Roland TR-808

The Roland TR-808 is a ground-breaking computer-controlled rhythm composer offering up to 768 measures of programming at each given time. Additionally, this unit offers percussive variations and more sound effects than basically any other unit in the market today. With the TR-808, you can visualize patterns, program complete songs, do real-time processing, and just about anything else a rhythm composer ought to do with less trouble and precision.

This rhythm composer was among the first programmable drum machines in the market, the ‘TR’ standing for Transistor Rhythm. Roland Corporation released the TR-808 in the year 1980, with the main intention of it to be used as a tool by studio musicians to create demos. Like all its predecessors, the Roland TR-808 doesn’t really sound like a real drum kit.

This machine that uses analog synthesis to generate sounds generates sounds with a very pure and thin quality and which is not scruffy as the sounds produced by the TR-909. It is because of this that the TR-808 is now a signature beatbox mostly used in R&B and hip-hop and in many dance and techno music. That irritating cowbell sound popularized in the 80s, crispy snares, and booming bass kicks are all unique to the 808.

The 16 drum sound include the popular boomy low kick, low/mid/hi toms, snappy snares, low/mid/hi congas, hand clap, claves, rimshot, maracas, open hihat, closed hihat, cymbal, cowbell, and accent. All this sounds can be tuned and/or edited and each has individual outputs. Sadly though, the Roland TR-808 isn’t MIDI-equipped but it uses Roland’s DIN Sync clock interface to allow synchronization with other Midi-enabled equipment. There are also analog clock-outputs that enable the slaving of other devices.

The Roland TR-808 was and is still so famous and a favorite to many lovers of music throughout the world that even though it predated the MIDI control interface technology, several third-party manufactures offered MIDI-retrofit kits to it years later. The TR-808 was actually an upgraded version of the Roland CR-78 drum machine, which featured 18 sounds and greater controls to allow the user to be able to control visions in waves in real time – tone shaping controls for the most vital sounds and volume knobs for each sound’s level.

The memory capacity used to store patterns was significantly increased creating 16 pattern locations, which could further be chained together to produce tracks, where a further 22 tracks could be stored within the unit’s memory. The unit’s memory, which was maintained by 3 DD batteries, was very volatile.

In a nutshell, the TR-808 was a great drum machine in its time, perhaps due to the fact that it doesn’t sound like real drums. It faced stiff competition and challenge from machines such as the Linn Drum, but it has stood the test of time thanks to its analog appeal and unique sound which have secured it a very long-lasting abode in several forms of music today.