Love my Digitakt to pieces, but unfortunately the Syntakt isn’t offering quite what I was hoping for in terms of sound or workflow. I’d rather not make that the focus of the thread, but it suffices to say I spent some time with my friend’s TR-606 and it just had that punch, presence and air I’ve been trying to chase down.
I can buy one on the used market for about $500, or grab the TR-06 for slightly cheaper. I know it has some extra bells and whistles the original model doesn’t, but I’ve had a hard time making heads or tails about whether it sits as well in a mix as the original (the current thread on Elektronauts is over 500 comments long and really going in the weeds about things like chips and whatnot).
Would be curious to hear people’s opinions on this. TR-08 and Tanzbar stuff looks intriguing as well.
I like the Tr-06 a good deal. Always found it really easy to get a good groove going and the overdrive and delay are very usable.
I would also look at the Drumbrute Impact. It can sound pretty close to the 606 in a few ways minus the high hats but offers way more hands on control.
Yeah I will say that airy hi hat sound is kind of what I’m after. I also like the appeal of something relatively simple and straightforward. I go pretty hard with the programming and sound designing on my Virus and Digitakt so something more basic sounds nice.
The MFB 522 analog drum machine is also a good choice for the basic sounds - Kick,Snare,Clap,HiHats.
It’s relatively small, and has many pots to affect the sound. It’s a hands-on drum machine, but programming it is a bit difficult and redundant - it’s best to trigger it over midi and use velocity to affect a sound’s accent level.
I’d recommend the Tanzmaus over the MFB 522, though it generally goes for slightly over 500 USD. Has presets, LFOs, a great sound and some of the better MFB build quality. I do everything on my iPad currently but I’ll never sell it.
It doesn’t have the nostalgic good locks like the TR-06 or the trigger outs and trig in, but it’s got ACB drums modeled on the other x0x machines, FM drums, FM drum models and sample playback. It’s also got a software editor.
I get that the TR-6S sounds great and has more sounds to boot, though I still love the more direct (read less menus) workflow of the boutique. Also I’m shallow and care about having my shiny little silver box that looks like a Star Wars prop. The TR-6S looks like if Windows XP became a drum machine : /
It looks like Sam Ash might have recently had it on sale for $279. It’s still coming up in the search, but shows $399 on their website (unless I’m doing something wrong).
Nice little box with a lovely drive (with multiple drive sounds).
The TR-8 (no “s”) is dirt cheap and is an amazing freaking drum machine. Very old-school, but very immediate as a result. You can find them for $200 with the 808 and 909 sounds (a little more with the 7x7 and 606 upgrade applied) and at that price I almost feel like everyone should own one just to understand why your favorite samples sound that way.