Update: Roland has announced the TR-1000 Rhythm Creator.
In the past day, Roland has published its Tomorrow Returns web page, seemingly counting down (or up?) to some kind of event or launch.
At time of writing the display shows approximately 255/1000, which we think may be some kind of odd fraction where the top number is counting up (in hundredths) to the bottom number.
Each “tick” occurs every five seconds, and advances the counter by one hundredth. Our rudimentary calculations suggest there are about four-and-a-third days to go until we reach 1000/1000. One third of a day is eight hours, so that would take us (UK time) to about 4:30am on October 1st, 2025. Or very nearly midnight at the start of 10/01/25 US East Coast time… Update: my calculations were out a bit — I now think it’s closer to 8am UK time / 3am US East Coast.
Give or take errors in calculations, the ticks not being exactly 5 seconds long, and so on, it does look as if we’re pointing to a US launch on 1st October (or a Japan launch at lunchtime?)
Roland has sparingly used the first of October in previous years to announce new products or events.
Three modern TR drum machines launched on 1st October 2020.
On 1st October 2023, Roland opened its store in Tokyo. A London store launch was scheduled for this date this year but has been postponed.
The winner for the Roland Piano Soho Instagram competition will be announced on October 1st this year…
…looking at the promo page with the beats and general vibe, it’s unlikely to be anything to do with this — plus this is already a well-known date in the calendar.
Visitors are invited to sign up for product announcements, so we can surmise it’s likely a new product. Silhouetted outlines seen on other publications suggest some kind of desktop synth… or perhaps… a new drum machine?
Think about it…
Tomorrow Returns — the golden age of instruments like the TR-808 and TR-909 was back in the 1980s. There have been a few subsequent releases, but perhaps it’s time for something bigger — something which embraces the history, nostalgia and cult following of Roland’s original TR devices and takes it forward for the 21st century.
Or, of course, it could be something completely different.
We’ll keep an eye out to see if our predictions were true. We’re a bit more confident about the date… as to the rest, we’ll see.
(Seems I was right about the TR – and no, I hadn’t seen the “leak” or the Sweetwater product catalog. I just used my brain — a rare outing for it.)
