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Roland DDR-30

The Roland DDR-30 "Alpha Drum" is a digital PCM drum module built by Roland, in early 1985.^[1] It was introduced during 1985 Summer NAMM industry trade show in New Orleans.^[2]

Features

The Roland DDR-30 Digital Drum module is designed to pair with PD-10 and PD-20 pads to form the Alpha Drum System, or via MIDI controller (e.g. Roland Pad 8).^[3] The DDR-30 and Alpha Drums was the first-generation of Roland electronic drum sets.^[4]

Unlike the Roland PM-16 Trigger-to-MIDI module, the DDR-30 is both a tone generator and trigger module. The DDR-30 includes six XLR input jacks^[5] for connecting the Roland PD-10 drum pads and PD-11 kick drum. The DDR-30 is not compatible with modern Roland triggers (e.g. PD-21, PD-31, PD-8, etc..) which use 1/4 inch TRS cables. It however can be triggered via MIDI messages from a wide variety of controllers (keyboard, drum machine, sequencer, computer, or percussion controller)^[6]. During 1985, Roland released the Pad 8 percussion controller, which could control the DDR-30 digital drum module over MIDI.

The Roland DDR-30 has 6-voices: a bass, a snare, and four toms. Each voice has four 12-bit PCM digital sampled sounds^[1]. These sounds can be modified by 16 parameters, saved as drum patche presets, and combined into drum kits. The parameters are combined into edit groups, including Attack, Decay, Pitch, EQ, Bend, and Gate.^[6]

You are limited to only the factory PCM samples. ROM chips are not swap-able (i.e. Simmons or DMX) and no external sample cartridges were available.

Patches and Kits can be saved into internal memory and optional M-16C memory cartridge. 48 patches (8 per voice) and 32 kits can be saved to internal memory . The M-16C can store an additional 64 patch presets.^[7]

References