The Roland TR-808: the drum machine that revolutionised music

Re:The Roland TR-808: the drum machine that revolutionised m... by bane on Tuesday May 12, 2015 @07:24PM (#9535666)

The 808 has such a dominant sound in a mix that it almost ends up dictating the rest of the mix and sets such a powerful mood - it's no wonder that it formed the backbone of so many different dance genres. I always preferred the sound of the 909 growing up, but as I get older the 808 continues to stay relevant as a sound even after the 909 has started to sound a little stale. To this day I mentally catalog drum machines as "808-ish" or "909-ish".

The definitive 808 track for me has always been Polygon Window by The Dice Man off of the still absolutely amazing first Artificial Intelligence compilation album, one of the defining electronic music albums ever put together.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVp6NH59d3M

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Re:The Roland TR-808: the drum machine that revolutionised m... by cdcarter on Tuesday May 12, 2015 @09:08PM (#9536087)

Can you share a strong example track of the 909 sound? I don't know the difference at all, so I'd love to hear!

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Re:The Roland TR-808: the drum machine that revolutionised m... by louthy on Tuesday May 12, 2015 @09:23PM (#9536154)

Mr Fingers - Can You Feel It

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHwyzz2LMWA

Laurent Garnier - Acid Eiffel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdeVX7UjeIk

Dave Clark - Thunder (This uses very extreme compression on the 909)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMxGHEpdyCs

All three tracks also use the Roland TB-303 Bass Line synth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_TB-303

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Re:The Roland TR-808: the drum machine that revolutionised m... by siquick on Wednesday May 13, 2015 @01:41AM (#9536988)

Acid Eiffel is the great techno track of all time IMO.

CYFI is a Juno 2, no 303 in there.

http://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/video-archive/lectures/la...

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Re:The Roland TR-808: the drum machine that revolutionised m... by louthy on Wednesday May 13, 2015 @12:09PM (#9539977)

Of course, sorry I was getting a bit carried away there!

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Re:The Roland TR-808: the drum machine that revolutionised m... by bane on Tuesday May 12, 2015 @09:43PM (#9536228)

Awesome examples.

And to fill it all in, some classic 303 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0f7cylz6tl4

With a couple 303s, and 808 and a 909 (and a sparse set of effects), you can produce a big part of late 90s, early 2000s EDM.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5IQm6ke18Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1X4rl8m3ng

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Re:The Roland TR-808: the drum machine that revolutionised m... by nitrogen on Wednesday May 13, 2015 @04:06AM (#9537460)

I didn't have access to much electronic music as a kid, but I did sneak onto BBSes a ton and discovered the Amiga/PC music scene. My favorite 303-using track was called "mach28v2.1a_remix". I can't find it on Youtube, but it's the track that's in this screenshot of the old CastleX Modplug Plugin: http://www.modplug.com/images/modview.gif

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Re:The Roland TR-808: the drum machine that revolutionised m... by bane on Wednesday May 13, 2015 @07:42AM (#9538174)

Here ya go ;)

http://modarchive.org/index.php?request=view_by_moduleid&que...

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Re:The Roland TR-808: the drum machine that revolutionised m... by meej on Tuesday May 12, 2015 @11:53PM (#9536648)

909 Back Up, by The Weathermen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDAcHA67OIs

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Re:The Roland TR-808: the drum machine that revolutionised m... by S_A_P on Tuesday May 12, 2015 @09:47PM (#9536247)

Great track. For me the best 808 bass track has to be hold it now hit it on licensed to ill. It's not obscure or cool to think this but it's just a monster beat. Having seen the beastie boys perform this live adds some bias for me though.

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Re:The Roland TR-808: the drum machine that revolutionised m... by spopejoy on Tuesday May 12, 2015 @10:51PM (#9536458)

Reminds me of the Aphex Twin "selected ambient recordings 1", was he rocking an 808? Hihats sound the same ...

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Re:The Roland TR-808: the drum machine that revolutionised m... by waterlesscloud on Tuesday May 12, 2015 @11:03PM (#9536489)

If it helps, "The Dice Man" is really Aphex Twin. He later used "Polygon Window" as another alias for a couple albums.

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Re:The Roland TR-808: the drum machine that revolutionised m... by JonnieCache on Wednesday May 13, 2015 @04:51AM (#9537608)

The accepted wisdom is that the drums on that record come from whatever crappy rompler he had to hand. The sounds may actually be 808 samples.

The important bit of gear on that record is the 4 track tape deck and the alesis reverb, which is what turns everything into that haze of cybernetic bliss.

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Re:The Roland TR-808: the drum machine that revolutionised m... by bane on Tuesday May 12, 2015 @11:02PM (#9536485)

If it's the same as https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw5AiRVqfqk

then I believe so.

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