We ❤ drum machines
What is it that makes drum machines and the sounds they produce so unique? Those of us who make music for our careers or for pleasure are used to the fact that ‘electronic versions’ of almost every instrument you can think of have existed since the home keyboards of the 1970s and 1980s. We’ve heard synth brass and synth strings and synth pads and synth everything else – and whilst the flavours of these instruments drift in and out of fashion, the pioneering drum machines of the same time period have remained stoically popular.
Notable early drum machines include the Keio MiniPops released in the late ’60s; later, Keio became Korg and its drum machines became significantly more capable, but the MP-5 and MP-7 models have been written into electronic music history thanks to Jean-Michel Jarre’s pioneering album Oxygene. PAiA’s Programmable Drum Set, released in 1975, made programming patterns (rather than drawing on clichéd preset ones) a new standard, before Roland’s CR-78 expanded this idea with a sound which has endured for significantly longer. With the dawn of the 1980s came Linn’s LM-1, which was the first drum machine to use digital recordings of drums as its playback method. It’s 8-bit sounds seemed the height of pioneering hi-fi at the time but what is now considered ‘retro crunch’ has endeared it to a newer army of devotees in the 21st Century.
However, few drum machines afford more reverence than the Roland TR-808. Following the LM-1, Roland’s machine initially received poor reviews, as its electronic tones seemed a step back from the ‘realism’ of Linn’s machine. But as it became popular with hip-hop and techno producers alike, the 808 began to immortalise itself for the weight of its electronic sounds, most notably its kick drum. By now, drum machines had long abandoned the notion that they could only offer programmability of patterns; they were now also hell-bent on creating the best possible sounds.
Next, Roland’s TR-909 established itself as the sound of mid ’80s house music, and Akai shook up hip-hop with its iconic MPC range. Like so many staples of 1980s and 1990s music production, the viability of hard-disk recording hit the drum machine hard, and it seemed likely that even these classic boxes would be consigned to the history books. Yet today’s secondhand prices for classic drum machines are eye-watering, and the reasons for this are clear: these iconic pieces of design produce a sound, have a tactility and offer a ‘real-ness’ that even the best sample packs can’t provide.