Tama Tech Star TS 305 & TSQ 1000

via eBay Germany

See the seller's other items for more including a Yamaha CS40M and Moog Opus 3.

"This 2u 19´´ box features a row of buttons, two knobs and a three digit/ 3x7 segment led. From left to right: The run/stop button with associated led. The clear button with led. The play/write button with two status leds. Four patch (pattern) buttons. The step amount button plus four leds. 16 multi function buttons with associated leds. The speed knob with downbeat led. The accent amount knob. The on/off switch. And -most important- on the back are six trigger outs; a run/stop footswitch jack and: a DIN-sync socket with an in/out switch. If the TSQ 1000 is not running you can select one of its eight banks by pressing one of the first eight multi function buttons, whereby banks 1-6 are four beat (16 steps) and 7&8 three beat (12 steps).

The first digit in the display shows you the actual bank number. There are four patterns per bank. Set the TSQ1000 in write mode and you can select one of the six voices (that is, of course: trigger channels)or accent by means of pressing buttons 9-15; the third display digit tells you the number of the selected voice. Before you start that thing running you have to select the amount of bars with the step selector; actually if you don´t, there´ll be just one bar, but you can rearrange that anytime. So if you have programmed a four bar patch and you want a two bar instead you just change it by pressing the step select button; and if you change back all the data of bars three and four are still there. There are four associated leds, so if you press the button once, the second led will go on, you press twice and you get three bars... The first led also blinks with every step when the machine is running. So now you have a voice selected plus your amount of bars. Press run and it will repeat the first bar only -unless you hit the step select button. Now it will play the next bar unless you press again. A pretty clever idea that lets you program the bars properly. Yeah, well and you enter `notes´ by hitting one of the 16 buttons and the associated led tells you that and where you did so -like with a TR-606. If you switch to play mode it will of course loop all the four bars and not just one. As said -you have to stop the sequencer in order to change voices you want to program. In play mode you can choose between four patterns (the one selected indicated by the middle digit in the display) while the TSQ1000 is running. In write mode it has to be stopped first. Oh, and sadly you have to stop it to change from write to play mode ore vice versa. The accent amount knob should be clear -hands on control, always fine. Great thing: the DIN-sync is 24ppq, Roland that is, not Korg.

So that´s it. A six voice step sequencer. I tell you: that´s something I´ve really been waiting for. I connect up to six analog synths to it and twiddle their knobs. And even though the sequencer itself is of course not at all expressive, the results it helps me to create are. It just gets more complex this way, what with interdependency and all you know..."