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The DrumTraks is a very programmable classic drum machine from the eighties. While its electronic drum kit sounds may not be as popular today as the TR-909 or TR-808, the DrumTraks exceeds them with superior editing capabilities. Thirteen drum sounds all with programmable tuning and level control. Extensive editing with copy and paste ability. There's even a mixer section for individual sounds, six individual outputs, one mono mix output, and cassette in/out for offline memory storage.

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Pretty basic and easy programming, record a couple patterns and link them into a song. The DrumTraks can send Roland sync/clock to control a TB-303, TR-909, TR-808 or TR-606. It is also fully MIDI capable and syncable. This makes it very easy to use with old analogs and new MIDI synths and sequencers. If your looking for classic eighties electro beats and the vintage instrument that generates them then look no further than the DrumTraks. It is used by Orbital, Freddy Fresh, and Prince.

24 VISITOR COMMENTS

Sol

March 4, 2012 @ 7:40 am

Wanted one of these for a long time and managed to pick one up which Im very happy with. When you use EQ and sub the drums to a channel and then compress, particularly multiband compression it really shines. Its the kind of drum machine which can really give you a particular sound. I had the samples but they never sounded as good as the real thing. Its the little differences like changing the pitch of the drums, adding accents here and there which seem to produce a different sound to the samples. Probably because they hit the filter circuitry harder. Justice used it on the Cross album.

VisceralVoids

December 7, 2011 @ 11:42 pm

@Kevin: You need to add a MIDI interface to the SH101 and make sure the Drumtraks has the latest operating version 5. Also 'enable pads out MIDI' which is in the manual. Hope that helps.

kevin

October 17, 2011 @ 11:04 pm

1) Can you use it to sync a Roland SH 101 synth? 2) Could you use the midi for your DAW and then sync to the Roland SH 101, which would create an interface for your DAW and SH 101?

spencer

May 29, 2011 @ 12:16 pm

Does anyone know if this has a trigger-out function at all, similar to the Roland TR's rim-shot activated trigger out function?

Dr Sanchez

May 19, 2011 @ 12:24 pm

This is my favorite drummachine. It sounds warm, a bit muffled and has very nice sluggish feel in the timing. The bassdrum is nice'n punchy. The youtube videos don't do it justice, you'll have to hear it live to know what I'm talking about. Secret tip: remove eprom chips from the crash and ride to shorten the decay!

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