808 drum machine clone test from Danjel van Tijn on Vimeo.
There’s no drum machine like the Roland TR-808. It has kick that goes from a sharp click to boom and snares and hats that sound like chrome lightning. Since Roland never released the 808 and used prices are up and up it’s no wonder clones are arriving. We already have the Miami from Acidlab and as you can see above the MB808 from intellijel could be coming our way. I say yay.
More info: intellijel.com
This entry was written by , posted on July 1, 2009 at 5:33 am, filed under hardware and tagged 808, acidlab, clone, intellijel, Miami, roland, Roland TR-808. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
I just released a new EP on my label called Diagnosis Terminal with Miro Pajic. One of the songs “IO” has a heavy swing to it. It’s a very easy two step process to implement Swing in 
Ableton Live. Swing is of course popular in Jazz and is one of the main stylistic points in modern “Minimal” techno.
To hear it work let’s create a test clip. I put and instance of Impulse with a Roland TR-808 kit on a track. I double clicked an empty Clip Slot to create an empty Clip. Then in the Midi Note Editor I laid down a 4/4 kick, Snare on the 2 and 4 and a 16th note closed Hi Hat.
On the top left side of the Ableton interface, to the left of the metronome “dots” you will see a number 0. That number represents the Global Groove Control parameter. Click and drag that number upwards to about 55.
Lastly, back down to the the Clip View and under the Groove drop down menu choose “Swing 16″ which matches the 16th closed Hi Hats you have placed in your clip. Now listen to the loop with the Groove Control parameter at 0 and then at 55:
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If your working with a pattern that is mostly 8th notes set the Swing to “Swing 8″. This is the classic rock swing preset you hear on vintage drum machines.
Be sure to check out the swing parameters in plug-ins like D16′s Nepheton or Audiorealism‘s ADM as they both Swing in a awesome aggressive nature. For MPC timings and unique Groove Control patterns try out Propellerhead’s Reason 4 ReGroove Mixer.
Do you like to swing?
This entry was written by , posted on February 18, 2008 at 10:16 am, filed under Ableton Live, song writing, sounds and tagged Ableton Live, Audiorealism, Nepheton, Reason, Roland TR-808, swing. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
There are many reasons why I am in love with this video: clear plastic, chrome spheres, multi-color LEDs, laser scanner and Roland TR-808 sounds. I am really happy things like this and other unique sequencers such as the Monome and Tenori-on are being produced. I’m on the verge of either building one myself of buying one.
A tangible rhythm sequencer. Ball bearings are used to trigger drum sounds. Visual feedback is displayed from underneath to indicate the current time and the state of each ball bearing.
Do you want one too?
Peter Bennetts website: click here
via Matrixsynth
This entry was written by , posted on January 14, 2008 at 2:29 am, filed under hardware, live performance and tagged drum machine, hardware, Monome, Roland TR-808, sequencer, Tenori-on. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
The Roland TR-808 is my favorite drum machine. To hear a real one in action check out 
songs like Jam on It by Newcleas, Shallow Then Halo by the Cocteau Twins or Sexual Healing by Marvin Gaye.
On eBay they usually go for well over $1000 USD so not everyone can afford one. Even if you do own one sometimes using samples is just more convenient. A big tip off to seasoned listeners that your faking it is the Hi Hat sound of most samples. Here is a trick that John Selway showed me on how to make Roland TR-808 samples sound more real.
I’m going to use Ableton Live’s built-in Auto Filter but any filter plug-in should work. This is a very simple trick but once you hear it “fix” the sound you may use it often. I am trying to get rid of it that symbalance, feathery, super high digital sound and replace it with something more metallic and clear. Check out the original untreated samples in action here:
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Make sure your Hi Hats are on a separate audio channel and add Auto Filter as an insert. Grab the fluorescent yellow dot inside the automation display and drag it about a centimeter to the left and a half centimeter upwards. The kHz should read about 7.01 and the Q about 1.60. Take a listen to the Hi Hats now:
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Now take a listen to what these improved Hi Hats sound like in action. Here they are in a song called Body to Body off my new album Attack Decay: click here
Here are a few places you can find Roland TR-808 samples online. Keep in mind that Roland TR-808′s sound different from each other, have lots of tuning settings and can be recorded many different ways. The kb6 set is free, the Gold Baby set was recorded to tape and my personal favorite is the Wizoo set.
If you know of any good TR-808 sample sets online let me know in the comments.
This entry was written by , posted on December 28, 2007 at 9:03 am, filed under plug-ins, sounds and tagged drum machine, filter, Roland TR-808, samples, sounds. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
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