The Drumtraks, also referred to as the Drumtraks Model 400, is a drum machine released by the American company Sequential in 1984. It was one of first drum machines on the market to feature MIDI control, after the Roland TR-909.[1]
The Drumtraks was Sequentials first drum machine and their first sample-based product. It was designed at Sequential in San Jose by Dave Smith, Steve Salani, Donna Murray, and Chris Meyer, who wrote the MIDI software. The units were built in Japan which allowed Sequential to keep the pricing down.[2]
The Drumtraks features 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. Each sound has a trigger button allowed them to be played live or in record mode.[3] The user could program tempos and tempo changes, set levels of individual voices and each sound's pitch.
The Drumtraks was released at the beginning of 1984 and retailed for $1295 in the US and £995 in the UK. Sequential manufactured approximately 8000 Drumtraks units.[2]
Sequential promoted the combination of the Six-trak analog synthesizer, Drumtraks and the Model 64 sequencer as the 'Traks Music System', which formed a MIDI workstation allowing analog synth sequencing with sampled drum sounds and computer control.[2]
^Wiffen, Paul (Dec 1986). "Mono Mode". Music Technology. United Kingdom: Music Maker Publications (UK), Future Publishing. pp. 79–81. Retrieved 2024-02-24.
^ abcAbernethy, David (10 June 2015). The Prophet from Silicon Valley: The Complete Story of Sequential Circuits (1st ed.). pp. 291–295. ISBN9781512198324.
^Cann, Warren (Mar 1984). "Sequential Circuits Drumtraks". Electronics & Music Maker. United Kingdom: Music Maker Publications (UK), Future Publishing. pp. 22–23. Retrieved 2024-02-24.
