Just an Article on Drum Machines

I thought I’d do an article on drum machines or drum programming. Aesthetically, the drum machine has been met with controversy. Critics have called drum machines not an instrument, but a machine, drum machines sound monotonous and it doesn’t take talent to use one. Well, more on that later.

The drum machine, or originally called “rhythm machines” have been around since the early 30’s and in some cases earlier precursors have existed before that. In the early 30’s, the spectacularly innovative and complex Rhythmicon was realized by Leon Theramin. This invention was commissioned by computer theorist Henry Cowell, who wanted and instrument that could play compositions whose multiple rhythmic patterns, based on the overtone series, were far too difficult to perform on existing keyboard instruments. The Rhythmicon could produce sixteen different rhythms, each associated with a particular pitch, either individually or in any combination, including en masse, if desired.

Received with a good amount of interest when it was publically introduced in 1932, the Rhythmicon was soon set aside by Cowell and was virtually forgotten for decades. But afterwards, the concept of the rhythm machine/drum machine was re-introduced over time by with variants unique to the inventor.

Inventors such as Harry Chamberlain’s Chamberlain Rhythmate which was driven by tape loops of live drum tracks, Wurlitzer’s Sideman in 1959, which was the first commercially produced drum machine. The Sideman was intended as a percussive accompaniment for the Wurlitzer organ. The Sideman offered a choice of 12 electronically, pre-programmed rhythms with variable tempos and the sound source was a series of 10 drum sounds. In 1960, composer Raymond Scott constructed the “Rhythm Synthesizer”, and in 1963 a drum machine called Bandito the Bongo Artist. These machines were used for recording his infamous “Soothing Sounds for Baby” series in 1964.

The first stand-alone programmable drum machine, was the PAiA Programmable Drum Set. The PAiA was the first introduced to the market in 1975. Interesting enough, this was also sold as a dissembled kit that the buyer would have to put together themselves.

Later on in 1978, the Roland CR-78 drum machine was released. It was a programmable rhythm machine that had four memory locations which allowed users to store their own patterns. The following year, Roland offered more simple version, Boss DR-55. It has only four sounds, and its memory is not enough to compose a song ( but contained up to 16 pre-programmed rhythms), but was a programmable drum machine that cost under $200.

The Linn LM-1 Drum Computer (released in 1980, at a quite expensive price at $4,999) was the first drum machine to use actual digital samples of live . A limited run of 500 were ever made of this machine but the list of those who owned them was quite impressive. Its distinctive sound almost defines 1980s pop, and it can be heard on hundreds of hit records from the era, including The Human League’s Dare, Gary Numan’s Dance, Devo’s “New Traditionalists”, and Ric Ocasek’s Beatitude. Prince bought one of the very first LM-1s and used it on nearly all of his most popular recordings, including 1999 and Purple Rain.

Many of the drum sounds on the LM-1 were composed of two chips that were triggered at the same time, and each voice was individually tunable with individual outputs. Due to memory limitations, a crash cymbal sound was not available except as an expensive third-party modification. A more affordable version of the LM-1 was released in 1982 called the LM-2 (or simply LinnDrum). It cost around $3,000 and not all of its voices were tunable, making it less desirable than the original LM-1, I guess you get what you pay for. The Linndrum included a crash cymbal sound as standard and, like its predecessor the LM-1, featured swappable sound chips. The Linndrum can be heard on records such as Men Without Hats’ Rhythm of Youth and The Cars’ Heartbeat City.

It was feared the LM-1 would put every session drummer in Los Angeles out of work and it caused many of L.A’s top session drummers (Jeff Porcaro is one example) to purchase their own drum machines and learn to program them themselves in order to stay employed.

Following the success of the LM-1, Oberheim introduced the popular DMX drum machine, which also featured digitally-sampled sounds and a “swing” feature similar to the one found on the Linn machines. Thanks to the big beat drum sounds of the Oberheim DMX drum machine, It became very popular in the nascent hip-hop scene. In fact, Davey DMX and DMX co-opted their stage names from the legendary machine.

Roland TR-808 and TR-909 machines

The famous Roland TR-808 was also launched in 1980. At the time it was received with little fanfare, Unlike the LinnDrum and DMX, these drum machines didn’t have digitally sampled sounds whereas drum machines using digital samples of actual drum machine. In time, though, the TR-808, along with its successor, the TR-909 (released in 1983), would become a fixture of the burgeoning underground dance, techno, and hip-hop genres. Although there many numerous uses of the TR-808 or (808 as it’s called) Electro-funker Afrika Bambaataa used the TR-808 on the electro classic Planet Rock. Mainly because of its low cost in comparison of the Linn machines and the unique character of its analogue-generated sounds. In a somewhat ironic twist it is the analogue-based Roland machines endured over time whereas the Linn sound became somewhat overused and dated by the end of the decade. The TR-808 and TR-909’s beats have since been widely featured in pop music, and can be heard on countless recordings up to the present day.

Although drum machines are still used, there has been an influx of sequencer software such as FL Studio features samples of the 808,909 and countless other popular drum sounds.

Drum Machine Museum