Roland TR-606 mod adds roll function for drums and hi-hat

A new AlienizeD Circuits update gave the Roland TR-606 a roll function for the bass drum, snare drum and hi-hat, and that is exactly the kind of tweak that changes how the machine gets used on stage. Sonicstate described it as an AlienizeD Circuits 606 MK2+ update, while MatrixSynth framed it as an added feature to the MK2 mod and called it a MK2+ revision.

The appeal is obvious to anyone who has lived with a stock 606: the original box has a lean, punky, no-nonsense pattern language, but it can feel rigid when you want a fill, a push, or a little chaos between steps. A roll gives the player a real performance gesture on the core drum voices, which makes live variation easier without turning the 606 into something glossy or unrecognizable. That balance matters in the TR world, where the point is usually to expand the instrument rather than replace its personality.

The wider AlienizeD Circuits MK2 and MK2+ ecosystem already leans hard into that philosophy. Reverb listings for the mod describe 19 to 22 added controls depending on configuration, along with individual outputs, tuning and decay control, enhanced accent behavior, mute switches, MIDI in for sync, start and stop, and a CR2032 battery mod to keep patterns in memory for years. In other words, the roll feature did not arrive in isolation. It landed in a package built for hands-on manipulation and live variation.

That approach makes sense for a machine Roland discontinued in 1984, after which a glut of TR-606 units spilled into the secondhand market and pawn shops. Roland’s own manual still lists sync with the MC-4 polyphonic sequencer, and the TR-606 can store up to 32 patterns and 8 songs while switching between pattern play and write mode as the sequencer runs. That combination made it one of the more performable small drum machines in the first place, and it is why modders keep returning to it.

Roland introduced the TR-606 as a compact analog rhythm device paired conceptually with the TB-303 Bass Line, but its afterlife has been built by players who wanted more movement from that stripped-down voice. The new roll function follows that same logic, giving original-hardware owners a more expressive way to drive the bass drum, snare and hi-hat without losing the machine’s sharp, skeletal character.