Amazing Synth Deals: Roland Drum Machines, Novation, and CME WIDI!
Wireless MIDI, sampling groove boxes and more!
3,8 / 5,0 | 
Summertime is dancing time! That’s why we just had to focus on Roland drum machines, two samplers from Novation, and a wireless MIDI solution from CME WIDI in this week’s installment of synth deals! It very much seems like Roland is going all out in their legendary drum machines with savings of up to 25 percent! Let’s check them out!
Check out this week’s synth deals!
Save up to 25 percent with these Roland Drum Machines!
No other product line has shaped electronic music as much as Roland’s legendary drum machines TR-series. While the initial run of the TR-808 sold so poorly that Roland pretty much stopped making it after only a short time, crowd wisdom had other ideas. While quite a few first owners of the TS-808 were so dissatisfied at the time that they sold their units to pawn shops all around the US, it was there that the first wave of Hip Hop producers got the drum machines for cheap. And, as they say, the rest is history.
While buying an original TS-808 these days amounts to sometimes hilariously high prices, the most famous of Roland drum machines can be had in later iterations. For instance, both the Roland TR-08 and the TR-8S are down by over 20 percent at Thomann*. Furthermore, the TR-6S and the MC-101 are both also heavily discounted at the retailer.
Get up to 25 percent off on Novation Circuit Tracks and Circuit Rhythm!
While these two inconspicuous little boxes from Novation might not have the “shine” of the Roland drum machines, both Novation Circuit Tracks and Circuit Rhythm are no musical toys. Tracks comes with two different synth engines, four tracks for sampling, and two MIDI tracks for triggering external gear.
Compared to that, Rhythm is just a sampler and drum machine, a bit like the MC-101. You get eight tracks you can load one-shots and loops onto (these can even be played chromatically) and create sequences with. After creating these, you can even re-sample a sequence in to its own loop! Right now, Novation Circuit Tracks is 18 percent off at Thomann* while Novation Circuit Rhythm is almost 25 percent off at Thomann*.
Wireless MIDI solution CME WIDI Master is 10 percent off!
While I am continuously amazed by the possibilities the 40-year-old standard MIDI still offers, I’m equally baffled by the lack of wireless solutions. While we’re still far away (and might never even get there) from wireless audio in pro audio, MIDI’s tiny amount of data perfectly lends itself to wireless transmission! Yet, just about all new synth hardware—Roland drum machines as well — lacks a Bluetooth MIDI connection.
My guess is the audio interference issues Bluetooth connectivity often brings when you include it in hardware. But I’ve had all my synths connected wirelessly through CME’s adapters and have yet to hear a noise or hum I didn’t intentionally create. The WIDI adapters make connecting synths’ MIDI In and Out wirelessly a breeze. Connect them to each other, to your smartphone or tablet, even your computer. And the latency is pretty much unnoticeable. Right now, CME WIDE Master is 10 percent off at Thomann*.
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One response to “Amazing Synth Deals: Roland Drum Machines, Novation, and CME WIDI!”
TR8s, TR6s, Roland’s best ever drum machines, now need only;
1. Step microshifting
2. Scenes. A song mode for each preset.
3. Sidechain comp (internal)
They’ve got everything else, but we use the Drumlogue instead, ‘cos it has a sidechain.