Roland TR-505 Drum Machine

Here’s a look, via AnalogAudio1, at the Roland TR-505 Rhythm Composer drum machine, a vintage drumbox from 1986:

The Roland TR-505 is a little programmable digital drum machine from 1986. This demo shows some of my own patterns.

Accent is programmable. It’s some kind of mini-combination of a TR-707 and TR-727 since it has percussion sounds in addition. It has similar sounds. It has MIDI but no single outputs and no Roland SYNC-Interface. Shuffle functions available.

The Roland TR-505 offers 8 sample-based voices and 48 user patterns.

If you’ve used the Roland TR-505, leave a comment with your thoughts on it!

21 thoughts on “Roland TR-505 Drum Machine

  1. I have used one. Save your money and get something else. You will use this in one project then have no use for it ever again.

    1. Oh well … better use any kind of hardware like this machine rather than any pluguin , sample or any cpu crapysoftware

      1. What a stupid comment. How exactly does a digital drum machine (which is s computer running software creating digital sounds) that has one set of cheesy sounds better than a piece of software (Battery 4, for example) that has hundreds of different kits (most of which far better sounding) and includes many, many more features? You realize running Battery is essentially running a piece of software on a computer, creating digital sounds, just like the 505, but orders of magnitude more powerful??

  2. I have a circuit bent one, but I mainly use it as a sequencer as its very easy to program. The sounds aren’t too bad, it certainly has a cheesy 80’s loveliness to it.

  3. A 505 was my first drum machine. Nothing I would use today, but back then it fit the bill as an affordable, portable gizmo that I got a lot of use out of. I rarely used it for recording, other than feeding it into a Vestax 4 track cassette recorder for capturing ideas and demos. Mostly I practiced guitar/keyboard against it to have a groove to lock to. It wasn’t deep enough to spend time tweaking the sounds, which was perfect because I could just turn it on and whatever came out was good enough to live with to get through the jam/writing/practice session without wasting any time. It was also a solid build. Even though it was plastic I drug it all over the country in less than ideal situations and it never broke, lost buttons, etc.

  4. I actually own one of these 505’s, this is the first time I’ve seen them being spoken of to show case, snappy little machines 🙂

  5. This one is one of first Roland’s bad off-springs. There’s not much editing, and it sounds cheap. Avoid it at all cost. 707, 727, 808, 909, and I say R-8 are the best Roland contemporary rhythm machines bar none. And CR-8000, of course.

  6. Nice cheap little portable machine, runs on batteries, easy to program. An often overseen feature is, as it has full midi implementation it can be used as a midi controller for other sound modules.

  7. OI bought one years ago at a car boot sale. I kept it about a year, using it once or twice and then I gave it to a guitarist friend. It wasn’t terrible, but I got it around the time I started using VSTs and I never really found a use for it.

  8. I love mine. Sure I have many other options, but sometimes the very fact that it IS limited causes me to be more creative. Nanoloop is also fairly limited (samples notwithstanding) as a drum machine, but
    it makes me ” boil things down” and eliminate the superfluous.

  9. I used one of these in the 80’s and recently got one again and I love it. I think its a piece of history. Its okay to say later models were better and you can get better units now but at the time I thought this was cool. I own several drum machines and they have samples of real instruments. I liked the 505 and still do. I like retro analogue guitar pedals which I use even though I have modern digital fx units. I like my 505 and use it as much as possible. If you think about it the standard real drumkit has hardly changed in 50 years. There are digital drumkits but you hardly ever see bands use them. They still play with the same kit. If I can get the 505 to do the basic track I need it then its fine by me.

  10. “I have used one. Save your money and get something else. You will use this in one project then have no use for it ever again.”

    Besides a $250 Spark LE and a Boss Tr-670 the Roland TR-505 is the cheapest “Hardware” (given they remain under $120 on ebay) that features a grid display sequencer and individual midi channels per pad.

    It might not sound interesting, but that’s what the computer sampler sounds are for.
    I personally like stepping away from the computer and using hardware drum machines.

    Best of all it lets you step away from the computer screen and record in another room.

  11. i’d like to buy one of these. tr505s. happy to pay about forty quid. if any of the people are wanting to get rid. contact details are the website. or phone 01305854979 for instant gratification.

  12. Others said it, I’ll just reemphasize: Forget it even has sounds…with on-fly Tap and Step plus TR-style grid workflow and (yes, multi-channel) midi out, it is probably among the cheapest hardware sequencers you’re gonna find.

    And it runs on six frickin AA batteries. Lemme see your softsynth do that. I’ve built live sets around it for days. Dunno if I’ve ever used the PCM sounds though – I trigger samplers and synths.

    Incidentally, firmware (as drives such a device as this) is absolutely distinct from software. Thus we have different words for them. Mmmmkay.

  13. The great thing about the TR505 is how easy it is to program and play. I used my old one to build many song demos back in the 80’s. It is an elementary sequencer/drum machine, with crude sounds and not much mojo. It paired well with a cassette 4-track to make quick demos. If you understand the simple math of swing-time, you can make this swing too with a little work.
    A much better tactile replacement is the Alesis SR16, which has actual recorded drum sounds, and touch sensitive pads, but needs wall power. As stated the 505’s battery operation made it perfect for remote rave sets too. I had a lot of fun with mine.
    I agree it is more hands-on fun to use than a software sequencer/DMX in your DAW.

  14. I have my original 505 from ’87. These days, I MIDI it into an R8m and mult its outputs to trigger a Techstar TS305. Back to the future!

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