These perform a variety of functions, the simplest of which is manually stepping patterns along in consecutive order with just one stab of the finger, every time you want to go from, say, pattern 88 to pattern 89. There's a 10-key numeric keypad in the centre of the control panel, with increment/decrement switches either side of the zero key. Each voice has a 'tap' button so that all the sounds can be played 'live' or in the record mode. There are 13 percussion voices: bass drum, snare, snare rim, toms 1 and 2, crash and ride cymbal, open and closed hi-hat, handclaps, tambourine, cowbell, and cabasa. You've got Master Volume, Click/Metronome Volume, and Tempo controls, plus individual voice selectors, a run/stop switch and the above-mentioned LED panels to indicate which pattern or song you're using, what tempo you're running at, and so on. Most of these are fairly straightforward. Granted, having to keep chasing LEDs up and down their columns does tend to disturb one's train of thought when programming, but to be fair, SCI have laid things out in as unconfusing a fashion as possible for such a complex multi-mode arrangement. On reflection, I have to admit that this method is at least a legible one, and so long as you remember where to look it's pretty easy to know where you are at any given time. you keep pressing one of the two switches until the desired red LED is illuminated. All of the machine's major functions are accessed by pressing one of two 'select' buttons, so, for example, to go from Record to Erase or from Insert to Delete, etc. Given that manufacturers are continuing to make things a 'tidy' size, you'd think they'd have considered this possibility, but alas.īefore I plugged the Drumtraks in, or even leafed through the owner's manual, a brief first glance at the control layout told me I would be doing a lot of button-pushing to switch from mode to mode, and so it proved.

The Drumtraks' dimensions are approximately 21½' x 9½' x 4', and yes, it's yet another drum-machine that can't be separated from its coffee-table end-pieces and rack-mounted. My initial reaction to Sequential Circuits' new digital drum-machine (their first) was quite a neutral one but, as I spent time with it, that first impression was replaced by real interest.

Sequential circuits drumtrax