About Me
Introduced in late 1980, the Roland TR-808 was one of the first programmable drum machines. ("TR" stands for "Transistor Rhythm"). Roland originally intended the TR-808 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 came out a few months after the Linn LM-1 (the first drum machine to use digital samples), people generally considered its sound inferior to sampling drum machines; a 1982 Keyboard Magazine review of the Linn Drum indirectly referred to the TR-808 as sounding like "marching anteaters". However, the TR-808 had a significant advantage over the LM-1 in that its $1,000 pricetag was much more favorable to musicians (compared to the LM-1, which was priced at almost $5,000).
One of the earliest uses of the TR-808 for a live performance was by Yellow Magic Orchestra in December 1980, in the song "1000 Knives", composed by Ryuichi Sakamoto in 1978. The "Hand Clap" sound was later publicized by YMO's innovative album BGM released in March 1981 in Japan, used on "1000 Knives" as well as in another of Sakamoto's songs, "Music Plans".
The TR-808 was an important step forward from Roland's previous CR-78 drum machine; although both have developed a dedicated following, the sound of the TR-808 is generally considered to be more powerful and have more "punch." The TR-808 also featured more sounds (sixteen in total) and better controls to allow the user to control the sounds in real time: volume knobs for the level of each sound, and tone-shaping controls for the more important sounds. The memory capacity for storing patterns was increased substantially: 32 pattern locations were available, and furthermore, these could be "chained" together to produce "songs", 12 of which could also be stored in memory. The memory was non-volatile (maintained by three AA batteries). The programming interface was hugely improved: a row of 16 buttons allowed the user to employ a very intuitive "step programming" methodthe pattern is divided up into 16 steps, and, and the buttons and LEDs indicate whether a drum sound plays on each step. The unit also feature Roland's new "DIN-Sync" clock interface for synchronization with other equipment, plus various analogue clock-outputs for slaving other devices. The TR-808 predated the invention of the MIDI interface, however such is the TR-808's enduring popularity that several third-party manufacturers provided MIDI-retrofit kits for it over the years.
It was only in the mid-to-late 1980s, years after the TR-808 was discontinued, that its sound became popular. One factor leading to its popularity was its kick drum sound, which could produce a very deep sub-bass. By the end of the 1980s, the TR-808 was very popular within electronic music and Hip-Hop genres. As with many analogue electronic musical instruments, a great deal of effort has been put into sampling the sounds of the TR-808 for use in modern devices; however, due to the nature of analogue circuitry, the result is rarely sufficient and can sound overly "static" and "digital." The desire is such for the "real" 808 sound that street prices for a used TR-808 are nearly as high as the cost of a new TR-808 upon its initial release in 1980.
The TR-808 also was the inspiration for the name of the British electronic outfit 808 State. The sounds of the TR-808 were and still are very often used in Hip-Hop, R&B, House, Electro and many forms of electronic dance music. On the track Super Disco Breakin' off their Hello Nasty album, the Beastie Boys quip: "Nothing sounds quite like an 808".
