Roland DDR 30 'The Brain' Drum Module 1987 Japan

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The Brain

Here is a vintage DDR 30 Module which was originally developed to power Roland's Alhpa kits 84-87. It's works perfectly but has a few scratches on the casing.

Roland's controller is numbered DDR-30 and is meant to be rack mounted. It measures 19" x 12" and it's two units deep. The key to operating the brain is the large comprehensive display window. All data is shown here from parameter information to instrument in play information. Below the window are a series of buttons for Edit write, Patch write, Bank select, and then eight patch preset buttons. Next to these are rocker switches for Instrument Select (up and down) and Programme Select. To the right of these are the edit section buttons which control all the voice parameters. There are six of them arranged in two rows for Forward, Back, Voice, Gate, Pitch and eq. (The last four have tell-tale lights.) Next to these are four more to control Pad sensitivity (from 0 to 20), Cartridge for loading and dumping, Copy and of course MIDI. Next to these we have an incrementor which is a large rotary pot with a dimple in it to put one of your digits in. One simply turns this to change parameters. Finally we have our cartridge slot and a MIDI message light and a Power button.

It's pretty simple to change sounds and store them. If we wanted to change pitch, say, we'd press that button in the edit section then use the incrementor to adjust the note within a range which runs from -24 to +24. (Initially we would press Inst Select to choose which instrument we were going to work on and the display would show us. Eg, SD-1 and its patch number eg P42). To change eq, we depress that button and a number for treble will appear in the window from -6 to +6. This may be adjusted and so may bass which we select by pressing either of the Forward or Back buttons. Gate level can be altered in the same way (from 0 to 99) as can Voice for each instrument (natural, damped, clicky, etc) and Dynamic Sensitivity which runs from 0 to 99 too.

To expound further on the parameters, there are five for each voice: Voice number, Level, Decay, Attack Level and Attack Decay. There are four adjustments for pitch: Pitch, Bend depth, Bend decay and Dynamic sensitivity and five for gate: Level 1, Gate time, Release 1, Level 2 and release 2.

FOR: Very substantial pads and reasonably simple control system.

AGAINST: Hard pad surface, price.

As you can see, there are an awful lot of adjustments you can make to a given sound. But, with all this numerical control via the window it isn't too difficult. It really is a big help to be able to see the numbers instead of relying on your ears. At the back of the brain are all the connectors for the six pads which are XLRs, while the outputs are all jack sockets. There are a pair of jacks for left and right mix out, two more for pedals to shift patches and banks. Finally there are three MIDI DIN sockets for In, Out.

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