The Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer was one of the first programmable drum machines.
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, 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.
It also featured various unique artificial percussion sounds that characterized the TR-808:
a deep bass kick drum, "tinny handclap sounds," "the ticky snare, the tishy hi-hats and the
spacey cowbell."
The Roland TR-808 would eventually be used on more hit records than any other drum machine,
and has thus attained an iconic status within the music industry.
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.
The Roland TR-808 was produced between 1980 and 1983 by the Roland Corporation, with approximately
12,000 units manufactured in that time.
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 and a distinctive sound made the drum machine
popular among hip hop artists several years after it ceased production.
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.
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.
The kick drum of the 808 is little more than a bridged T-network sine oscillator, a low-pass
filter and a VCA.
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.
Use and importance 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.
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".
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.
Other early users of the TR-808 include Australian producer Mark Moffatt, with his studio project,
the Monitors, 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.
A TR-808 was also David Byrne's sole accompaniment at the beginning of Stop Making Sense, 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'Neil, 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.
According to Derrick May, the TR-808 was also the preferred drum machine during the early
years of techno.
Notes
External links TR-808 owner's manual
TR-808 info, manual, mp3 clips All Hail the Beat - 3-minute documentary on
the TR-808 Instruments That Changed The Game: The Roland
TR-808 TR-808 mechanic robot and 808 history
Roland TR-808: The drum machine that changed music BBC News, 21 March 2014.