The drum machine crown has a new heir: the Roland TR-1000 Rhythm Creator.

After years of middling (imho), Roland has delivered not just a worthy successor to the TR lineage—but a bold reimagining of what a rhythm box can be. This is more than hype: the TR-1000 stakes its claim to the throne with three killer features that leave competitors scrambling:

1. True analog engine

The TR-1000 is the first Roland drum machine in 40 years to ship with a true analog engine, resurrecting 16 circuits drawn from the TR-808 and TR-909 designs—faithfully reconstructed with modern parts.This isn’t a modeling trick or an emulation—it’s analog in the signal path, giving you warmth, drift, and dynamic response you have to hear to believe.

2. Multi-engine versatility + sample power

Of course, analog alone won’t win modern producers. The TR-1000 blends that analog core with Roland’s ACB (Analog Circuit Behavior) modeling, FM percussion, PCM wave engines, and a full sampling suite—including stereo sampling, time-stretching, slicing, and non-destructive editing. With 2,000 onboard preset sounds and 46 GB of user sample space, you can go from old-school 808 tones to complex hybrid textures without leaving the box. 

3. New sequencing & performance tools

The TR-1000 doesn’t just sound futuristic—it plays that way. Its revamped TR-REC sequencer supports off-grid timing, per-step probability, pattern direction control (forward, reverse, pendulum), and motion recording. Performance is further empowered by the Morph slider (a macro control that can modulate multiple parameters at once) and a Snapshot system for instant scene recall. 

When you combine authentic analog tone, digital/sampling flexibility, and forward-thinking sequencing/performer tools, the TR-1000 doesn’t just challenge the status quo—it rewrites it.