Roland TR-808

The Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer, produced 1980–1984

The Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer (a.k.a. the "808") was one of the first programmable drum machines ("TR" standing for Transistor Rhythm). Introduced by the Roland Corporation in early 1980, it was originally manufactured for use as a tool for studio musicians to create demos. Like earlier Roland drum machines, it does not sound very much like a real drum kit. Indeed, because the TR-808 was released a few months after the Linn LM-1 (the first drum machine to use digital samples), professionals generally considered its sound inferior to sampling drum machines; a 1982 Keyboard Magazine review of the LinnDrum indirectly referred to the TR-808 as sounding like marching anteaters. However, the TR-808 cost US$1,195 upon its release, which was considerably more affordable than the US$5,000 LM-1.

Drum machines in general became an integral part of hip hop music as a cheap and simple way of producing a drum sound. The Roland TR-808 held specific appeal because of the ability of its bass drum sound to produce extremely low-frequency sounds.[1] It also featured various unique artificial percussion sounds that characterized the TR-808:[2] a deep bass kick drum,[3][4] "tinny handclap sounds,"[4] "the ticky snare, the tishy hi-hats (open and closed) and the spacey cowbell."[2] The Roland TR-808 would eventually be used on more hit records than any other drum machine,[5] and has thus attained an iconic status within the music industry.[2] The machine's successor was the Roland TR-909.

Origins

Roland credits the design of the TR-808 to two of its employees: Mr. Nakamura, who was responsible for the analog voice circuits, and Mr. Matsuoka, who developed the software.[2] The Roland TR-808 was produced between 1980 and 1983 by the Roland Corporation, with approximately 12,000 units manufactured in that time.[6] Immediately after its appearance it was rendered essentially obsolete by the superior sound and ability to sample of the Linn LM-1. However, the much cheaper price of the TR-808 ($1,195 versus $5,000 for the Linn LM-1) and a distinctive sound (in particular its deep bass kick) made the drum machine popular among hip hop artists several years after it ceased production.[3] By the end of the 1980s, the TR-808 was popular within electronic music and hip hop genres. As with many analogue electronic musical instruments, a great deal of effort was put into sampling the sounds of the TR-808 for use in modern devices; however some producers consider this unsatisfactory and unduly static and digital.[7] Demand for the real 808 sound is so great that street prices for a used machine have remained close to what the cost of a new TR-808 was upon its initial release in 1980 when adjusted for inflation. The 808 also had a significant impact on dance music due to its ability to program rhythm and drum sounds separately and store up to 32 patterns, which enabled it to become a serious compositional tool.[8] The kick drum of the 808 is little more than a bridged T-network sine oscillator, a low-pass filter and a VCA (Voltage Controlled Amplifier). The output works continuously and that makes it possible to produce an overdub of the same signal even after 32 steps in a medium tempo. The kick is a triggered CV/Gate pulse that is added into the audio signal. The typical flattening of the decay directly after the attack is because of the audio design of the oscillator and appears like a compression.[9]

Use and importance
Yellow Magic Orchestra - "1000 Knives" (1981)
"1000 Knives" from Yellow Magic Orchestra's BGM (1981). YMO's 1980 Budokan performance of this track was one of the earliest uses of the TR-808 in a live performance.
Yellow Magic Orchestra - "Music Plans" (1981)
"Music Plans" from Yellow Magic Orchestra's BGM (1981). An early electro track demonstrating extensive use of the TR-808.
Afrika Bambaataa & the Soulsonic Force - "Planet Rock" (1982)
"Planet Rock" (1982) by Afrika Bambaataa & the Soulsonic Force. A seminal electro hip hop song that popularized the TR-808.
Marvin Gaye - "Sexual Healing" (1982)
"Sexual Healing" (1982) by Marvin Gaye. A hit boogie post-disco song that popularized the TR-808.
Charanjit Singh - "Raga Bhairavi" (1982)
"Raga Bhairavi" from Charanjit Singh's Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat (1982). Using the TR-808 along with the TB-303, it resembled later acid house music.
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The first band to use the TR-808 was the Japanese electronic music group Yellow Magic Orchestra, as soon as it was released in 1980.[2][3] One of the earliest uses of the TR-808 for a live performance was by Yellow Magic Orchestra in December 1980 for the song "1000 Knives", an electro rendition of member Ryuichi Sakamoto's "Thousand Knives" (1978). The hand-clap sound was later publicized by YMO's innovative album BGM, which was released March 1981 in Japan; used again on "1000 Knives" and in "Music Plans," another of Sakamoto's songs. The TR-808 would later be further popularized in 1982, with the release of the mainstream American hits "Sexual Healing" by Marvin Gaye and "Planet Rock" by Afrika Bambaataa.[2]

Other early users of the TR-808 include Australian producer Mark Moffatt, with his studio project, the Monitors (1981), and Indian musician Charanjit Singh, who used it alongside a Roland TB-303 bass synthesizer to produce music resembling acid house in his 1982 album Synthesizing: Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat.[10] A TR-808 was also David Byrne's sole accompaniment (apart from his acoustic guitar) at the beginning of Stop Making Sense (1984), prior to the gradual appearance of the rest of Talking Heads, although Byrne created the illusion that the sound came from, he said, "A tape I want to play," on a boombox he brought onstage. In 1983, then-new record producers Jimmy Jam And Terry Lewis introduced the Roland TR-808 into popular music by using it in hit songs they wrote for R&B recording act The S.O.S. Band like, "Just Be Good To Me", "High Hopes", "Tell Me If You Still Care", "Borrowed Love", "No One's Gonna Love You", "Just The Way You Like It", and "The Finest" as well as songs they wrote and produced for Alexander O'Neal, Cherrelle, Janet Jackson, and others.

As more realistic drum machines emerged, the TR-808 was discontinued and it became easy to buy a used machine for a low price. Its availability led to a second life as a cheap source of rhythm for hip hop artists in the mid 1980s. The Beastie Boys breakout album Licensed to Ill consists mostly of hip hop rhymes backed by the characteristic TR-808 beats and samples from popular rock songs; its success led to a new surge in popularity.

The sounds of the TR-808 were and still are very often used in drum and bass, hip hop, R&B, house, electro, and many forms of electronic dance music, albeit often unrecognizable after extensive processing. The use of the 808 drum by Double Duce on the 1985 track "School Breakdown" and 2 Live Crew on its third album, As Nasty As They Wanna Be, established a foundation for sounds of Miami bass and southern rap.[11] According to Derrick May, the TR-808 was also the preferred drum machine during the early years of techno.[12]

Notes

  1. ↑ Keyboard 14 (11): 34. 1988. Missing or empty |title= (help); as cited in Théberge, Paul (1997). Any sound you can imagine: making music/consuming all counts of technology. Middletown, Conn: Wesleyan University Press. pp. 197. ISBN 0-8195-6309-9.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Jason Anderson (28 November 2008). "Slaves to the rhythm: Kanye West is the latest to pay tribute to a classic drum machine". CBC News. Retrieved 2011-05-29.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Mickey Hess (2007), Icons of hip hop: an encyclopedia of the movement, music, and culture, Volume 1, ABC-CLIO, p. 75, ISBN 0-313-33903-1, retrieved 2011-05-29
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Happy 808 Day". Wired. 8 August 2008. Retrieved 2011-05-31.
  5. ↑ Peter Wells (2004), A Beginner's Guide to Digital Video, AVA Books, p. 18, ISBN 2-88479-037-3, retrieved 2011-05-20
  6. ↑ Mark Butler (2006). Unlocking the groove: rhythm, meter, and musical design in electronic dance music. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. pp. 64. ISBN 0-253-34662-2.
  7. ↑ http://koti.welho.com/kebu/roland_TR-808.html
  8. ↑ Moore, Allan (2003). Analyzing popular music. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 94. ISBN 0-521-77120-X.
  9. ↑ SYNTH SECRETS Practical Bass Drum Synthesis, retrieved 2012-02-15
  10. ↑ Aitken, Stuart (10 May 2011). "Charanjit Singh on how he invented acid house...by mistake". The Guardian.
  11. ↑ Hess, 2007, p. xxvi.
  12. ↑ System 7 interview with Mark Roland in: Muzik, Issue No.4, September 1995, p.97

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