This gives you flexible control over both medium and material, which can only be a good thing. These include metronome adjustment and switching, error correction, and instrument erasure together with Improv, Stack and Reframe record modes (all of these from the Pattern list), and instrument tuning, volume, pan and auto-repeat from the Control list. Parameter values appear automatically in a four-character, seven-segment display to the right of the function list, where they can be modified using a standard numeric keypad.Ī neat feature is the way a number of functions can readily be accessed and altered during recording. Each column is headed by its own selector button and LED, whilst down the left-hand column are LEDs for each function in the columns. The result is a layout that gives easy, rapid access to every function, so all credit to Sequential on this one.Īll of TOM's functions are listed in three columns - one column for each of the modes mentioned earlier. In the tradition of Sequential's front panels, layout is clear and informative the TOM adopts the sort of matrix display format previously used to present the MultiTrak's voice parameters, and combines it with the complete listing of functions that was adopted on the SixTrak. Operation of the TOM is divided into three modes: Pattern, Song and Control. But this is more than can be said for its non-instrument pads, which is unfortunate as they probably get as much of a thrashing in the long term. There's storage space for 100 patterns and 100 songs, and standard (non-expanded) memory holds 2300 notes.Īs drum machine pads go, the TOM's have a usefully firm response. Internal sounds consist of bass drum, snare drum, two toms, open and closed hi-hats, crash cymbal and claps, each sound being allocated its own triggering pad. The TOM has eight sounds onboard and can provide access to a further seven via a plug-in cartridge. What it also means is that the casing is a bit on the light side, though such considerations don't seem to have harmed Roland's TR707, a flimsy machine if ever there was one. The visual side of the TOM has obviously been designed to match Sequential's MAX and MultiTrak polysynths, which means it has a very smart, clean-cut and contemporary appearance. And a few months back, that machine turned out to be the TOM, a programmable machine that combines many of the features that made the Drumtraks such a winner, with a price-tag that's significantly lower. So with Sequential's earlier offering currently looking a bit long in the tooth (though still an excellent machine), a new drum product from the company has been on the cards for a while. Yamaha's RX11 even offers tuning facilities, albeit with preset levels rather than the continuous variation present on the Drumtraks. That machine's original asking price of £950 was pretty much par for the course at the time, but the more recent offerings from Roland and Yamaha have changed people's expectations of how much a high-quality digital drum machine should cost. It's now over a year since Sequential's first foray into the digital drum machine world produced the Drumtraks, the world's first tunable drum machine.
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