Drum Machines Have No Soul

Drum machine

Roland TR-707

Write a drum part, see its hits across the LCD grid, then balance the kit with the level sliders.

The digital drum boom →
Big Beat Collection Roland TR-707, complete isolated viewCollection photograph · Big Beat CollectionSource & credit ↗

Jon Lewin reviewed the TR-707 in the February 1985 issue of One Two Testing, listing it at £499 in the UK.

Source-led exhibition chapter

Roland TR-707 — A sampled rhythm written in plain view

The TR-707 put a sampled kit, a row of level sliders and a graphic LCD grid into one deliberately direct rhythm machine. Write a beat, see the positions, change a part and hear the result. Its fifteen voices and individual outputs gave a player practical ways to move from a pattern to a mixer without hiding the work behind a screen.

Source (1)
  1. Roland TR707 ↗

Jon Lewin’s February 1985 review listed the instrument at £499 in Britain. He welcomed its facilities while finding the light case and sliders less convincing. That mixed contemporary judgment is more useful than a simple anniversary verdict: the 707 was immediately capable, visibly built around pattern writing, and not beyond criticism in the hand.

Source (1)
  1. Roland TR707 ↗

The grid made a pattern legible

Tap Write captured played hits. Step Write let a musician select a voice and correct the exact places where it sounded. Sixty-four user patterns fed four track groups, sharing 998 bars, with more storage available by cartridge. Some restrictions were built into the kit: rimshot and cowbell, open and closed hi-hat, and handclap and tambourine could not each sound together.

Source (1)
  1. Roland TR707 ↗

Those limitations are not incidental. They explain why a 707 part has a particular physical logic. A player is always balancing the visible pattern against the machine’s available voices, controls and memory.

Three documented musical lives

Andrew Farriss identifies the TR-707 as the machine on which he programmed the groove for INXS’s “Need You Tonight,” saying the finished rhythm closely follows what he entered.

Source (1)
  1. Need You Tonight by INXS ↗

Beverly Glenn-Copeland’s Keyboard Fantasies is documented separately as a 1986 album made with a Yamaha DX7 and TR-707 among its working equipment. That places the Roland in an album palette without assigning it to every track.

Source (1)
  1. Beverly Glenn-Copeland finds his place with Keyboard Fantasies ↗

DJ Pierre recalls the TR-707 and TR-727 as professional machines within reach of aspiring producers, and Roland’s Phuture history identifies the pair around “Acid Tracks.” That account does not divide each drum hit between the two boxes. It does show a practical sampled Roland rhythm machine becoming part of a radically different musical world from the one suggested by its factory panel.

Source (1)
  1. Lifetime Achievement: DJ Pierre and Phuture ↗
01 // Instrument & performance

A sampled Roland with display and routing

Write a drum part, see its hits across the LCD grid, then balance the kit with the level sliders. The TR-707 offered fifteen sampled voices, with ten shared level controls and individual outputs. Jon Lewin’s February 1985 review listed it at £499 in Britain; he welcomed the facilities but criticised the light case and flimsy sliders.

Roland TR707 ↗

02 // Instrument & performance

A rhythm written on the display

Tap Write records played hits; Step Write lets the player select a voice and correct its positions. The grid shows the pattern while the numbered keys add or remove hits. Sixty-four user patterns feed four track groups sharing 998 bars. A memory cartridge adds storage; Lewin had not tested one.

Roland TR707 ↗

03 // Instrument & performance

Useful compromises

The samples could not be tuned, and some voices could not sound together: rimshot and cowbell, open and closed hi-hat, handclap and tambourine. Separate outputs took the kit to mixer channels. Lewin found track writing slow because each bar required an Enter press, even when a pattern repeated.

Roland TR707 ↗

The machine in the record

Cover artwork for INXS / Andrew Farriss — Need You Tonight.
Need You Tonight is the record Andrew Farriss discussed with the TR-707 in its production; the cover identifies the release, not every finished-master sound as an unaltered factory voice.

INXS / “Need You Tonight”.

Andrew Farriss identifies the TR-707 as the machine on which he programmed the groove for “Need You Tonight”. He says the record closely follows that programming: the drum machine’s pattern remains a central part of the finished song.

Read Need You Tonight by INXS ↗
04 // Music & working lives

Andrew Farriss’ programmed groove

Andrew Farriss identifies the TR-707 as the machine on which he programmed the groove for “Need You Tonight”. In Roland’s 2021 account, he says the record closely follows what he entered: a programmed drum part carried into the song’s finished rhythm.

Need You Tonight by INXS ↗

05 // Music & working lives

Beverly Glenn-Copeland’s Keyboard Fantasies

American Songwriter’s 2021 interview identifies a Yamaha DX7 and TR-707 among the equipment used to record Keyboard Fantasies in 1986. Glenn-Copeland describes the music as arriving through an intuitive creative process. The two instruments belong to the album’s working palette.

Beverly Glenn-Copeland finds his place with Keyboard Fantasies ↗

06 // Music & working lives

The kit beside Acid Tracks

DJ Pierre recalls the TR-707 and TR-727 as professional drum machines that aspiring musicians could afford. Roland’s Phuture history identifies the pair in the rhythm of “Acid Tracks”, alongside the better-known TB-303 story. It does not divide the drum part hit by hit between the two boxes.

Lifetime Achievement: DJ Pierre and Phuture ↗

Recording and working accounts

Explore 21 source accounts
Browse more working lives and sample archives

Working lives & sample archives

Records, performances and later libraries.

Portrait of Marshall Jefferson from his 2016 MusicRadar interview.
Marshall Jefferson in the 2016 MusicRadar interview in which he names the TR-707 in his first production setup. The portrait identifies Jefferson; it does not show the machine or a particular recording session.

Marshall Jefferson / Early production setup; no named recording

Jefferson says a Roland TR-707 was part of his first production setup, alongside a JX-8P, EX-800, TR-808, QX1 and TB-303, and that he made music on that equipment until 1987.

Read MusicRadar — “Marshall Jefferson on making music then and now, and why he’d rather work alone” ↗
Henry Saiz’s Roland TR-707 drum machine in his studio.
Henry Saiz’s Roland TR-707 in his 2013 MusicRadar studio feature. It is the machine he describes as a favourite; the image does not identify a particular recording.

Henry Saiz / Studio practice; no named recording

Saiz calls the Roland TR-707 one of his favourite drum machines and says making beats with hardware drum machines gives him a different, more interesting experience than writing a MIDI sequence.

Read MusicRadar — “Me in my studio: Henry Saiz” ↗
Kevin Parker photographed for Sound On Sound in 2020.
Kevin Parker in the Sound On Sound feature accompanying his account of Tame Impala’s equipment. The photograph identifies the artist and source interview; it does not show the TR-707 or the “Glimmer” session.

Tame Impala / Kevin Parker / Glimmer

Kevin Parker identifies a Roland TR-707 on Tame Impala’s “Glimmer”, describing a jam in which he drove its pattern through a tape machine and heavy reverb.

Read Tame Impala: The Psychedelic World Of Kevin Parker ↗
Jyoti Mishra’s studio in 1997, with a Roland TR-707 visible in the equipment.
Jyoti Mishra’s studio in 1997, reproduced by Sound On Sound. The source caption identifies a Roland TR-707 in the room; Mishra’s accompanying account recalls using one to make early White Town work before he stopped treating the project as a band he had to reproduce live.

Jyoti Mishra / White Town / Early White Town work, no individual track allocation

Jyoti Mishra recalls trying to make White Town’s early work alone with a Roland TR-707 before deciding not to constrain the project to what a live band could reproduce.

Read Classic Tracks: White Town’s “Your Woman” ↗
Justin DeLay’s modified Roland TR-707 drum machine.
Justin DeLay’s modified TR-707, photographed for his 2017 Reverb studio profile. His accompanying account calls it his first and favourite drum machine; the image records his individual-pitch modification, not a named recording session.

Justin DeLay / Replicant / Home-studio and live setup

DeLay calls the TR-707 his first and favourite drum machine, used in the hybrid setup with which Replicant produces music and performs live; he had individual sample tuning added beneath its step buttons.

Read Justin DeLay’s modified Roland TR-707 ↗
Cover artwork for Beverly Glenn-Copeland — Keyboard Fantasies.
Keyboard Fantasies gives Beverly Glenn-Copeland’s TR-707 system account a release context; the sleeve identifies the album, not individual voices or patterns.

Beverly Glenn-Copeland / Keyboard Fantasies

The American Songwriter interview identifies a Yamaha DX7 and TR-707 among the equipment used to record Keyboard Fantasies in 1986.

Read Beverly Glenn-Copeland finds his place with Keyboard Fantasies ↗
Cover artwork for Phuture — Acid Tracks.
Phuture / DJ Pierre — Acid Tracks: retained artwork gives this source-backed artist account a record context; it does not itself prove the machine, a specific sound, or a recording session.

Phuture / DJ Pierre / Acid Tracks

The history identifies the paired TR-707/TR-727 system around Acid Tracks.

Read Lifetime Achievement: DJ Pierre and Phuture ↗
Martin Gore’s Roland TR-707 from his Reverb collection sale.
Martin Gore’s TR-707 in a 2019 Reverb collection sale. It documents ownership, not a Depeche Mode recording credit.

Martin Gore / Depeche Mode / Private collection; no named recording

Martin Gore’s official Reverb shop offered a Roland TR-707 from his private collection with an authenticity certificate.

Read Roland TR707 Drum Machine Owned by Martin Gore of Depeche Mode ↗
Cover artwork for Oskarova Fobija — Synth-Pop Yugoslavia 1983–86.
Oskarova Fobija — Synth-Pop Yugoslavia 1983–86: retained artwork identifies the release or source-recording context, not a machine, session or sound allocation.

Oskarova Fobija / Synth-Pop Yugoslavia 1983–86

The archival reissue places a TR-707 in Dejan Novčić’s 1985–86 Belgrade recording setup, preserved from original reels and four-track cassettes.

Read Oskarova Fobija — Synth-Pop Yugoslavia 1983–86 ↗
Cover artwork for Sally Seltmann / Darren Seltmann — Early Moon.
Sally Seltmann / Darren Seltmann — Early Moon: retained artwork identifies the release or source-recording context, not a machine, session or sound allocation.

Sally Seltmann / Darren Seltmann / Early Moon

The Early Moon credits name Darren Seltmann on Roland TR-707 for “Don’t Look Back”, beside Sally Seltmann’s R-8 work.

Read Sally Seltmann / Early Moon ↗
Cover artwork for Alex Ball — Coalescent Apparatus.
Alex Ball — Coalescent Apparatus: retained artwork identifies the release or source-recording context, not a machine, session or sound allocation.

Alex Ball / Coalescent Apparatus

Alex Ball’s release notes identify a Roland TR-707 on track 8 of Coalescent Apparatus.

Read Coalescent Apparatus ↗
Cover artwork for Coakira — Early Works 1990s.
Coakira — Early Works 1990s: retained artwork identifies the release or source-recording context, not a machine, session or sound allocation.

Coakira / Early Works 1990s

Coakira’s reissue lists a Roland TR-707 among the equipment used for recordings made from 1990 to 1994.

Read Coakira — Early Works 1990s ↗

Archive source

Cover artwork for SysEx Emporium — 2,081 Ultimate Vintage Drum Samples.
SysEx Emporium — 2,081 Ultimate Vintage Drum Samples: retained artwork identifies the release or source-recording context, not a machine, session or sound allocation.

SysEx Emporium / 2,081 Ultimate Vintage Drum Samples

SysEx Emporium lists Roland TR-707 samples in 2,081 Ultimate Vintage Drum Samples.

Read SysEx Emporium / 2,081 Ultimate Vintage Drum Samples ↗
Cover artwork for Bobby Previte — Live Forever, Vol. 2.
Bobby Previte — Live Forever, Vol. 2: retained artwork identifies the release or source-recording context, not a machine, session or sound allocation.

Bobby Previte / Live Forever, Vol. 2

Bobby Previte is credited with Roland 707 drum machine on these live 1988–89 recordings.

Read Bobby Previte / Wayne Horvitz — Live Forever, Vol. 2 ↗
Cover artwork for CLIP ART — CLIP ART EP.
CLIP ART — CLIP ART EP: retained release artwork gives the documented machine story a record-world context; it does not depict the hardware, a session, or an individual track allocation.

CLIP ART / CLIP ART EP

CLIP ART list a Roland TR-707 among the instruments used for their debut EP.

Read CLIP ART — CLIP ART EP ↗
Cover artwork for Becker & Mukai — Time Very Near.
Becker & Mukai — Time Very Near: retained release artwork gives the documented machine story a record-world context; it does not depict the hardware, a session, or an individual track allocation.

Becker & Mukai / Time Very Near

Becker & Mukai list a Roland TR-707 in the release-wide gear inventory for Time Very Near.

Read Becker & Mukai — Time Very Near ↗
Cover artwork for Munir — Ritmo Echo.
Munir — Ritmo Echo: retained release artwork gives the documented machine story a record-world context; it does not depict the hardware, a session, or an individual track allocation.

Munir / Ritmo Echo

Munir’s album inventory names a Roland TR-707.

Read Munir — Ritmo Echo ↗
Cover artwork for Hunter Complex / Lars Meijer — Dead Calm and Zero Degrees.
Hunter Complex / Lars Meijer — Dead Calm and Zero Degrees: retained release artwork gives the documented machine story a record-world context; it does not depict the hardware, a session, or an individual track allocation.

Hunter Complex / Lars Meijer / Dead Calm and Zero Degrees

Hunter Complex credits a Roland TR-707 on track b3.

Read Hunter Complex — Dead Calm and Zero Degrees ↗
Ariel Rechtshaid in his Burbank, Los Angeles studio.
Ariel Rechtshaid in his Burbank studio, photographed by Ashley Beliveau for Sound On Sound. The feature records his hardware drum-machine practice; the image does not identify the Roland TR-707 in view or a particular recording.

Ariel Rechtshaid / Studio practice

Rechtshaid names a Roland TR-707 among the hardware drum machines he sequences for projects.

Read Ariel Rechtshaid: Producer and musician ↗

INXS / Andrew Farriss / Need You Tonight

Andrew Farriss identifies the TR-707 as the machine on which he programmed the “Need You Tonight” groove, and says the finished record closely follows his programming.

Read Need You Tonight by INXS ↗

Sources

  1. Roland TR707
  2. Need You Tonight by INXS
  3. Beverly Glenn-Copeland finds his place with Keyboard Fantasies
  4. Lifetime Achievement: DJ Pierre and Phuture

The visual archive

Further visual evidence.

These displayed records are labelled by their documented role, date and source; source-only records are listed separately below.

Ariel Rechtshaid — studio and drum-machine method2017-08 · Ashley Beliveau / Sound On SoundFeature header photograph; “Inspirational Kit” names the DMX, TR-808, TR-707 and LM-1 use.Source & credit ↗
Sources for images shown earlier (18)
Additional visual sources (10)

Original publications and related image sources.

  • TR-707 - The Record Maker ↗
    Mar 1985 · International Musician & Recording World · Small but recognisable Roland TR-707 product thumbnail from the dedicated March 1985 advertisement feature; source filename and corrected article provenance resolve the model
  • Roland TR707 ↗
    Feb 1985 · One Two Testing · Roland TR-707 display, track and level-control detail from its dedicated contemporary review.
  • Roland TR707 ↗
    Feb 1985 · One Two Testing · Full Roland TR-707 product photograph with maker and model markings visible.
  • Roland TR707 ↗
    Dec 1984 · Electronics & Music Maker · Full Roland TR-707 product photograph restored to the December 1984 Electronics & Music Maker review that originated the URL.
  • A Runway Success ↗
    Jan 1985 · Electronic Soundmaker & Computer Music · Roland TR-707 product photograph from the dedicated A Runway Success review; the model marking and characteristic graphic display layout are visible.
  • Roland TR707 ↗
    Sep 1985 · Home & Studio Recording · Colour Roland TR-707 product photograph from Paul White’s dedicated review; brand and model are visible.
  • Roland TR-707 ↗
    Jan 1985 · International Musician & Recording World · Roland TR-707 product photograph from Bob Henrit’s dedicated January 1985 review; model marking and panel layout are visible.
  • TR-707 - The Record Maker ↗
    Mar 1985 · International Musician & Recording World · Roland TR-707 product photograph from the period advertisement feature TR-707 - The Record Maker; the model marking is visible.
  • Roland TR707 ↗
    Jan 1985 · In Tune · Roland TR-707 product photograph from Julian Colbeck’s dedicated In Tune review; the model marking and panel layout are visible.
  • Bobby Previte — Live Forever, Vol. 2 ↗
    Release date not stated on source page · Bobby Previte / release artwork via Bandcamp · Official Bandcamp release-page artwork (Open Graph image)

Machine Museum image viewer

Collection photograph shown in this machine story.