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Boy, this box sure is one of those tough love/hate things... Mine came from my skool's music dept. (I "liberated" it) and i use it more than i thought I would. Yet, i still regard it with some sort of disdain, perhaps because it feels to me like the 707, -minus about 202 or so :) And I hate the bitch, i want to kill it by beating it with a blunt object over the LCD and then burn its remains and bury them in a shallow grave in a ditch somewhere---sometimes.
The 505 is cheap, for sure. It had better be for what you get out of it. Short, harsh samples. It's not hard to program by any means, but it isn't exactly fun either. The sounds are flat, tinny, cheezy, whatever you consider. The MIDI capability is basic. Basically limiting. It's not pretty (unless you paint it...) The manuals seem to be quite hard to find. It only has one LED. It doesn't make you sound like Norm Cook the minute you turn it on. But you can become RDJ if you use your mind with it...
Because the TR-505 is a TR, and there is that TR magic to it. Something about it brings back great feelings of Run DMC or even further back to Kraftwerk, in it's odd, quirky, rhythms. And i think it is yet another case of not what you can do with a piece of kit (or shit, if that's what you think), but how far an accomplished musician can creatively push it's sonic boundaries. You can do so much with something so simple: try vocoding it with itself or a simple pad. Heavy distortion, delays, all sorts of effects can really make it into a cool (and more creative than the shake-and-bake-and-groove boxes) sort of box. Why did drum machines gain popularity years after they were first released? Because they were cheap. I swear, the nights i spent late, sitting in bed programming this bitch while other, more sophisticated (and $$$$$$!!!) machines lay dormant are amazing to me. Sometimes i feel like I'm wasting my time, others, i praise it for that one break that fits in the middle. Somedays, it's a budget 909, others, a glorified metronome. Yet whenever I think about getting rid of it, something stops me.
Because, I love it too.
I don't think I would trade a 707 for it, though. I will trade it for a 707, however, and those of you who are willing to give one (or a 909) for it can get in touch asap...
I guess this is one that to really love, you have to get cheap, because otherwise you expect too much from it. If you don't expect to hear anything wonderfull out of it, then it might suprise you. Give it a listen first, and make sure you get a manual!
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