The History of Drum Machines

US Exploring the backstory of beat boxes      26/04/24

The Sound on Sound  Electronic Music Podcast Channel features some of the pioneers of the industry, interviews and discussions about retro and current gear. In this latest episode Oli Freke takes a look through the history of the drum machine! Here's a quick breakdown:

00:00 - Introduction
00:51 - Early Rhythm Machines
02:57 - The First Korg Rhythm Machine
04:03 - The Invention Of The Transistor
08:02 - Solid State Rhythm Machines
13:48 - Using Drum Machines In Mainstream Hits
17:05 - The First Programmable Drum Machines
21:59 - The Introduction Of Drum Pads And Brains
25:27 - The Arrival Of Digital Samples And The Linn Drum
30:59 - The Era Of Sampling Drum Machines
37:11 - The Impact Of The Roland TR-808 and TR-909
42:54 - Other Notable 80s Drum Machines
44:41 - The Introduction Of MIDI
46:51 - Standardised Layouts And Spec
50:12 - Analogue Circuit Modelling And Software
53:45 - Back To Hardware With Eurorack Modular
54:52 - Drum Pattern Generation With AI

The drum machine has progressed massively since the days of the home organ player. Here Oli Freke takes us through a brief history with lots of audio examples, highlighting the most iconic models to have been released during the last 60 years and the part they have played in shaping musical trends.

Listen to the full episode here: https://www.soundonsound.com/sound-advice/drum-machine-history-podcast

And here we have some other drum machine histories from:

Mixmag: https://mixmag.net/read/learn-about-the-history-of-the-drum-machine-in-this-new-documentary-news

Music Radar: https://www.musicradar.com/news/a-short-history-of-the-drum-machine

Sweetwater: https://www.sweetwater.com/insync/history-of-drum-machines/

 

About the author [midierror]: midierror makes nifty Max For Live devices, innovative music hardware, award winning sample packs and hosts a podcast speaking to people in the music world.

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