MIDI I/O in the TM-2 allows you to greatly expand your electronic percussion setup with external devices. You can trigger sounds in V-Drums modules, keyboards, and synth modules, and connect to a computer via a MIDI interface to record MIDI data and play sounds in popular music software. It’s also possible to play the TM-2’s sounds—both internal sounds and WAV sounds stored on an SDHC card—from an external MIDI device.

roland tm-2

Battery powered and small in size, the Roland TM-2 Trigger Module provides a simple solution for enhancing acoustic drums with the creative versatility of electronic percussion. Two trigger inputs support a wide variety of pads and drum triggers from Roland, while the ready-to-play pro sounds are optimized for augmenting live acoustic drums and extending the percussion capabilities of any drum set. Studio-quality multi-effects are on tap to process your kits, and you can even trigger your own custom WAV sounds, loops, and backing tracks via an SDHC card. By combining the TM-2 with products such as the Roland BT-1 Bar Trigger Pad, KT-10 Kick Trigger Pedal, or RT-series acoustic drum triggers, it has never been easier or more affordable to create a powerful hybrid drum kit that blends acoustic and electronic elements together.

This small box of wonders is an ingenious extension tool! Manage your personal sounds for your acoustic/electronic drum-set. Comfortable, compact and intelligently!

TM2 Volleyball

The Roland TM-2 is equipped with trigger inputs for connecting two pads or trigger devices at once. Nearly any pad in Roland’s extensive V-Drums lineup can be used, including those that support dual triggering. When building a hybrid kit, ideal partners for the TM-2 include the BT-1 Bar Trigger Pad, which has a curved shape that mounts onto the rim of an acoustic drum, and the new KT-10 Kick Trigger Pedal, which features an innovative, all-in-one design and compact size that fits comfortably alongside other pedals in your kit. The TM-2 also works great with Roland’s RT-series acoustic drum triggers that mount on kick, snare, and tom drums.

Roland tm2 mount

Material dispersion contributes to group delay distortion, along with waveguide delay distortion, differential mode delay, and multimode group delay spread.

Chromatic dispersion results from the spectral width of the emitter. The spectral width determines the number of different wavelengths that are emitted from the LED or laser. The smaller the spectral width, the fewer the number of wavelengths that are emitted. Because longer wavelengths travel faster than shorter wavelengths (higher frequencies) these longer wavelengths will arrive at the end of the fiber ahead of the shorter ones, spreading out the signal.

Tausendsassa - mit den Triggertubes glänzt das TM-2 nun an meinem Acoustic Set - kommt mir sehr durchdacht vor, nur das Programmieren mit dem Display könnte komfortabler sein, aber das meiste läuft intuitiv. Gehäuse ist zwar Plastik aber macht einen sehr robusten Eindruck. Versand und Verpackung alles war gut. Insgesamt nix zu meckern sondern nur Lob

With its ultra-compact size, simple operation, and very affordable price, the Roland TM-2 gives you a hassle-free way to bring the power of Roland electronic percussion to your acoustic drum kit. It mounts quickly and unobtrusively onto a hi-hat stand or drum rack using standard hardware, while the convenience of battery-powered operation eliminates the need to bring AC power to your setup. The intuitive panel features straightforward controls for assigning sounds to the trigger inputs and saving them as kits, plus large, easy-to-press buttons for calling up kits as you perform.

But in most reality applications, fiber is already in place and odds are that the fiber is NDSF type. More than 80% of all single-mode fiber worldwide is NDSF type. In these cases, a more common means of controlling dispersion is the use of DCM (Dispersion Compensating Modules) placed at periodic intervals.

Roland TM-2 used

In top-level playing situations, professional drummers and sound engineers strive to create polished, high-impact sounds when amplifying live acoustic drums through a PA system. With the TM-2 and RT-series acoustic drum triggers, it’s simple to achieve processed, concert-quality drum sounds wherever you play. The trigger module offers a wide range of acoustic sounds and tonal elements optimized for layering with acoustic drums, as well as a generous selection of electronic sounds for modern music styles. In addition, the TM-2’s traditional percussion instruments such as cowbell, wood block, wind chimes, and others are perfect for extending the capabilities of any acoustic kit with a compact device such as the BT-1 Bar Trigger Pad.

Roland TM-2 Sound List

* All prices incl. VAT plus shipping and handling charges, if applicable ** applies to deliveries within Germany, delivery times for other countries can be found in the shipping information

It’s easy to use your own sounds with the TM-2, such as studio-processed drums from song recordings, sound effects, looped grooves, or even complete backing tracks. Just copy WAV audio files from your computer onto an SDHC card, and then insert it into the trigger module’s card slot—that’s it! You can use your own sounds right alongside the internal sounds as you build kits, which you can also process with the TM-2’s great onboard multi-effects.

roland trigger module tm-2

DCM’s are usually one of two types. The first type is DCF or Dispersion Compensating Fiber. This is simply a spool of a special type of fiber that has very large negative dispersion. Typically DCF dispersion can be in the range of -80 ps/(nm∙km), so a 20 km length of DCF can compensate for the dispersion in a 100 km length of NDSF.

Modal dispersion deals with the path (mode) of each light ray. As mentioned above, most transmitters emit many different modes. Some of these light rays will travel straight through the center of the fiber (axial mode) while others will repeatedly bounce off the cladding/core boundary to zigzag their way along the waveguide, as illustrated below.

Dispersion management is the process to design the fiber and compensating elements in the transmission path to keep the total dispersion to a small number. Typically, dispersion compensating elements are placed every 100 km or so.

With a graded-index fiber, the light follows a more curved path. The high-order modes spend most of the time traveling in the lower-index cladding layers near the outside of the fiber. These lower-index core layers allow the light to travel faster than in the higher-index center layers. Therefore, their higher velocity compensates for the longer paths of these high-order modes. A good waveguide design appreciably reduces modal dispersion.

Roland TM2 price

The second type of DCM is a FBG (Fiber Bragg Grating) type. Here, a series of FBG’s or one very long FBG is written into a tens of meter length of fiber to perform the dispersion compensation.

Modal dispersion can be completely eliminated by using a single-mode fiber. As its name implies, single mode fiber transmits only one mode of light so there is no spreading of the signal due to modal dispersion. A monochromatic laser with single-mode fiber completely eliminates dispersion in an optical waveguide but is usually used in very long distance applications because of its complexity and expense.

Both of these types of DCM’s have relatively high insertion loss. A 60 km compensator may exhibit 6 dB of loss or more. Because of this, DCM’s are usually co-located with EDFA’s.

roland tm-2 manual

The figure below shows the performance of a fiber path that has alternating lengths of (+D) NZ-DSF and (-d) NZ-DSF every 20 km. The first 20 km length of fiber is (+D) NZ-DSF, so the dispersion increases over that length to 60 ps/nm. The next 20 km length of fiber is (-D) NZ-DSF type, so the dispersion gradually decreases back to zero. This pattern repeats two more times. At the end of the 120 km fiber path, the dispersion has returned to near zero.

Material dispersion is caused by the wavelength dependence of the refractive index on the fiber core material, while the waveguide dispersion occurs due to dependence of the mode propagation constant on the fiber parameters (core radius, and difference between refractive indexes in fiber core and fiber cladding) and signal wavelength.

The box of both worlds: The Roland TM-2 unifies e-drums and acoustic playing magically! Especially in the interim space between acoustic and elecronic drum-sets, the Roland TM-2 sets out to build the bridges!

The modes that enter at sharp angles are called high-order modes. These modes take much longer to travel through the fiber than the low-order modes and therefore contribute to modal dispersion. One way to reduce modal dispersion is to use graded-index fiber. Unlike the two distinct materials in a step-index fiber, the graded-index fiber’s cladding is doped so that the refractive index gradually decreases over many layers. The corresponding cross-sections of the fiber types are shown below.

One way to decrease chromatic dispersion is to narrow the spectral width of the transmitter. Lasers, for example, have a more narrow spectral width than LEDs. A monochromatic laser emits only one wavelength and therefore, does not contribute to chromatic dispersion.