Roland TR-606 vs Roland TR-606 (component ageing)

Let's investigate the phenomenon of component ageing. It is real? What happens to two TR-606 drum machines after 40 years?

0:00 Do you like my top?
0:42 Component ageing
1:29 The test
1:51 Full beat
2:25 Bass drum
2:48 Snare drum
3:07 Toms
3:36 Cymbal
3:54 Hi hats
4:18 Conclusion

[bbones]

wow, this has blown my mind—i had no idea. love this idea of component aging and how it has a finger print on the sound. makes it even more special and unique. very cool!!

[The-word-I-does-not-exist]

BD, SD and Toms sounded very similar as expected, though the uncased one seemed to have more noise on SD and Toms - you can adjust a trimmer inside to set the noise level. The hats and cymbals were where the biggest differences were apparent, sounds like the uncased one possibly has a duff oscillator in the hex inverter, or possibly the capacitors and resistors which set the frequencies are different values (IIRC 10% tolerance on those parts) One other thing to check is that the uncased tempo dial was set to the same as the master cased one, as this impacts hihat decay slightly.
But great video as always 👊

[sonicspecter]

Back in the days Roland sourced cheap components from various vendors, even b-stock chips that are out of specification. So the hardware of the vintage synthesizers differ slightly depending on batch and production date. It is not only the age, they all have unique character!

[ryanv]

This is a really interesting video! the toms sounded so cool on the one on the left!

[mikey]

I love the 606 so much, this was an absolute treat. I also find this to be perfect example to point to when folks fuss over whether or not the Roland ACB models sound "correct" :)

[axymoulm]

The funny thing about the TR-606 is that every unit I hear in another video sounds very different on the Hi Hats and Cymbals than the one before. Mine is from series 250*** and I've been told that's the first revision where they changed the sound of the metal oscillators on purpose. It turned out I'm that lucky guy that got exactly the unit which has the metal sound I like the most out of all others I heard.

[mack_solo]

Looking abit sporty there... 😉
To me this is a reminder to all those who claim that the new BXYZ doesn't sound like the original XYZ. While this is often true, what is not being said is that the two original XYZs do not sound like each other either. Some time ago Kebu did a video about his 2 KORG MonoPolys and his newer Behringer MonoPoly - there was a bigger difference between the two Korgs than between one of the Korgs and the Behringer.

[keymbord]

My 606 is quite similar to the "slaved" unit, especially the toms. The biggest difference from mine and these two is that the cymbal is significantly lower in pitch. Very interesting

[johngorgis]

Part tolerance is also a large factor in overall sound difference

[JacumbaSound-jx]

Since making this video, perhaps you have found out that Roland made a number of component changes for the TR-606. The service notes on the last page has the serial numbers for all the component changes.

[johnlamb]

Something about this shootout seems quite sporty and fit, not sure what it is 😉

It seems you've got a spare 606, I'll take the one on the left please. Excellent video as usual. I wonder what specific test points on these units vary the most versus the factory tuning specs?

[trilbyrollers]

I think you need a larger sample size... acquire another 10 units or so and see how wide the variance is? :D. I'd be also interested in how the official Roland TR-606 VST compares, you'd hope that they've recreated accurately recreated a perfectly tuned unaged example, but maybe not!

[Grumskiz]

damn gwEm, you're looking good, have you been working out? ;)

[thirstyCactus]

The, cymbals and hi-hats are way off between the two. Perhaps a revision to component values; I doubt that change would be in the realm of component aging. Would be revealing to see the PCBs / values used in the cymbal noise generator circuit.

[kingpishful]

Not necessarily ageing. Could be compounded part tolerances.

[zzkjbry]

I would say the only components that will change over time are electrolytic caps. The 606's only differ in pitch on the ride and hat sounds, may be i needed head phones for the other sounds as i am just on laptop speakers.