Roland TR-55

A different place for the drummer.

The TR-55’s factory manual introduces a self-contained rhythm instrument with its own case. The panel faces forward; the power lead has a storage compartment at the back. The rhythm box can join an organ, another amplified instrument or a public-address system. It is designed to move with the player.

Roland groups it with the TR-33 and TR-77 among the company’s first instruments, introduced in 1972. Where the TR-33 mounts under an organ and the TR-77 offers a tabletop surface, the TR-55 supplies a portable arrangement. Its four-kilogram specification makes that distinction tangible.

The Japanese manual calls it Rhythm 55 and prints the exact TR-55 model below the name. It has ten percussion voices and twenty-two rhythm examples: twelve 2/4-beat variations and ten named styles. Ballad and Samba sit alongside the Waltz, Slow Rock and Latin selections shared with the smaller TR-33.

Its later catalogue life continued into the CompuRhythm period. The June 1978 general catalogue supplies a dated price and product description. That continuing presence helps place a preset accompaniment instrument beside Roland’s changing product range, without making its older panel into a programmable machine.

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Start at the touch. Change in the phrase.

The touch-start plate begins or stops the rhythm. A footswitch provides a second way to do that while the hands stay on the main instrument. The manual specifies a start from the first beat. Starting the accompaniment is a musical cue, rather than merely turning on a sound that happens to be cycling already.

The ten genre selectors cancel each other in normal use, while simultaneous selection allows combinations. Waltz, Slow Rock and Ballad require attention when paired with another rhythm: the manual discusses the three- or six-beat relationships that can result. The attractive part of the system is the room between a labelled preset and the combined accompaniment.

The variation dial has six positions. With 2 BEAT or 4 BEAT selected, it moves through a different family of prepared rhythms. The printed names range from Bass and Bass & Snare to Fox Trot, Swing, March, Parade and Tango. Those words are Roland’s working vocabulary for the selector, rather than a complete history of the styles themselves.

UP TEMPO changes the pace immediately and a second operation restores it. There is an extra detail in this machine’s instructions: Swing 1, Swing 2, Swing 3 and Ballad change their pattern slightly with the faster setting. Tempo doubling is therefore not adequately explained as a uniform speed change for every selection.

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The amplifier is part of the setup.

HIGH IMP. and LOW IMP. provide two impedance choices for the mixed audio. The manual lists 220 kΩ and 10 kΩ. Neither connector is an individual drum output. Choose the connection for the destination, then use the volume control to put the accompaniment into the amplified performance.

The FS-1 footswitch sits in the connection drawing alongside the power lead, amplifier and organ. It starts or stops the rhythm; it does not add a new rhythm-writing system. The manual’s specified accessories belong to this edition and market, so a surviving second-hand unit may arrive with a different set of cables.

The voice list gives bass drum, snare drum, hi-hat, cymbal, maracas, rim shot, cowbell, high conga, low conga and claves. BALANCE changes the weighting of the mix. An organist or guitarist has a compact percussion section to accompany, with the decisions about melody, harmony and phrasing still outside the cabinet.

The factory block diagram separates the logic, rhythm matrix and voice generator: an electronic route from a prepared selection to a percussion sound.

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Before the LinnDrum. Before the final record.

Pål Waaktaar-Savoy remembers the TR-55 as the first drum machine he bought. In his interview with Dan LeRoy, he places it on “Lesson One” and the first a-ha demos. It offered the young group an immediate rhythm to work around before the later equipment and production of their breakthrough recordings.

The same account moves on to a LinnDrum and Prophet-5 at John Ratcliff’s studio. The released “Take On Me” drum arrangement belongs to that later story. The TR-55’s early-demo role should stay attached to the demos, where Waaktaar-Savoy puts it.

Sheila Rock’s portrait of the group dates from 11 March 1984.

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A preset box. A four-track world.

Magnetic South’s release description for Ben Lumsdaine’s self-titled album places a TR-55 in a four-track cassette setup. It says the rhythm machine supplied the only drums, with keyboards, electric organ and Fender Rhodes around it. Microphones, tape machines, amplifiers and guitar pedals shaped the recordings.

The label’s account connects the prepared rhythm to an intimate recording method. The surrounding instruments and signal paths help make the record; the preset is one material in that work. Magnetic South gives 11 September 2017 as the release date.

Listening can now return to the little row of buttons with a better question. What can a musician build around a rhythm that is already there? The album and the early a-ha demos give two documented answers, separated by time and by the working conditions around the machine.

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