SEQUENTIAL CIRCUITS TOM Vintage Drum Machine 1985 | HQ DEMO

[fakfork]

are these sounds the factory presets or from the card.

if its the card, which one?

[Cosmovitali]

ooOOOLLdd sCCHHOOOoooL !

[harrymerchant456]

YOU can hear how it just doesnt have that special groove something of its sibling - The Drumtraks + the sounds are weaker

[SimmonsDrums]

very good clap trap.

[boingboomchak]

Hey if u tune down the vocal sound on the efx cart it sounds like a moan was very handy in a mix i did back in the 80's of SOS and CHERELLE w JANET JACKSON.ENJOY

[7thvenom]

@900Turbo1996 NO SIMMON,S THEY JUST SOUND ALIKE.... U CAN GET ALL THE SOUNDS FROM THE

LINNDRUM ALA PRINCE WITH THIS BUT THIS WILL CAST YOU  $250 MY LINN COST ME $900

[DJThomasPrime]

I have one of these in my attic lol Havnt used it in years.

[danielinsporto]

i'll just point out that there are places online where you can download the entire original sample pack from this and pretty much any other drum machine ever made. i know its not the same as having the thing in your hands, but it certainly is easier than trying to track down one of these babies

[AnalogAudio1]

@danielinsporto we all know about sampling. But having just the samples you have not the groove, the character, the possibilities and the inspiration of the original machine. It will always be a compromise. Many drum machines are much more than the samples/drum sounds they use.

[danielinsporto]

@AnalogAudio1 im aware of that. i am not an idiot. but as a 19 year old college student, i also don't have an equipment budget which can accomodate actual drum machines. downloading sample packs for relatively obscure machines like the TOM or the Drumtraks is the best and only way that i can spice up my modest sample library with classic drum samples. i would obviously rather have the actual machines, but i simply dont have the same resources you do.

[fuckingharpsichord]

@AnalogAudio1 bravo, you nail it !

[creationmachine]

@danielinsporto You can get samples of a Stradivarius violin too, but it's nothing like playing the real thing. This is an instrument also, not just a "sound/sample".

[7thvenom]

@creationmachine  EXACTLY

[astroboomboy]

@danielinsporto I just got this machine, and I have to say, man it takes like a minute and you got an awesome beat sounding just like you want, doing the same (at least for me) with a computer used to take at least 25.30 minutes, tweaking everything with a mouse or midi-controller just would take forever, and putting in midi-notes as opposed to just tapping every hit in, it just makes you flow and spend more time on playing!

[TokiTrash]

ist wahrscheinlich nicht ganz so einfach an die cartridges zu kommen oder?

[ccaaofficial]

dang. i want one.

[DIGITALSCREAMS]

I need this fucker right now. Great grooves!

[ddermend]

ive got one recently and i love it. one should take a special care though, its a rather delicate machine and if u burn the power adapter , u are pretty fucked, but this flow , man, the flow is a killer. and i was happy to have all the 4 cartriges with amazing sounds. maybe just a linndrum is better, but the tom is definitely the most funky drum machine ever.. and the tuning , which is recordable plus the auto repeat is the shit. im using the auto repeat on live gigs syncing with midi... the bomb

[beatz04]

Buying a SCI TOM is justified by the funky clap alone.I want, no i NEED one.

[YousefKawar]

nice



[MrSYSTEM20]

NIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICCC­CCCCCCCCCCCCEEEEEEEEEEEEEE !

[Popoldabboy]

Wow it's sounds great! Especially the snare in the first pattern. This is far away from the kitsch sound of the 80's.

[VacTrooper]

Ok, the TOM is like a TR-707, DMX, and Linn LM-1 combined with an RX5 for good measure. I want it. Are the cartridges rare as hell?

[7thvenom]

@VacTrooper You can buy the cartridges @ wine country electonics in sanfran !!!  cheers

[Altitude909]

fun machine. The button pads do go bad over time though and that actually made me stumble on to a great solution and improvement for this: Akai MPD pads as an input source. That will add velocity and you can assign pitch to the fader

[Ni5ei]

@fatcatbuzz. It does have a stereo output. What he's talking about is that it doesn't have individual outputs for each drum sound.

[hork13]

damn i love the snare and clap

[reggiebrown37]

I bought this drum machine back in 1987 or 1988 because I wanted the Prince sound. It was close but it had it's limitations. When it came time to hit the studio we had a lot of issues. First, the machine would crash a lot. Second, it had no individual outputs, so we basically had to save the songs to tape, reload, erase every sound except the one we wanted to print to tape. Very time consuming. Overall I think it had a very decent sound, but I wouldn't recommend it based on the above limitations

[fatcatbuzz]

@reggiebrown37 If it was no outputs, where does the sound come from? Does it have it's own external speaker?

[reggiebrown37]

@fatcatbuzz Please re-read what I stated. It has stereo outs not individual. It means that if you wanted to use this on a real recording you would have a difficult time because you would not be able to process each drum sound individually.

[7thvenom]

@reggiebrown37  its ok record the mutha fucka strate and do it jack white style !!! cheers man

[djbuzzword]

I'd love to have a blast on one of these!

[janvierbam]

great machine ! awesome groove :)

[silverdroid]

Skinny Puppy in a box.

[szaryprorok]

:D :D :D :D

[BreakBoy45]

dope!!!

[solar7]

the quick succession of the dog,car horn, gun shot around 3.33 crack me up..for what this is.. it is something else..

[songstowearpantsto]

@solar7 hahaha it's like 1. dog 2. oh no a car! 3. and he's down.

[solar7]

@songstowearpantsto , haha yeah, maybe the gun shot was just to make sure and finish the dawg off !

[bobbydj01]

Makes me realise how much I prefer early '70s beat boxes.

[AndrewTSq]

great beats!. great video. this is how drumcomputers should be shown on youtube.

[CoolDudeClem]

The sound is very 80's!

[PlaySequence]

as an owner of one of these i can't recommend it to others. no individual outs?! severely limiting. drum sounds lack punch and are way too gritty. like not DMX-style gritty, unusably gritty. you can hear them in the video. trigger buttons are very bad and stiff, maybe mine need cleaning, but programming still sucks. weird nonstandard power supply so replacement will have to be from WCP. doesn't stack up to the Yamaha RX11 which came out a year before, IMO.

it's just not a very flexible machine.

[AnalogAudio1]

@PlaySequence

Is the Yamaha RX11 more flexible? I don't think so, I had one.

You are right, the SCI TOM is not perfect, it lacks individual outputs, swing function, it has only 8-bit sampling.

But it surely has more character - far more than the RX11, which has the cleaner sounds, but is rather boring without any sound editing possibilities at all.

[PlaySequence]

@AnalogAudio1 you're right, the RX11 has no sound tuning or reversing. but i think the sounds have a lot of punch and character, and they are not excessively gritty. individual outs allow you to process each sound the way you want. the RX11's pads are very comfortable, the layout the machine is intelligent and it has lots of sounds. LCD screen beats X/Y menu grid. if I were to make experimental electronic music I would use the Tom but i compose in lots of different genres so it's limited to me.

[AnalogAudio1]

@PlaySequence Well its a matter of taste... the RX11 is too clean to sound electronic and to bad for todays standards. If I wanted modern allround drums, I would buy a Boss DR 880.

[VincentsVideoVisions]

@PlaySequence The TOM isn't an incredibly versatile machine, but what it does, it does extremely well! It's definitely intended for 80's style / certain kinds of dance music or hiphop... I'd personally love to have one. (Although only if I could find one really cheap!)

[7thvenom]

@PlaySequence  I am a Owner of 2 of these TOM DRUM !! there is a reason i bought 2.

You can tune these drums on the fly i can take a clap that is crisp and detune it all the way down which gives you that famouse "PRINCE " PWOKK sound...the kick is tight and bangin and it kees time better than my Linndrum or my Oberheim DMX....my Dmx has the best snare but my tom is the KOOLEST. I know Felix owns one so does Dr. DRE,CEE LO GREEN is a user...And it is my fav of all my drum machines

i own

[MrAirRobot]

That thing is tighter than a nuns pussy!

[7thvenom]

@MrAirRobot LOLOLOL YOU HIT IT PERFECT !!! I OWN 2 IT IS TIGHTER THAN MY

DMZ, LINNDRUM OR MY SHITTY DRUMULATOR !!! THIS THONG IS KOOOOOL

[7thvenom]

@MrAirRobot LMFAO YOU CRAZY SON !!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAH THE FUNNY THING IS YOUR SOOO

CORRECT IT IS SOOOOOOO DAMN TIGHT ITS ALMOST NOT FARE ...SOMETIMES I BET MY BOYS BEERS THAT THEY CANT MAKE A BEAT ON THIS OUT OF TIME ...THEY TRY BUT THIS THING ALWAYS CORRECTS WHATEVER THEY THROW AT IT AND SPITS OUT SOME KOOOL ASS SHIT CHEERS

[TheMCMXXL]

*argh* Changing cartridges without turning power off!?!

[AnalogAudio1]

@TheMCMXXL It's a simple machine, it does not make any problems...

[wado1942]

Oh my goodness, I'd recognize that special effects sound anywhere! The movie "Electric Dreams". Thank you for posting this.

[Geeljasjes]

The basic drum sounds are a lot like the Drumulator. If you find one of these you're very lucky if you get those cartridges with it as well.

[Tayl0NP]

This is genius...

[anoteoftruth]

Can buy one from tonetweakers but it'll run you about 600$ roughly. Im seriously considering it.

[SynthWho]

I have never seen one of these on ebay. I really want one! They are so awesome!

[AnalogAudio1]

they are unknown and rare, because they did not sell very well.

[blauwolfenduro]

thanx 4 this vid

[neo36uk]

arrrr classic 8bit sound, i love it!! thanks :-)

[djpdance]

wow never heard of this drummachine its great

[cubdukat]

They actually made two other machines besides this one--the Drumtracks, which I believe came before this one, and the Studio 440, which was one of the last things they made before they disappeared. There didn't, IMHO, seem to be a whole lot to distinguish them from all the other drumboxes out there at the time. It was good, but nothing to really recommend it over any other brand except brand loyalty. If you were loyal to Sequential Circuits instruments, this was the obvious choice.

[THESonicMMM]

The Drumtrax has my favorite clap in it.

[MoulinNoir]

@cubdukat

The Drumtraks was the first drummachine where tuning and velocity was programmable for every beat. A dramatic difference from the other drum boxes at the time IMHO. Studio 440 was a fulblown 12 bit sampler - very similar to the Prophet 2000 - and sequencer combination with velocity and pressure sensitive rubber pads. It very much inspired the Akai MPC:s that came later.

[480Reggae]

@djpdance

it´s one of the best elektronik Drum on Earth!!!

[TheCilinder]

Im looking for cartridges. Anyone?

[DonJuanDeMarco2]

1:22 This beat is rocking lmao !

[jsnydes902]

I have one of these for sale with power adapter and Basic Percussion cartridge in great condition if anyone's interested.

[oftheheron]

how much

[dcreatorx]

Hi I'm interested, please get back to me.

[DonJuanDeMarco2]

Me !

Im in the Uk though !?

[VincentsVideoVisions]

If anyone has one of these for sale, let me know!!!

[jwein87162]

I have one for sale with 4 extra cartriges. Latin Percussion

Basic Percussion

Special Effects and

Contemporary

great machine

[iarp2500]

if you wanna sell cartridges appart, let me know !

[furyplum44]

my my you love your hand claps dont you :p SO DO I!!! HAND CLAPS = 80s = Best Decade EVER!!!!!!!!!

[AnalogAudio1]

yes, you're right! :-) I always loved Linn-like hand claps... the opposite of the Roland hand claps.

[furyplum44]

roland hand claps....PAH!!!!! *spits virtually at them!* they didnt have that oomph that linn have :D

[sweepee213]

i doubt this machine was ever used for recording records..it sounds pretty cheap.

[AnalogAudio1]

cheap? Well, it sounds 8-bit lo-fi. This and the groovy sequencer give the machine a unique character.

[RippenRoblez]

Nice machine there,

[Fretkillr]

I forgot to add that the TOM had stereo outputs and you can pan samples in the mix on-the-fly as well. This clip is in mono like the majority of yt clips. Nice demo.

[Fretkillr]

This was pretty hip machine that was reasonably priced for it's time ($800-$900). I have one in storage I should pull out and mess with. I have 4 or 5 carts too. The coolest thing about the TOM is that you can record the re-pitched samples using a MIDI KB. This demo gives a pretty good idea of what's possible. The 8-bit samples are a bit grainy when pitched down but that gives it a funky street old school beat boss quality.

[AnalogAudio1]

The Tom was quite expensive in Germany (because the dollar exchange rate)...

It is a great machine, but if you control it via midi, sometimes it behaves strange - it plays wrong sounds, confuses midi channels...

It works best synced via midi.

[icloo]

This sounds fab! Contemporary cartridge reminds me of the days.

Now I need one to sit next to the MAX that I will own one day.

[8golftango]

I had one of those. Crazy fun pitch rolls and reverse samples. I had the contemporary cart.

[ultimatechorus]

Thanks for the upload. I love this machine. I bought one when they first came out in 1985. I did some amazing things with this machine. I bought 4 cartridges, (special effects, 808, contemporary and Rock Drums). I sold it to my buddy and he ruined it. I would buy this machine again (with the same cartridges of course). The only problem is the memory. The Drum Patterns would mysteriously disappear, also none of the Kick drums had enough kick for me. Still Overall, an excellent machine.

[fuckingharpsichord]

An 808 cartridge ?? Wow, i have to find this ! what's the name of this cartridge ?

[ultimatechorus]

It was called 808 drums

[AnalogAudio1]

Was this card from SCI or from another company? And I thought I have all cards available from SCI...

[ultimatechorus]

This was a cartridge from SCI. I would go to the music store every week and when I saw the 808 cartridge, I bought it right away. I purchased it from Creative Strings in Wethersfield, CT. The store is no longer in business.

[jokkejens]

I have this cartridge. I am looking into a way of producing a copy of it that I can sell. Anyone with any ideas how to produce a cheap copy in China. Production line of 50 cartridges or so?? WHen I am at it, has anyone looked at produceing a cartridge with flashmemory, wher you can out whatever samples you want?? Woul that be possible?

[AnalogAudio1]

indeed, a sampling option or a possibility to make your own samples would be great!! Because the groove and the sound of SCI TOM is great.

[ultimatechorus]

I have a machine that samples and make sound chips (EPROMS) that are used in the TOM cartridges, but like you said, the hard part is finding someone to produce the cartridge(case) cheaply that houses the EPROMS. I made sound chips for my Oberheim DX drum machine, including a 808 kick.

[AnalogAudio1]

You're talking about the Oberheim Prommer, right?

[ultimatechorus]

Exactly, I purchased the Prommer the same time I purchased my DX. I also have a Roland TR 808, Casio Rz-1 Drum machine, Yamaha MR-10 drum machine. Wish I still had my TOM though. I used to borrow my buddy's Roland TR 707 drum machine and sync all of my drum machines together for THE ULTIMATE DRUM MACHINE. I would also MIDI the TOM to a Roland electronic drum set. The drum set would have the TOM sounds. Awesome, especially when I hit the reverse switch while playing live.

[fuckingharpsichord]

i get loose at 00:58

[sifkasifka2]

great patterns!

If I understand correctly, you can record knob movements into the sequence?

[AnalogAudio1]

not knob movements, but data movements (sample forwards/backwards, pitch, volume, pan). The only knob is for volume...

[sifkasifka2]

hehe, that's what's I meant :)