#jams
Feb 21, 2026
This is a jam I recorded with my first drum machine, a Roland TR-6S, three days after obtaining it. I sold the device almost a year later for reasons I’ll explain in a dedicated review.
This particular piece stretches the definition of “embellishment” as I describe it on the main #jams page. I still include it among these live recordings because I didn’t put enough effort into it after the initial performance that I would feel happy upgrading it from a mere “jam” to a produced “track”, and this is my website so I’ll do as please.
Something I’ve come to discover is that those very things that make jams appealing to me — spontaneity, improvisation — are often anathema to good mixing. In this case, the kick had turned out to be quite lethargic and required the aid of a second one to come back to life in post.
Feeling fairly unexcited about what I’d just recorded, I threw in a pad and a lead — but after programming 8 bars of the former and 4 of the latter, I lost interest and left the project to wither among all the other half-baked ideas on my hard drive.
That was until, motivated by starting this website, I gave it another listen at the start of this month, moved the patterns around in some form of arrangement, then live-recorded automation for a few parameters — and voila. According to FL Studio, the total time spent on the whole project was 2h and 2 minutes. All things considered, it’s not bad.
Before selling the TR-6S, I recorded every beat I had saved on it. When possible, I’ll post the one that was used in the jam.