
Beatbox: A Drum Machine Obsession - rpm4321
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2013/12/beat_box_review_drum_machine_gets_its_due_in_joe_mansfield_book.html
======
jawngee
I taught myself to do serious programming writing a drum sequencer for
windows, back in 1994'ish. I was living and consorting with a bunch of techno
producers, as well as being pretty deep in the underground rave scene. I'd
spend hours in their studios and wanted to make my own music but couldn't
afford the much coveted 808/909, so I spent countless nights replicating it.

I put out a couple of records using it. It also, inadvertently, lead to me
getting a call from Richie Hawtin asking me to write audio DJ software for
him. I told him it couldn't be done with current hardware, and I think I was
probably right (this was 286/386 era). You couldn't put two sound cards in a
system, so the output would have been mono. Maybe I was wrong. I'm not so
sure.

[http://www.sonicspot.com/tekknobox/tekknobox.html](http://www.sonicspot.com/tekknobox/tekknobox.html)

Yes, the UI is hideous, but Windows 3.11 baby!

Edit: The follow up was called Alien Disko Systems 3000.

[http://www.sonicspot.com/aliendiskosystems/aliendiskosystems...](http://www.sonicspot.com/aliendiskosystems/aliendiskosystems.html)

~~~
coldtea
> _You couldn 't put two sound cards in a system, so the output would have
> been mono. Maybe I was wrong. I'm not so sure._

Huh? Nothing says you have to have two soundcards to get stereo (or multi
channel for that matter) output.

And already in the 386 era were apps and soundcards offering more than mono.

~~~
boomlinde
For DJing electronic music you typically want to have two stereo output pairs
so that you can hear what you are cross-fading into. I don't know of any
soundcards from the mid-90s that did that

------
jdietrich
The TR-808 is a fascinating example of triumphant failure. The machine was
supposed to emulate real drum sounds, but the limitations of the hardware
meant that it was absolutely _terrible_ at that task. The 808 kick is little
more than a sine wave, the snare little more than a burst of white noise. The
sound generators were designed to be the cheapest, simplest possible circuits
that bore any sort of resemblance to a drum sound.

I think it is this electronic purity that has made these sounds so iconic -
the sounds are the most natural, elegant ways of generating percussive sounds
with analog hardware. Later digital drum machines did a much better job of
sounding like real drums, but in doing so often merely sounded ersatz. The 808
is a joy because in failing so catastrophically to be an imitation of
something else, it is authentically electronic.

~~~
fellytone84
Fascinating explanation. Thank you for introducing me to the concept of a
"triumphant failure"\--I wonder whether there's a wiki somewhere listing other
famous examples?

However, I think you may be slightly mythologizing this machine. After all,
the 808 wasn't designed with emulating real drum sounds as its primary goal--
the Linn LM-1 drum machine, which was released a few months _before_ the 808,
literally emulated drums via digital samples of recorded drums. The 808 was
designed to give musicians a cheap, flexible means of creating demos via the
standard analog synthesis that was popular at the time.

With that being said, I think a more probable reason for its lasting
popularity has less to do with the machine's ability to capture the essence of
percussion and more to do with circumstance: the 808 was affordable ($1,195
versus $5,000 for the Linn LM-1) to the historically impoverished youth who
birthed the global cultural/musical phenomenon we know as hip-hop.

sources:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_TR-808](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_TR-808),
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hip_hop](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hip_hop)

------
DanBC
> (a mint-condition 808, for $250)

This is the thing often missed by various clones. The Roland machines were
_cheap_ , often thought of as limited. An 808 clone selling at $1,000 is a
weird idea.

I was hoping that the RPi or Arduino would open up cheap great interfaces to
good software, but it hasn't really happened yet.

~~~
csmuk
Personally I can't stand software.

I'd rather have real kit simply because there is a maintenance overhead for
supporting software based solutions. Embedded systems i.e workstations are
probably a good midpoint. You can just sit down and play shit then.

However, $1000 for 808 clones is batshit.

I paid less than half that for my Triton Studio which emulates an 808 pretty
much spot on with about 20 mins work.

~~~
tessierashpool
I'm curious if you make that statement having played 808s in real life (and my
assumption is the answer's no).

I've got analog synths, digital synths, and soft synths. My $40 Korg Monotron
is more expressive than my $700 1997 Access Virus. But the Animoog iPad app
trumps them both ($40, and I think I got it for $5 because I bought on the
first day or something).

There's a reason nobody has ever cheapened the Stradivarius by creating new
technology. The selling point is craftsmanship and good design. The 808's a
work of art and it's always better to have the real thing, if you're serious
about music. (I mean absolutely no offense, but it sounds like it's just a
hobby to you.)

Speaking of iPads, there's a great simulation of a later-model Korg ER-1 drum
machine availabe for iPad. It's called iElectribe. I love it, but I used to
own an early version of the real thing, and it was just better. Context: I've
owned many drum machines, even built a toy one for fun (the Bleep Drum, from
Bleep Labs), and I'm learning to play the drums.

~~~
csmuk
Not professionally, but I owned one for about a year in the mid 1990's. It was
sold simply because it didn't fit into the workflow easily. No MIDI, refused
to sync to anything properly, weighs a flipton, the step keys were iffy and
the worst bit is that the analogue side was crap i.e. it used to drift
terribly after it got warm. Programming was pretty good though so i'll give it
that.

Access Virus is a rip off. I had a KC and it was no better than a Novation KS6
at a fraction of the cost. Fortunately the scene I was in grew out of the
Virus eventually. Not sure about a monotron - horrible sounding feepers. Seem
to be trendy but not particularly musical.

I very much doubt many Stradivarius' are actually played. They are like art.
The value is subjective. Personally I hate the whining things and would rather
use them to smoke some cheese with (this is sarcasm) :)

For me, it's a matter of pragmatism. My Triton sounds pretty good (not too
digital) and saves lugging a crap ton of kit around. If it doesn't do
something, I'll sample something that does do it and I'm sorted.

NB I was a session keyboardist in the goth/industrial scene for a number of
years (also known as unemployed student) so I have some professional
experience.

~~~
fr0sty
A fair number (unsure of the proportion) of Stradivarius instruments actually
are played. John Bell famously played his in a DC Metro station[0].

Many more are played by the likes of Yo-Yo Ma, and principle instrumentalists
of various symphonies.

Browsing this list[1] it would seem that many more instruments are in the
hands of musicians than are in museums.

[0] [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2007/04...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html)

[1]
[http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Stradivarius_instrume...](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Stradivarius_instruments)

------
Ryanmf
Peter Kirn at CDM recently wrote an overview[0] of an 808 clone kit called
Yocto[1], though it seems there aren't any available at the moment.

[0]
[http://createdigitalmusic.com/2013/11/tr-808-diy-379e-lets-b...](http://createdigitalmusic.com/2013/11/tr-808-diy-379e-lets-
built-part-part-analog-clone-plus-sequencer/)

[1] [http://www.e-licktronic.com/en/27-yocto-complet-kit-
tr-808-c...](http://www.e-licktronic.com/en/27-yocto-complet-kit-tr-808-clone-
tr808.html)

------
SonicSoul
i spent most of my college days producing electronic music in my living room
(my roommate was cool with taking up half of it with wires and big clunky
hardware)... but to me the biggest killer app of that time was Rebirth.
[http://www.propellerheads.se/products/rebirth/](http://www.propellerheads.se/products/rebirth/)
it was cheap (or free depending how poor you were) and replaced $1000's worth
of hardware.. really it's the highest value app i can think of that time (at
the retail price).. of course the analog sound was emulated but it still
sounded pretty badass. i later got a 303 clone (futureretro 777) but still
kept using Rebirth. one day when the rat race slows down i'll remove the dust
from the 777 :)

