Norgatronics

An accent feature is missing from the SoundForce 808 Snare. Adding one is a matter of replacing a 12V rail voltage with the accent voltage. And that’s where a rabbit hole entrance lies in wait.  So Common The TR-808 has one global accent track where you program steps affecting all active voices with an increased trigger level. There is only one global level setting for the amount of accent. This accent is sent globaly on the COMMON TRIG line to all the instruments.   It’s one of those deceptive tricks of the 808 design which in this case makes it's timing special. The common trig signal is always running and consists of a 1ms pulse on every step. The instrument ("data") pulse, which is sent for each selected step is slightly wider so when they are combined there's no chance of them missing each other.  When AND'd together the result is perfectly in time with every instrument in lock step.    The common trig signal is passed through the global accent control, alt...

Nevermind 80’8, what about 81’82? Overlapping the TR-808’s 80-82 production run the CR-5000 and CR-8000 were made by Roland from 1981 to 1982. They both feature a dual bridged-T snare drum circuit, practically identical to their big brother. You can find those who claim that these drum machines have identical sounds, but, as I’ll explain, it’s not that simple. In common with the 808, the SD tuning was updated during it's production life. The CR x000 Service Notes are headed First Edition December 8, 1981 (reprinted July 12 1983). That’s six months after the updated 808 notes, so not the same moment. The CR-x000 design must have been in the final stages by mid-1981 though, the same period as the 808 tuning changes, right? No! Wait! We can do better than that. Much better.    All Change! All Change! Flick through the notes to the voice board pages till lo and behold: CHANGES IN COMPONENT WITH SERIAL NUMBERS CR-5000 101400 CR-8000 101300     The changes are all over the...