If you were asked to name a classic drum machine from the 1980s, your thoughts would more than likely fall upon the Roland TR-808 and TR-909. They are, without a doubt, the most famous and culturally invasive rhythm computers of all time. Some would say they were responsible for inventing whole genres of music. Others would argue that the only reason that occurred is because they were commercial failures and became revolutionary only when they were picked up at flea markets by the underground scene.
In any respect, their influence and place in the history of drum machines is assured. However, plenty of other remarkable drum machines were vying for our attention in this pivotal decade. Many had more to offer than the TR series, and you can hear them on countless legendary tracks.
Linn Electronics LM-1 and LinnDrum LM-2
The LM1 was the first digital drum machine on the scene, and the first product from Roger Linn’s Linn Electronics. It had the one thing that was missing from all the drum machines that went before: the sound of real drums. It used short, recorded samples that were stored as digital audio on a chip. Released in 1980, it predates Roland's partially sample-based TR-909 by about three years.
The samples were recorded in 8-bit at a sample rate of 28kHz. The original ten voices included a kick, snare, hi-hat, cabasa, tambourine, a pair of toms and congas, cowbell, claves and hand claps. The short sample length meant that cymbal crashes couldn't be accommodated. Each sound had level mixing, panning and tuning controls, and individual outputs for outboard mixing. It was a serious, studio-focused drum solution and a complete revolution for those who could afford it.
Unlike the Roland drum machines that use step-sequencing, the LM-1 was programmed through live playing. This approach inadvertently invented both quantization and shuffle. Roger Linn has remarked that he was initially frustrated that the machine would quantize his playing into 16th notes, a function of the computer's resolution. So he introduced a shuffle function that would add a tiny delay to alternate 16ths to inject a bit of feel. The combination of timing correction and swing was the winning formula that defined all the drum machines that followed.
You can hear the LM-1 all over early 80s music from the likes of Prince ("1999"), Michael Jackson ("Thriller"), Alphaville ("Big in Japan") and Human League ("Don't You Want Me"), amongst many others. Its enormous $5,000 price tag put it in the hands of only the top producers and superstars.
The arrival of the LinnDrum (aka LM-2) in 1982 solidified the sample-based sound of the decade. It has a more comfortable form factor and cost almost half as much. It had largely the same sounds but with a slightly higher sample rate, some tuning differences and better front panel controls. You could now step-sequence if you could work out how, and it had trigger inputs so you could run it from other machines.
The LinnDrum dominated the work of Trevor Horn (Frankie Goes to Hollywood), Stock, Aiken and Waterman (Dead or Alive), and was found on well-known tracks such as "Smalltown Boy" by Bronski Beat, "Take on Me" by Aha, and Queen’s "Radio Ga Ga."
Oberheim DMX and DX
Hot on the heels of the LM-1 was the Oberheim DMX digital drum machine. It was an unexpected release from the makers of big, programmable, polyphonic analogue synthesizers, but it captured the imagination of many artists who were impressed by the LM-1 but didn't have deep enough pockets.
The DMX drew 24 drum sounds from 11 samples and this time included a crash cymbal. Tuning was available internally on the individual voice cards, so no one really took any notice of that. It had the swing function but added some interesting elements such as rolls, flams and other timing variations. Beyond New Order’s "Blue Monday", the DMX had a large impact on the fledgling Hip-Hop genre, and you'll find it all over Grandmaster & Melle Mel, Kurtis Blow and Run DMC records.
The stripped-down Oberheim DX came along in 1983. It looked similar but had less samples, fewer voices, a smaller display, but a very attractive price point of around $1,249. As with the DMX, you could, if you wanted, create EPROMs of your own samples and install them on the voice cards. However, it was not an easy task, needing specialized equipment and know-how, but it's something that seemed to get easier and more accessible with each new drum machine.
E-mu Drumulator
E-mu Systems reached the peak of its analog ingenuity with the ridiculously ambitious and expensive Audity digitally controlled polyphonic synthesizer in 1979. It was exhibited at the 1980 AES show where E-mu came across the LM-1 and Fairlight CMI sampler and took a sudden change in direction. By 1981, E-mu had introduced the Emulator sampler at a quarter of the cost of the Fairlight—and in 1983 the Drumulator arrived, squeezed in at just under $1,000.
The Drumulator looks immediately unimpressive when compared to the LinnDrum or DMX, but that didn't stop it from becoming a massive hit. It had 12 sounds using 8-bit samples and also had the SSM analog filters borrowed from E-mu's earlier work. There were individual outputs and four trigger inputs that helped it integrate nicely into other systems shortly before the arrival of MIDI. Along with the familiar real-time programming, there was also a step-sequencing system and you could add swing, volume and accent control.
It was basic, but it sounded great, and the price put it into the hands of far more musicians than the LinnDrum or DMX. Famous users include Howard Jones on the Human's Lib album, Cocteau Twins, Depeche Mode, and Tears for Fears. The sample EPROMs were replaceable like those in the DMX, and third parties had begun to produce some options. For instance, Tears For Fears used a Rock Drums set from Digidrums on their hit single "Shout." (Ed.: fun fact—the company Digidrums, which got their start producing sound sets for the Drumulator, would eventually found Digidesign.)
Sequential Circuits DrumTraks and TOM
Back in the early 1980s, Dave Smith of Sequential Circuits had been developing a fabulous new synthesizer control system with Ikutaro Kakehashi of Roland. The system was called the Musical Instrument Digital Interface, or MIDI for short, and first appeared on the Prophet 600 synthesizer released in 1982. Roland built MIDI into the TR-909 in 1983, and Sequential followed in 1984 with Drumtraks.
Drumtraks was based along the same lines as the Drumulator and Oberheim DX to be an affordable alternative to the LinnDrum and DMX. It had thirteen 8-bit sampled sounds, including kick, snare, rimshot, toms, crash and ride cymbal, hi-hats, claps, tambourine, cowbell and cabasa. To get around the cymbals' size problem, the sample was split across four EPROMs. The sounds were funnelled into six channels, giving you six voices with individual outputs at the back.
The control system lacked many of the hands-on controls of other drum machines and there was an awful lot of button pushing involved in navigating the system. But the Drumtraks was unique in letting you program tempo changes, levels and tuning for each voice into the pattern. This was, of course, thanks to the digital control of MIDI.
In 1985 Sequential released the TOM, which was definitely hooking into the lamentable button-based digital interfaces that had become so fashionable. It had a similar flavour to the Drumtraks but had a much more advanced sequencer that could generate fills and pattern variations. "Humanization" had become a thing where listeners were starting to tire of the lack of feel in electronic music, so TOM had the ability to program minor changes in tuning and volume to keep things interesting.
It only had eight sounds routed into four voices, but the sounds were expandable using EPROMs housed in cartridges, making it dead easy to change. The range of cartridges included samples from all the other drum machines available at the time, which was a rather savvy move. There were all sorts of cool features inside, like being able to route MIDI to each drum sound on a separate channel, making them individually playable and pitchable from a keyboard. You could reverse samples for what became a classic reversed cymbal sound, and there was a Repeat function that would fill in those hi-hats or snare rolls for you.
TOM was innovative and led the way forward for many subsequent drum machines. It would probably be better known if Sequential Circuits hadn't gone out of business a year or two later.
Yamaha RX11 and RX5
Yamaha always managed to do things a little differently, and when it introduced a drum machine in 1984, it felt less about getting in on the LinnDrum action and more about complementing their own DX synths. The RX11 was a simple, elegant rhythm machine that followed the DX-7 approach to programming with data entry sliders and function buttons.
The RX11 has 29 internal PCM 12-bit sounds stored in 6 custom Yamaha chips. They were a whopping 256kbit each, eight times the size of the LM-1 EPROMs. You have all the usual suspects but with a plethora of cymbals, the doubling up of kick, snare and toms, and a shaker. It had both step and real-time programming on the pads and some buttons to give you data-slider access to level, panning and accent. It had a stereo mix output and 10 individual outputs, MIDI and some effects like reverse, dampening and pitch bend. There was no manual tuning, but many of the sounds had some alternatives that were created by a set tuning change.
While there was nothing particularly outstanding about it, the RX11 came across as a very competent and self-assured machine. It's as if Yamaha cherry-picked all the best ideas in the previous drum machines and designed them into a very coherent interface.
In 1986, Yamaha built on the RX11 with the radically advanced RX5. It had 24 internal sounds, but you could add 28 more via an expansion cartridge. The cartridges featured samples of different drum kits, as well as other sounds like the now classic gunshot, glass crash, and "Ooh" sampled vocal. The bottom row of 12 pads was set to the main drums, but you could assign the top row to any of the other available sounds, letting you build your own kits. But you could also turn the top row into a 12-note keyboard, giving you melodic pitch shifting over any of the samples.
The RX5 had a pitch and amplitude envelope, so you could program in pitch bends and shape the percussive sounds with Attack and Decay. The sequencer had been expanded, the polyphony count was up to 16 voices, and there were 12 individual outputs along with the stereo mix. The only thing it doesn't do is sample.
Alesis HR-16
Heading towards the last quarter of the decade, Alesis pops up with the HR-16. It was pumped full of 49 glorious 16-bit samples, which included multiple kick, snares, toms, two cowbells and a finger snap. Along with the 16 bits, there are 16 voices and 16 pads that you could hit all at once. The pads were velocity-sensitive, so you could put some feel in while you were recording rather than editing it in afterwards. The two thick white lines above each row of pads were scribble strips, like you'd find on a mixer so that you could write on which sounds were assigned to which pad; this has been regarded as genius.
All the sounds could be tuned, it had level, panning and output routing, although it only had four physical outputs. The sequencing was excellent with sub-beats down to a 96th, the copy/pasting of patterns, swing, fill and Offset. The only thing it couldn't do which other drum machines could, was swap out sounds mid-pattern; you had to run with the chosen 16.
Final Thoughts
One thing I find quite interesting is that no manufacturer in this time period copied the 808/909 step sequence functionality. That row of 16 steps that illuminates and flows through the patterns that we find so joyful and engaging was found no where other than the 808, 909 and later the TR-707.
Programming was either real time or hard, complex step-time involving countless button presses and next-step functions. Roland ditched the method with the TR-505 in 1986 but I can't help but wonder whether it's precisely that feature that's given the TR-808 and TR-909 their fan-base and longevity.
