Roland TR-808
Roland TR-808 | |
---|---|
Manufacturer | Roland |
Dates | 1980–1983 |
Price | US$1,195 £765 ¥150,000 JPY |
Technical specifications | |
Polyphony | 12 |
Timbrality | 12 |
Synthesis type | Analog subtractive |
Storage memory | 32 patterns, 768 measures |
Effects | Individual level, tuning, attack, decay, and tone controls for some sounds |
Input/output | |
Keyboard | 16 pattern keys |
External control | DIN sync in/out |
The Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer, commonly known as the 808, is a drum machine manufactured by Roland Corporation between 1980 and 1983. It was one of the first drum machines to allow users to program rhythms instead of using preset patterns. Unlike its nearest competitor at the time, the more expensive Linn LM-1, the 808 generates sounds using analog synthesis rather than by playing samples.
The 808 was a commercial failure, as electronic music had yet to become mainstream and many producers wanted more realistic drum sounds. After building approximately 12,000 units, Roland discontinued the 808 after its semiconductors became impossible to restock. It was succeeded by the TR-909 in 1983.
Over the course of the 1980s, the 808 attracted a
The 808 was eventually used on more
Development
The TR-808 is a piece of art. It's engineering art, it's so beautifully made. If you have an idea of what is going on in the inside, if you look at the circuit diagram, and you see how the unknown Roland engineer was making the best out of super limited technology, it's unbelievable. You look at the circuit diagram like you look at an orchestral score, you think, how on earth did they come up with this idea? It's brilliant, it's a masterpiece.
— Robert Henke, musician and co-creator of Ableton Live[1]
In the 1960s,
Lewis was approached by Ikutaro Kakehashi, the president and founder of Ace Tone, who wanted to know how he had achieved the sounds using the Ace Tone machine.[2] In 1972, Kakehashi formed the Roland Corporation and hired Lewis to help design drum machines.[2] By the late 1970s, microprocessors were appearing in instruments such as the Roland MC-8 Microcomposer,[5] and Kakehashi realized they could be used to program drum machines.[6] In 1978, Roland released the CompuRhythm CR-78,[5] the first drum machine with which users could write, save and replay their own patterns.[6]
With its next machine, the TR-808, Roland aimed to develop a drum machine for the professional market, expecting that it would mainly be used to create demos.[7] The engineers conceived a "drum synthesizer" with which users could program drum sequences and edit parameters such as tuning, decay and level.[8] Though they aimed to emulate real percussion, the prohibitive cost of memory drove them to design sound-generating hardware instead of using samples (prerecorded sounds). Kakehashi deliberately purchased faulty transistors to create the 808's distinctive sizzling sound.[9] The chief engineer, Makoto Muroi, credited the 808 voice circuit design to "Mr. Nakamura" and the software to "Mr. Matsuoka".[6]
Sounds and features
The 808 imitates acoustic percussion: the
The 808 is noted for its powerful bass drum sound, built from a
The 808 was the first drum machine with which users could program a percussion track from beginning to end, complete with breaks and rolls.[14] Users can program up to 32 patterns using the step sequencer,[6] chain up to 768 measures[15] and place accents on individual beats.[6] Users can also set the tempo[6] and time signature, including unusual signatures such as 5
4 and 7
8.[16] The 808 includes volume knobs for each voice, numerous audio outputs and a DIN sync port (a precursor to MIDI) to synchronize with other devices.[6] Its three trigger outputs can synchronize with synthesizers and other equipment.[17]
Release
The 808 launched in 1980 with a
Despite some early adopters,[10] the 808 was a commercial failure[15] and fewer than 12,000 units were sold.[18] Roland ended production in 1983[3] after semiconductor improvements made it impossible to restock the faulty transistors essential to its design.[9]
Influence
Though the 808 was unsuccessful, it was eventually used on more hit records than any other drum machine[19] and became one of the most influential inventions in popular music.[7][20] By the time Roland discontinued it in 1983, it had become common on the used market, often selling for less than $100 (equivalent to $294 in 2022).[10] Its ease of use,[7] affordability and idiosyncratic sound earned it a cult following among underground musicians and producers,[10] and it became a cornerstone of the developing electronic and hip hop genres.[4]
CBC News credited the first use of the 808 to the Japanese electronic group Yellow Magic Orchestra in 1980.[21] The first records to feature the 808 were released the following year: the Yellow Magic Orchestra album BGM[22] and the Monitors single "Nobody Told Me".[11] In 1982, the American R&B artist Marvin Gaye released the first hit single that featured the 808, "Sexual Healing".[4] Gaye was drawn to 808 because he could use it to create music in isolation, without other musicians or producers.[9]
808 samples are common in music software, and it has inspired numerous unlicensed clones.[3][23] Flavorwire wrote that the 808 is now so ubiquitous that "its beats are almost a language of their own", with sounds recognizable even to listeners who do not know what drum machines are, and so "you also notice when somebody messes with them or uses them in unusual contexts".[24] In 2019, DJMag wrote that it was likely the most used drum machine of the preceding 40 years.[8]
Hip hop
The 808 has been described as hip hop's equivalent to the
The rapper Kanye West used the 808 on every track on his 2008 solo album 808s & Heartbreak,[28] which Slate described as "an explicit love letter to the device".[7] The New Yorker wrote in 2015 that the 808 was the bedrock of the modern "urban-youth-culture soundtrack", particularly in trap music, and had influenced a new blend of dance and retro hip hop that "embraces and fetishizes ... street music from the past".[9]
Artists pushed the limits of the 808's limited pattern storage; according to Slate, "Those eight-bar units became veritable playgrounds for invention and creativity."[7] Artists manipulated the bass drum to produce new sounds,[7] such as on the 1984 single "Set it Off", in which the producer Strafe used it to imitate the sound of an underground nuclear test.[9] The producer Rick Rubin popularized the technique of lengthening the bass drum decay and tuning it to different pitches to create basslines.[20] Beastie Boys used a reversed recording of an 808 on their 1986 track "Paul Revere".[29]
Electronic music
In 1982, Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force released their single "Planet Rock", which used the 808 to create "strange, futuristic" percussion that was popular in clubs.[30] The track influenced the development of electronic and hip hop music[24] and subgenres including Miami bass and Detroit techno, and popularized the 808 as a "fundamental element of futuristic sound".[4] According to Slate, "Planet Rock" "didn't so much put the 808 on the map so much as reorient an entire world of post-disco dance music around it".[7]
The British electronic group 808 State took its name from the 808 and used it extensively.[10] 808 State's Graham Massey said: "The Roland gear began to be a kind of Esperanto in music. The whole world began to be less separated through this technology, and there was a classiness to it—you could transcend your provincial music with this equipment."[3] With the rise of rave culture, a precursor to acid house, the 808 became a staple sound on British radio.[4] In the early 90s, the Japanese composer Yuzo Koshiro incorporated samples of the 808 in his soundtracks for the Streets of Rage games.[31]
Pop
The 808 was used extensively in pop. The New Yorker wrote that it triggered "the big bang of pop's great age of disruption, from 1983 to 1986", and that its "defiantly inorganic timbres ... sketched out the domain of a new world of music".[9] According to Slate, it was instrumental in pop music's shift from conventional structure and harmonic progression to "thinking in terms of sequences, discrete passages of sound and time to be repeated and revised ad infinitum".[7]
The Argentine artist Charly García used the 808 for all percussion on his second album, Clics modernos (1983).[32] In the 1984 Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense, the singer David Byrne performs "Psycho Killer" accompanied by an 808,[33] stumbling against its "gunshot"-like sounds.[34] The drummer and songwriter Phil Collins found the 808 useful for looping rhythms for long periods, as human drummers would be tempted to add variations and fills.[20] Whitney Houston's 1987 single "I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)" makes extensive use of the 808.[35]
Other artists who have used the 808 include
Successors
The 808 was followed in 1983 by the TR-909, the first Roland drum machine to use samples. Like the 808, the 909 influenced popular music, including such genres as techno, house and acid.[15]
808 samples were included in
In 2017, Roland released the TR-08, a miniaturized 808 featuring an LED display, MIDI and USB connections, expanded sequencer control and a built-in speaker.[39] Roland released the first official software emulations of the 808 and 909 in 2018.[40] In 2019, Behringer released a recreation of the 808, the Behringer RD-8 Rhythm Designer. Unlike Roland's TR-08 and TR-8S, which use samples and virtual synthesis to recreate the 808 sounds, the RD-8 uses analog circuitry.[41]
See also
- 808 (film) – 2015 documentary about the Roland TR-808
References
- ^ Walmsley, Derek. "Monolake in full". The Wire. Retrieved 6 January 2017.
- ^ a b c d e Wolbe, Trent (30 January 2013). "How the 808 drum machine got its cymbal, and other tales from music's geeky underbelly". The Verge. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
- ^ ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Anderson, Jason (27 November 2008). "Slaves to the rhythm". CBC News. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
- ^ a b Reid, Gordon (November 2014). "The history of Roland: part 1". Sound on Sound. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-61713-446-3.
- ^ ISSN 1091-2339. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
- ^ ISSN 0951-5143. Retrieved 14 September 2019.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Norris, Chris (13 August 2015). "The 808 heard round the world". The New Yorker. Condé Nast. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Everything you ever wanted to know about the Roland TR-808 but were afraid to ask". Fact. The Vinyl Factory. 16 January 2014. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
- ^ a b Valle, OV (13 February 2014). "TR-808 drum machine flashback – Roland U.S. blog". Roland US. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
- ^ Goodyer, Tim (November 1986). "Beat Box Chic". Music Technology (Nov 1986): 70–71.
- ^ a b Reid, Gordon (February 2002). "Synth secrets: practical bass drum synthesis". Sound on Sound. UK: SOS Publications Group. Archived from the original on 15 February 2004. Retrieved 25 November 2015.
- ^ a b Contemporary Keyboard, Volume 7, Issues 1–6, 1981: "The Roland TR-808 will undoubtedly become the standard for rhythm machines of the future because it does what no rhythm machine of the past has ever done. Not only does the TR-808 allow programming of individual rhythm patterns, it can also program the entire percussion track of a song from beginning to end, complete with breaks, rolls, literally anything you can think of."
- ^ a b c d Reid, Gordon (December 2014). "The history of Roland: part 2". Sound on Sound. SOS Publications Group. Retrieved 3 January 2016.
- ^ a b Werner, Kurt (29 November 2015). "The Roland TR-808 and the tale of the marching anteaters". Ethnomusicology Review. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
- ^ Suzanne, Ciani (1982). "Riding the new waves". DB Magazine: 32.
- ^ Marsden, Rhodi (15 December 2008). "Rhythm king: the return of the Roland 808 drum machine". The Independent. Independent Digital News & Media Ltd. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
- ISBN 2-88479-037-3, retrieved 20 May 2011
- ^ a b c Leight, Elias (6 December 2016). "8 ways the 808 drum machine changed pop music". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
- ^ Anderson, Jason (27 November 2008). "Slaves to the rhythm". CBC News. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
- ^ Jones, Mikey IQ (22 January 2015). "The Essential... Yellow Magic Orchestra". Fact. Retrieved 24 August 2017.
- ^ Warwick, Oli (8 April 2017). "Attack of the clones: Is Behringer's Minimoog a synth replica too far?". Fact. Retrieved 30 November 2018.
- ^ a b Hawking, Tom (16 January 2014). "10 great songs built around the 808". Flavorwire. Archived from the original on 8 July 2019. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
- ^ McKee, Ruth; Grierson, Jamie (2 April 2017). "Roland founder and music pioneer Ikutaro Kakehashi dies aged 87". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
- ^ Baldwin, Roberto (14 February 2014). "Early hip-hop's greatest drum machine just got resurrected". Wired. Retrieved 4 January 2016.
- ISSN 1091-2339. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
- ^ Greene, Jason (22 September 2015). "The coldest story ever told: the influence of Kanye West's 808s & Heartbreak | Pitchfork". Pitchfork. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
- ^ Kaufman, Gil (24 May 2012). "Beastie Boys' Adam Horovitz Talks MCA Death". MTV News.
- ^ ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
- ^ Dwyer, Nick (25 September 2014). "Interview: Streets of Rage Composer Yuzo Koshiro". Red Bull Music Academy. Retrieved 20 January 2024.
- ^ Daza, Baltasar (3 July 2020). "Cuando el mundo tira para abajo: Charly García y la historia de Clics modernos". La Tercera. Retrieved 17 April 2022.
- ISSN 1091-2339. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
- Salon. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
- ^ "Roland TR-808: The drum machine that refused to die". BBC News. 21 March 2014. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
- ^ Kreps, Daniel (15 October 2014). "Phil Collins, Pharrell praise 808 drum machine in new doc". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 16 January 2014.
- ^ MusicTech. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
- Music Radar. Retrieved 13 November 2019.
- ^ "Roland unveil Boutique SH-01 & TR-08 and AIRA sampler". Sound on Sound. 8 August 2017. Retrieved 26 September 2017.
- ^ Wilson, Scott (25 January 2018). "Roland is releasing official software versions of its 808 and 909 drum machines". Fact. The Vinyl Factory. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
- ^ Sherbourne, Simon (January 2020). "Behringer RD-8 Rhythm Designer". Sound on Sound. SOS Publications Group. Retrieved 27 November 2020.
Further reading
- "Beat Box Chic". Music Technology. November 1986. pp. 70–1. OCLC 483899345.
- "Roland Beatboxes". One Two Testing. January 1983. OCLC 14985145.