for it's ease of programming, the only thing that beats it is a computer.
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