Roland TM-6 Pro

89
WWW.MUSICRADAR.COM/RHYTHM JULY 2018 |
PRICE
£769
TRIGGER INPUTS
6x stereo (splittable to
12 mono trigger
sources)
SOUNDS
268 instruments, 500
brand new samples
EFFECTS
35 pad effects, pad EQ,
pad transient, master
compressor, master EQ
SOCKETS
Trigger inputs, hi-hat
control, 4x direct
outputs (assignable)
headphones (¼"),
master L/R (¼"),
footswitch, SD card slot,
USB, MIDI out
POWER
Adaptor (included)
CONTACT
Roland UK Ltd
01792 702701
www.roland.co.uk
Essential spec
“THE SOUNDS, FUNCTIONALITY
AND FLEXIBILITY ON OFFER WILL
ARGUABLY SEE MANY CURRENT
SPD-SX USERS SWITCHING”
VERDICT: There are a lot of features to
the TM-6, and it is surely the most
thought-out product available at this
time for acoustic players wanting to
hybridise their kit. The sounds,
functionality and fl exibility on offer
will arguably see many current SPD-SX
users switching in favour of a separate
module-and-trigger setup
BUILD QUALITY
PLAYABILITY
VALUE FOR MONEY
RATING
HI-HAT CONTROL
After years of exclusion, Roland has put
its foot down and added hi-hat controller
compatibility. A first in its ‘hybrid’ line-up
admittedly only) complaint comes before we
switch on: how do we mount it? The answer,
frustratingly, is that in order to mount the
TM-6 within your kit, you’ll need to purchase
one of Roland’s solutions: the APC-33 or
PDS-10 stand. These are heavy-duty solutions,
and it’s a shame that there is no ‘basic’
mounting option included in the box as with
the TM-2. If you’re feeling miserly, you could
repurpose a spare snare stand, however, we
mounted the TM-6 to our PDS-10 with
minimal fuss.
Once we got going, the TM-6 was
everything we’d hoped. It’s easy to use: either
striking a connected trigger, or tapping those
soft switches selects the voice you wish to
control and thanks to the simple layout and
labelling, you won’t need to consult the
manual in order to start with the sounds.
Each trigger input is actually a dual socket, so
you can connect a stereo (rim and head)
trigger, or two mono triggers by splitting the
input with a Y-cable. The sounds are easily
assigned as A or B for each input, and the
screen makes it very clear as to which side of
the input you’re currently editing.
One of the biggest criticisms of Roland’s
previous hybrid products has been the lack of
hi-hat pedal control, so it’s great to see it
included here. We connected our CY-5 pad
and FD-8 controller, and had it confi gured in
seconds, fi nally opening up the possibility of
using authentic electronic hat sounds in a
controllable way.
Another big feature of the TM-6 is the click
track management. We fi rst saw Roland’s
concept last year on the SPD::One Wav pad,
and it certainly offers an easy solution to the
problem of playing to a click live without the
audience hearing your metronome. It works
like this: two almost identical fi les are
exported (by you) onto an SD card. One is
your backing track that the audience will hear
and is sent to the main outputs. The other
shares the same fi lename with ‘_click’ and
contains the click sound. This goes to your
in-ears. When the song is started, both fi les
are played back simultaneously and you get
the click while everyone else gets a perfect
backing track. Simple! The only extra
functionality we’d like is the inclusion of an
audio input, allowing the TM-6 to be a
complete hub for our monitor mix alongside
our backing tracks. Greedy? Yes we are.
RHY282.gear_roland.indd 89 18/05/2018 17:37