Tubbutec 6m0d6 Eurorack Drum Module (TR-606 6mod6)

6m0md6 is based on the famous TR-606 and indeed can sound like one, but it is so much more.

With the turn of a knob you can explore completely new soundscapes ranging from organic retro drum sounds to industrial sound effects – while still maintaining that ‘606’ feel.

Seamlessly blend between a 606 bassdrum to a decayed 808 sub-bass, tune and damp your Cymbal or just cut it into pieces and beat it with a monkey wrench.

Tired of the normal snare sound? Why not replace it with a bit-crushed version of Indy fighting foes with his whip in a cave?

Dynamic triggers, additional CV controls, MIDI control and individual outputs add the finishing touches to this versatile drum module.6m0d6 includes all seven TR-606 instruments:

Bass Drum, Snare, Low and High Tom, Cymbal, Open and Closed Hihats.

The original 606 circuits were replicated and modified with additional parameters. However, we made sure that each instrument can be set to sound like the original.

These settings are marked on the front panel for convenience.

Heavy duty built, uses high quality parts and metal shaft pots.

A collaboration of LPZW and Tubbutec

Feature List

• All original 606 sounds, analogue
• Many additional parameters for each sound
• Multiple trigger, accent and volume modes
• Advanced metal and noise sound control
• Multiple outputs and mix output
• CV control for multiple parameters
• MIDI input for drum trigger and sound control
• Compatible with Tubbutec 6equencer via LINK

Triggers, Accent and Volume

6m0d6 instruments are triggered via the 7 trigger inputs. Additionally an Accent Gate input, An Accent CV input and an accent amount pot are available. Combined, multiple Trigger, Accent and Volume control modes are possible.

TRIGGER LENGTHS

Incoming triggers will be internally shortened to 1.2ms to ensure proper sounding instruments. Amplitude and shape of the triggers are maintained, however. For the cymbal, this pulse shaper can be disabled, allowing complete control of the Cymbal sound.

DYNAMICS

6m0d6 includes many ways to dynamically control instrument volumes allowing rich, natural drum patterns:
a) All instruments can be played dynamically. Trigger voltages between 3V and 15V are possible. Depending on the amplitude of the triggers, not only the instruments volumes, but also their sound will change – just like a real drum kit.
b) If the Accent Gate input is not plugged in, the volume of the instruments can be controlled with the Accent amount knob.
c) The Accent Gate input can be used to turn on and off Accented sounds (volume determined via the Accent Amount knob)
d) If the Accent CV is plugged in, the Accent Amount knob acts as an attenuator for volume CV-control.

Noise and Metal

The original 606 uses white noise for the Snare Drum and a ‘Metal’ sound for the Hihats and Cymbal. We added a third XOR ringmod sound source and you can select between all three sounds for each instrument.
The white noise is generated digitally and can be reduced in quality for extra lofi bit-crushing instruments. This can be controlled via the Noise Tune knob and with the N.Tune CV-input.
At the highest quality setting, the noise emulates the original 606 noise distribution and frequency spectrum using a DSP algorithm.

Cymbal and Hihats originally use a metal sound created by mixing six square-wave oscillators with specific frequencies. The parameter Metal Tune allows you to change the pitch of these oscillators up or down. With Metal Spread you can change the relative pitch of the oscillators. Turn the knob to the very left and all oscillators have the same pitch, in the middle you get the original pitch difference and from there you can increase the spread even more.Both parameters can also be controlled via CV inputs, the Tune CV is 1/Oct compatible, which means you can play the metal sound in tune.

And even more is possible via MIDI.

Outputs and Mixer

6m0d6 includes volume pots for each instrument with individual outputs and a mix output.
Instruments are available at the mix outputs as long as nothing is plugged into the individual outputs. Plugging into an individual output will remove said instrument from the mix output.

Bass Drum

The 606 bass drum consists of two damped oscillators with fixed frequencies.

• Tune: Changes the pitch of oscillator 1, ranging from sub-bass to Tom frequencies.
• Tone: Crossfades between the two oscillators
• Decay: Adjusts the decay of oscillator 1 from the original length up to infinity.
• Click: Adds a short pulse to the Bassdrum, giving it more attack.

Snare Drum

The Snare Drum consists of two parts. A damped oscillator creating the snare body and a decaying noise sound creating the snare sound.

• Tune: Changes the pitch of the snare body sound
• Snappy: Adjusts the cutoff frequency of a high-pass filter on the snare part.
• Decay: Changes the decay of the snare sound. Both very short and very long decay times are possible.
• Noise source: Selects between the three noise sources (Noise, Metal and XOR) for the snare sound. Depending on the noise and metal settings, a wide range of sounds are possible.

Toms

The Toms are damped oscillators with a low-passed noise decay part that simulates reverb.

• HT Tune: Adjusts the pitch of the High Tom
• LT Tune: Adjusts the pitch of the Low Tom
• Sub Tom: Halves the pitch of the Low Tom and creates a sub-bass or second bassdrum.
• Noise amount: Adjust the reverb amount from 0 to 2x the original. Changing the Noise Tune parameter can have huge effects on the character of the reverb and overall tom sound.

Cymbal

The original 606 cymbal consists of two bandpass filtered parts with different filter frequency and different amplitude envelopes which are fed by the metal noise source.

• Tune: Changes the frequency of bandpass 1
• Tone: Crossfades between the two bandpass parts.
• Decay: Adjusts the decay of the cymbal/li>
• Noise source: Selects between the three noise sources (Noise, Metal and XOR) for the bandpasses. Depending on the noise and metal settings, a wide range of sounds are possible.
• CY.Pulse: Normally, signals coming into the trigger inputs are gated to 1.2ms length to make sure the proper drum sounds are produced. This behaviour can be turned off for the cymbal, allowing full control of the cymbal’s volume, envelope and length. Effectively, this can turn the cymbal into a drone sound generator or even string-synthesizer.

Hihats

The 606 hihats are created from a decaying, filtered metal sound. Open and closed hihats use different envelopes, but the same sound generation. The closed hihat cuts off the open hihat.
In the original 606, the open hihat decay is tempo dependent. With a faster clock, the hihat decays faster. This clock dependency is not necessary for 6m0d6 because the decay time can be manually set to the user’s liking.

• Swap: Swaps the Open and Closed Hihats.
• OH Decay: Decay time of the Open Hihat.
• CH Decay: decay time of the Closed Hihat ranging from a short click to a long OH-like sound
• Noise source: Selects between the three noise sources (Noise, Metal and XOR) for the Hihat sound. Depending on the noise and metal settings, a wide range of sounds are possible.

CV-inputs

Several parameters can be controlled via CV inputs. All inputs are bipolar and have a usable voltage range between -5V and +5V. They can accept voltages greater +/-12V without damage.

• AC.AMT: Controls volume or accented volume of the instrument. (see “Triggers, Accent and Volume”
• SN.Dec, CY.Dec, HH.Dec: Control the decay of the Snare Drum, Cymbal and both Hihats.
• Noise Tune: Controls the Noise Tune parameter
• Metal Tune: Controls the tune of the metal sound. This input behaves in a 1V / Oct fashion, which makes it possible to play the metal sound like an instrument.
• Metal Spread: Controls the Metal Spread parameter

LINK input and 6equencer

6m0d6 has a Tubbutec LINK interface on the back and can be directly connected to the Tubbutec 6equencer. When using the LINK interface, the 6equencer can trigger the instruments and Accent, without needing to patch the connections manually.
The trigger inputs are normalized, plugging in a patch cable will disconnect an instrument from the LINK trigger and can be controlled from an external trigger source.

The 1U version of 6equencer has the same width as 6m0d6 and perfectly fits above or below, creating a complete drum machine.

MIDI Input

MIDI input is provided by TRS MIDI. Both A and B types are supported automatically.
Midi can be used to trigger drum sounds, adjust parameters via MIDI CC and even play the metal sound like an instrument.

Play the metal sound

Sending notes on MIDI channel 1 allows you to play the six metal oscillators directly. This effectively turns the oscillators – and with them the Cymbal, Hihats and Snare Drum into a paraphonic six-voice synthesizer.
Metal tune and Spread still work. With Spread set to 0, all oscillators are in tune; increasing Spread will detune all oscillators.
This is quite a powerful feature. It allows you to turn your Cymbal into a string synthesizer, play melodies on the Snare and much more.
6m0d6 uses a ‘unison/share’ voice allocating scheme. This means, if only one note is pressed, all six oscillators will share this same note. This is the same as transposing the oscillators.
Pressing more notes will distribute them across the available oscillators until eventually all six are used. Pressing more than six notes and new notes will replace the ‘oldest’ note.

• Eurorack,
  3U,
  24HP,
  25mm depth,
  weight: 350g