In a discussion about the greatest Roland TR drum machine, it’s unlikely that either the TR-707 or TR-727 would feature heavily, but they’re certainly not without merit.
Released in 1985, these were the first of the company’s drum machines to be powered by PCM samples, and now they’ve arrived in plugin form on the Roland Cloud.
The TR-707 was the more ‘standard’ of the two machines, giving you traditional drum kit tones. The TR-727, meanwhile specialised in Latin percussion. Both ‘7-series’ models came with 15 sounds.
Although they were sample-based, Roland has called on its ACB (Analog Circuit Behavior) modelling technology to emulate the 707 and 727. This is because, as well as the PCM data, both machines also used analogue circuitry to introduce decay to the waveforms, giving the sounds a distinctive lo-fi charm.
Roland has used ACB to emulate this relationship, promising to deliver all the original machines’ sonic quirks and instabilities in the process.
The plugins also offer new features, such as editing of the individual sounds and the option to overdrive the internal circuitry. The sequencer has been updated with more features, too.
The TR-707 and TR-727 plugins can be purchased outright for $149 each, and come as part of the Ultimate tier of the Roland Cloud subscription service. This costs $19.99 a month or $199.00 a year.
Find out more on the Roland website.
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