For the Windows drumming program, see Drum Machine (software)

For the early "drum machine" computers that used a rotating cylinder as their main memory, see drum memory

A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument designed to imitate the sound of drums and/or other percussion instruments. Drum Machine is a Windows Freeware application developed by Andrew Rudson that lets users play a virtual drumset on their computer using a drum controller Drum memory is a magnetic Data storage device and was an early form of Computer memory widely used in the 1950s and into the 1960s invented by Gustav Tauschek An electronic musical instrument is a Musical instrument that produces its sounds using Electronics. Sound' is Vibration transmitted through a Solid, Liquid, or Gas; particularly sound means those vibrations composed of Frequencies A drum kit (also drum set or trap set) is a collection of Drums Cymbals and sometimes other Percussion instruments such as cowbells Drum machines are very useful instruments for a wide variety of musical genres, not just purely electronic music. Electronic music is music that employs Electronic musical instruments and Electronic Music technology in its production They are also a common necessity when session drummers are not available or desired. Session musicians are musicians available for hire as opposed to musicians who are either permanent members of a musical outfit or who have acquired fame in their own right

Most modern drum machines are sequencers with a sample playback (rompler) or synthesizer component that specializes in the reproduction of drum timbres as well as the sound of other traditional percussion instruments. A music sequencer (also MIDI sequencer or just sequencer) is software or hardware designed to create and manage computer-generated music Rompler is a nickname for an Electronic musical instrument that specializes in the playback of samples stored in ROM chips In Music, timbre (ˈtæm-bər' like timber, or, from Fr timbre tɛ̃bʁ is the quality of a Musical note or sound that distinguishes different Though features vary from model to model, many modern drum machines can also produce unique sounds (though usually percussive in nature), and allow the user to compose unique drum beats. Rhythm (from Greek ῥυθμός - rhythmos, "any measured flow or movement symmetry" is the variation of the length and accentuation of

Contents 1 History 1.1 Early drum machines 1.2 Drum sound synthesis 1.3 Programmable drum machines 1.4 Digital sampling 1.5 Roland 808 and 909 machines 1.6 MIDI breakthrough 2 See also 3 References 4 External Links

History

Early drum machines

Early drum machines were often referred to as "rhythm machines. Joseph Schillinger ( August 31, 1895 &ndash March 23, 1943) was a composer music theorist and composition teacher Rhythm (from Greek ῥυθμός - rhythmos, "any measured flow or movement symmetry" is the variation of the length and accentuation of " In 1930–31, the spectacularly innovative and complex Rhythmicon was realized by Léon Theremin on the commission of composer-theorist Henry Cowell, who wanted an instrument with which to play compositions whose multiple rhythmic patterns, based on the overtone series, were far too difficult to perform on existing keyboard instruments. The Rhythmicon —also known as the Polyrhythmophone —was the world's first electronic Drum machine (or "rhythm machine" the original term for devices of Léon Theremin (born Lev Sergeyevich Termen, Лев Сергеевич Термен ( August 15 1896 Julian calendar = 1896-08-27 Henry Cowell ( March 11, 1897 – December 10, 1965) was an American Composer, musical theorist, Pianist A rhythmic unit is a Durational pattern which occupies a period of time equivalent to a pulse or pulses on an underlying Metric level, as opposed to a See Harmonic series (mathematics for the (related mathematical concept The invention could produce sixteen different rhythms, each associated with a particular pitch, either individually or in any combination, including en masse, if desired. Pitch represents the perceived Fundamental frequency of a sound Received with considerable interest when it was publicly introduced in 1932, the Rhythmicon was soon set aside by Cowell and was virtually forgotten for decades. The next generation of rhythm machines played only preprogrammed rhythms such as mambo, tango, or the like. Mambo is a Cuban musical form and Dance style The word mambo (which means conversation with the gods) is the name of a priestess in Haitian Tango is a Musical genre and its associated dance forms that originated in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Montevideo, Uruguay and

1947 Californian Harry Chamberlin constructed tape loop basing drum machine called Chamberlin Rhythmate. It has 14 tape loops with a sliding head that allows to play different tracks on each piece of tape, or a blending in between of them. It contains a volume and a pitch/speed control and also has a separate amplifier with bass, treble, and volume controls and an input jack for a guitar, microphone or other instrument. The tape loops are of real acoustic jazz drum kits playing different style beats with some additives to tracks such as bongos, clave, castanets, etc.

1959 Wurlitzer released electro-mechanical drum machine called Sideman, which was the first ever commercially-produced drum machine. The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to simply as Wurlitzer, is an American company formerly a producer of stringed instruments woodwind brass instruments The Sideman was intended as a percussive accompaniment for the Wurlitzers organ range. The Sideman allowed a choice of 12 electronically generated predefined rhythm patterns with variable tempos. The sound source was a series of vacuum tubes which created 10 preset electronic drum sounds. The drum sounds were 'sequenced' by a set of rotating discs with metal contacts on the edge spaced in a certain pattern to generate parts of a particular rhythm. combinations of these different sets of rhythms and drum sounds created popular rhythmic patterns of the day -waltzes, fox trot etc. , these combinations were selected by a rotary knob on the top of the Sideman box. The tempo of the patterns were controlled by a slider that increased the speed of rotation of the disc. The sideman had a panel of 10 buttons to manually trigger drum sounds and a remote player to control the machine while playing from an organ keyboard. The Sideman was housed in a wooden cabinet that housed the sound generating circuitry, amplifier and speaker.

In 1960 Raymond Scott constructed Rhythm Synthesizer and in 1963 a drum machine called Bandito the Bongo Artist. Raymond Scott (born Harry Warnow, 10 September 1908 &mdash 8 February 1994) was an American composer band leader pianist engineer Scott's machines were used for recording his infamous "Soothing Sounds for Baby" series (1964). Soothing Sounds for Baby is a three-volume set of ambient Electronic music by American composer musician and inventor Raymond Scott.

The first commercially available rhythm machines were usually included in organs in the late 1960s, and were intended to accompany the organist. The first successful drum machine was the Rhythm Ace. It was produced by a company then called Ace Tone (later called Roland). is a Japanese manufacturer of Electronic musical instruments electronic equipment and Software. In 1964 it developed the Ace Electronics R1 Rhythm Ace. The R1 was possibly the world's first fully transistorised rhythm machine but, despite interest and sample orders from American manufacturers, it didn't get any wider success. The machine produced sounds when you pressed buttons, much like today's drum pads, but it offered no pre-programmed patterns. FR1 Rhythm Ace appeared in 1967. The positive response was immediate, and the FR1 was adopted by the Hammond Organ Company for incorporation within its latest line of organs. The Rhythm Ace was a preset-only unit; it was not possible for the user to alter or modify the pre-programmed rhythms. A number of other preset drum machines were later released in the 1970s. The first major pop song to use a drum machine was a cover version of Sly & the Family Stone's "Somebody's Watching You" recorded by Little Sister. Sly & the Family Stone is an American funk, soul and rock band from San Francisco California. Little Sister was an American all- Female Vocal Harmony group which served primarily as the background vocalists for the influential rock The song, produced and composed by Sly Stone, entered the R&B charts in 1971. Sly Stone (born Sylvester Stewart on 15 March 1943, in Denton, Texas) is an American Musician, Songwriter Drum machine tracks were also heavily used on the Sly & the Family Stone album There's a Riot Goin' On, released the same year. The German krautrock band Can also used a drum machine on their album Tago Mago(1971), especially in the song "Peking O". Krautrock is a generic name for the Experimental music scene that appeared in Germany in the late 1960s and gained popularity throughout the 1970s especially in Britain Can was a musical group formed in West Germany in 1968 One of the most important Krautrock groups Can had a style grounded in the Experimental rock of Tago Mago is the second Studio album by the German Experimental rock band Can, and was originally released as a Double LP in 1971 The first album in which a drum machine produced all the percussion was Arthur Brown/Kingdom Come's Journey, recorded in November 1972 using a Bentley Rhythm Ace. Arthur Brown (born Arthur Wilton 24 June 1942, Whitby, Yorkshire) is an English Rock and roll Singer

Drum sound synthesis

A key difference between such early machines and more modern equipment is that they used analog sound synthesis rather than digital sampling in order to generate their sounds. An analog or analogue signal is any continuous signal for which the time varying feature (variable of the signal is a representation of some other A digital system uses discrete (discontinuous values usually but not always Symbolized Numerically (hence called "digital" to represent information for In Music, sampling is the act of taking a portion or sample, of one Sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or element of a new recording For example, a snare drum or maraca sound would typically be created using a burst of white noise whereas a bass drum sound would be made using sine waves or other basic waveforms. The snare drum is a Drum with strands of snares made of curled metal wire metal cable plastic cable or gut cords stretched across the a drumhead typically Maraca is also a genus of Tarantula. Maracas ( sometimes called rumba White noise is a random signal (or process with a flat Power spectral density. A bass drum is a large Drum that produces a note of low definite or indefinite pitch. waveformogg|right|a sine square and sawtooth wave at 440 hz]] Waveform means the shape and form of a signal such as a Wave moving in a solid liquid or gaseous This meant that while the resulting sound was not very close to that of the real instrument, each model tended to have a unique character. For this reason, many of these early machines have achieved a certain "cult status" and are now sought after by DJs and producers for use in production of modern electronic music. A disc jockey (also known as DJ or deejay) is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience In the Music industry, a record producer or music producer has many roles among them controlling the recording sessions coaching and guiding the musicians organizing Electronic music is music that employs Electronic musical instruments and Electronic Music technology in its production

Programmable drum machines

The first stand-alone drum machine, the PAiA Programmable Drum Set, also happened to be the very first programmable drum machine. PAiA Electronics Inc is an American Synthesizer kit company that was started by John Simonton in 1967. It was first introduced in 1975^[1], and was sold as a kit with parts and instructions which the buyer would use to build the machine. Year 1975 ( MCMLXXV) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.

In 1978, the Roland CR-78 drum machine was released. The Roland CompuRhythm CR-78 is a Drum machine launched in 1978 It was one of the first programmable rhythm machines, and had four memory locations which allowed users to store their own patterns. The following year, Roland offered the Boss DR-55. It was the first fully programmable drum machine for under $200. The DR-55 had four sounds, and enough memory for only 16 rhythms. Hardly passable by modern standards, but in its time, the DR-55 was a relatively affordable breakthrough.

Digital sampling

The Linn LM-1 Drum Computer (released in 1980 and pricey at $4,999) was the first drum machine to use digital samples. The LM-1 Drum Computer, manufactured by Linn Electronics Inc, was the first Drum machine to utilize Digital Samples of acoustic Drums Only 500 were ever made, but the list of those who owned them was impressive. Its distinct sound almost defines 80s pop, and it can be heard on dozens of hit records from the era, including The Human League's Dare, Gary Numan's Dance, and Ric Ocasek's Beatitude. Gary Numan (born Gary Anthony James Webb on 8 March 1958 is an English singer composer and musician Ric Ocasek (born Richard Otcasek on March 23, 1949, in Baltimore, Maryland) is an American musician Prince bought one of the very first LM-1s and used it on nearly all of his most popular recordings, including 1999 and Purple Rain. Prince Rogers Nelson (born June 7 1958 in Minneapolis, Minnesota) is an American musician

Many of the drum sounds on the LM-1 were composed of two chips that were triggered at the same time, and each voice was individually tunable with individual outputs. Due to memory limitations, a crash cymbal sound was not available except as an expensive third-party modification. A crash cymbal is a type of Cymbal that produces a loud sharp "crash" and is used mainly for occasional accents as opposed to in Ostinato. A cheaper version of the LM-1 was released in 1982 called the LM-2 (or simply LinnDrum). The LinnDrum is a Drum machine manufactured by Linn Electronics. It cost around $3,000 and not all of its voices were tunable, making it less desirable than the original LM-1. The Linndrum included a crash sound as standard, and like its predecessor the LM-1, featured swappable sound chips. The Linndrum can be heard on records such as Men Without Hats' Rhythm of Youth and The Cars' Heartbeat City. Men Without Hats are a pop group from Montreal, Quebec that achieved their greatest popularity in the early to mid 1980s. The Cars were an American rock band that emerged from the early New Wave music scene in the late 1970s

It was feared the LM-1 would put every session drummer in Los Angeles out of work and it caused many of L. A's top session drummers (Jeff Porcaro is one example) to purchase their own drum machines and learn to program them themselves in order to stay employed. Jeffrey Thomas Porcaro ( April 1, 1954 – August 5, 1992) was a highly regarded session drummer and a founding member of the

The 1986 SpecDrum by Cheetah Marketing made drum machines inexpensive by offering a drum machine for £30 when similar cost around £250. SpecDrum was an inexpensive Drum machine, which unlike most standalone drum machines was a Peripheral for the popular Sinclair ZX Spectrum Home computer Cheetah Marketing is a United Kingdom -based company that created hardware peripherals and software for home computer systems during the 1980's ^[2]

Roland 808 and 909 machines

The famous Roland TR-808 was also launched in 1980. The Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer was one of the first programmable Drum machines ("TR" serving as an Initialism for Transistor Rhythm At the time it was regarded with little fanfare, as it did not have digitally sampled sounds; drum machines using digital samples were a good deal more popular. In time though, the TR-808, along with its successor, TR-909 (released in 1983), would soon become a fixture of the burgeoning underground dance, techno, and hip-hop genres, mainly because of its low cost (relative to that of the Linn machines), and the unique character of its analogue-generated sounds. The Roland TR-909 Rhythm Composer is a partially analog, partially sample-based Drum machine built by the Japanese Roland Corporation The TR-808's sound only became truly desirable in the late 1980s, about five years after the model was discontinued. In a somewhat ironic twist, it is the analogue-model Rolands that have endured over time as the Linn sound became somewhat overused and dated by the end of the decade. The 808's and the 909's beats have since been widely featured in pop music, heard on countless recordings up to the present day. Pop music as a genre features a noticeable rhythmic element catchy melodies and hooks, a mainstream style and conventional structure

Programming can be done (depending on the machine) in real time: the user creates drum patterns by pressing the trigger pads as though a drum kit were being played; or using step-sequencing: the pattern is built up over time by adding individual sounds at certain points by placing them, as with the TR-808 and TR-909 along a 16-step bar. A drum kit (also drum set or trap set) is a collection of Drums Cymbals and sometimes other Percussion instruments such as cowbells For example, a generic 4-on-the-floor dance pattern could be made by placing a closed high hat on the 3rd, 7th, 11th, and 15th steps, then a kick drum on the 1st, 5th, 9th, and 13th steps, and a clap on the 5th and 13th. This pattern could be varied in a multitude of ways to obtain fills, break-downs and other elements that the programmer sees fit, which in turn can be sequenced—essentially the drum machine plays back the programmed patterns from memory in an order the programmer has chosen. In Popular music, a fill is a shortened musical passage Riff, or rhythmic sound which helps to sustain the listener's attention during a break between the phrases In Popular music a break is an Instrumental or percussion section or interlude during a song derived from or related to Stop-time &ndash being The machine will quantize entries that are slightly off-beat in order to make them exact. Time quantization In Digital Music processing technology quantization is the process of aligning a set of musical notes to a precise setting

If the drum machine has MIDI connectivity, then one could program the drum machine with a computer or another MIDI device. MIDI ( Musical Instrument Digital Interface, ˈmɪdi is an industry-standard protocol that enables Electronic musical instruments Computers

MIDI breakthrough

Because these early drum machines came out before the introduction of MIDI in 1983, they used a variety of methods of having their rhythms synchronized to other electronic devices. MIDI ( Musical Instrument Digital Interface, ˈmɪdi is an industry-standard protocol that enables Electronic musical instruments Computers Some used a method of synchronization called DIN-sync, or sync-24. Deutsches Institut für Normung eV ( DIN; in English, the German Institute for Standardization) is the German national organization for Some of these machines also output analog CV/Gate voltages that could be used to synchronize or control analog synthesizers and other music equipment. An analog or analogue signal is any continuous signal for which the time varying feature (variable of the signal is a representation of some other CV/Gate (an abbreviation of Control Voltage/Gate) is a method of controlling Synthesizers Drum machines and other similar equipment with external sequencers

Drum machines can either be programmed in real time (the user hears a metronome and plays beats in time with the metronome) or in step time, where the user specifies the precise moment in time on which a note will sound. By stringing differently-programmed bars together, fills, breaks, rhythmic changes, and longer phrases can be created. Drum machine controls typically include Tempo, Start and Stop, volume control of individual sounds, keys to trigger individual drum sounds, and storage locations for a number of different rhythms. Most drum machines can also be controlled via MIDI. MIDI ( Musical Instrument Digital Interface, ˈmɪdi is an industry-standard protocol that enables Electronic musical instruments Computers

By the year 2000, standalone drum machines became much less common, being partly supplanted by general-purpose hardware samplers controlled by sequencers (built-in or external), software-based sequencing and sampling and the use of loops, and music workstations with integrated sequencing and drum sounds. A music workstation is piece of electronic musical equipment providing the facilities of a Sound module, a Music sequencer TR-808 and other digitized drum machine sounds can be found on archives on the Internet. However, traditional drum machines are still being made by companies such as Roland Corporation (under the name Boss), Zoom, Korg and Alesis, whose SR-16 drum machine has remained popular since it was introduced in 1991. Boss is a manufacturer of Effects pedals for Electric guitar and Bass guitar. Zoom is a Japanese audio company that is distributed in the U is a Japanese Multinational corporation that manufactures electronic Musical instruments and Electronic tuners The company is one of the Alesis is a manufacturer of Electronic musical instruments owned by Numark and based in Cumberland, Rhode Island. The Alesis SR-16 is a popular Drum machine that was originally introduced in 1991 and is still being produced today

There are percussion-specific sound modules that can be triggered by pickups, trigger pads, or through MIDI. A sound module (sometimes referred to as tone generator) is an Electronic musical instrument without a human-playable interface such as a keyboard, for A trigger pad is a sensor on a Drum that produces a certain sound assigned from a Sound module once the head has been struck These are called drum modules; the Alesis D4 and Roland TD-8 are popular examples. An electronic drum is a Percussion instrument in which the sound is generated by an electronic waveform generator or sampler instead of by acoustic vibration Unless such a sound module also features a sequencer, it is, strictly speaking, not a drum machine.

See also

• Electronic drum

References

External Links

• WikiRecording's How to Make Real Drums Sound like an 80s Drum Machine

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