What's your favorite vintage drum machine?

[Careless Memories]

This ons stands out, the Roland TR-606:

I agree. I bought my TR-606 new along with a TB-303 bassline. Although programming songs on the TR-606 was a nightmare, it still sounded great. It was the perfect drum machine for me at the time because I was heavily into Soft Cell and the first two Depeche Mode records.

I then bought an E-mu Drumulator. While it was far more powerful than the TR-606, I didn't really dig it's fake-sounding, super lo-fi "acoustic" drum samples. So I bought an EPROM expander from of all companies, DidiDesign, who got their start making upgrades to units like the Drumulator WAY before Pro Tools.

My particular EPROM included a bunch of Simmons-like drums which I loved. I never used the stock Drumulator sounds after that.

[ThunderingMantis]

I can't comment on playability / usability because I haven't physically touched most of the classic vintage drum machines.

But if we're talking purely the sounds, the CR-78 is my choice. The sounds just seem to gel well with everything!

I am a big fan of the TR-606 as well even though it doesn't have many sounds

[stoopicus]

909. No contest.

100% 909. Greatly prefer drum synths over ROMplers. We had a 505 at the time ('88) and would have traded it plus cash instantly for a 909, could we have found one.

[thecontrolcentre]

I loved the TR-707 & TR-606 I managed to borrow in the early 90's ... could never afford to buy them back then. I have a load of 4-track cassette, high speed dbx recordings to sample, but (currently) no 4-track to play them. I have an Analog RYTM these days

[_leras]

After a long hard think about this, I think my favourite vintage drum machine is Battery 3.

In terms of old drum machine sounded I think the 909 was most widely used in music i have liked, but I think the 606 also got championed by french house quite a lot.

My favourite drums sounds come from the DMX, it's just Fat! But maybe doesn't work for everything.

I think overall drum machines are a bit overrated for pure sound. Drum sample packs of course are based on these machines to an extent, but have been processed and taken way past what these machines can do raw - for a very long time.

And of course breaks and other samples are at least as important across dance and electronic music.

I've never owned a vintage drum machine. I regret parting with a vermona vrm, but no regrets over letting a korg er-1 go.

My favourite drum interface for programming outside a daw, was on an mc 505, easy to program and edit kits, but the best part was 8 mute buttons for each of the 8 groups you could put parts into making it great for jamming.

[pdxindy]

I'm not a fan or the vintage drum machines... some sound great, but they are not very flexible.

The Elektron Analog Rytm is for me, the best drum machine ever made. It's freakin amazing! That's why I have 2 of them

[foosnark]

I haven't owned any of the good ones -- I had a Yamaha RX-17 which was crap.

I do like the sounds of the CR-78, 606, 808, 909.

The Alesis HR-16 got used in a ton of pretty great music (and a ton of pretty terrible music too).

[stoopicus]

Kind of amazed no one has mentioned the Linn yet

Not my favorite as I greatly prefer synthesized over sampled.

The Alesis HR-16 got used in a ton of pretty great music (and a ton of pretty terrible music too).

And their slightly later SR-16 as well, used on tons of albums and is the best selling drum machine of all time. It's *still for sale*, which is what, a 33 year sales run so far?

And it's also the most cloned drum machine of all time. I have owned one of its clones (Zoom RT-223), and there are many many others.

Still, meh, ROMpler.

[egbert101]

Just learned recently (yesterday actually) how influential the Kawai R-50 was for industrial music. Must be pretty obscure because I've never heard of it.

[stoopicus]

Interesting. Sounds like many of the Wax Trax bands used them, or more likely the R-100, most notably Front 242, Ministry, and so on. I didn't know about this one either.

Apparently it was Adrian Sherwood's thing and so a lot of the albums he produced had them. I knew there was a reason the drums on Ministry's Twitch and Cabaret Voltaire's Code always sounded the same to me. Then again there was also a lot of use of the Oberheim DMX around then too.

It sounds like Kawai went for a TR-505 clone and ended up with something much better.

Looks like I can get them incredibly cheaply here (like $50 US) in ok condition. Almost tempting to buy, rip the original samples, and resell.

[stoopicus]

Just learned recently (yesterday actually) how influential the Kawai R-50 was for industrial music. Must be pretty obscure because I've never heard of it.

Just found a Gearspace thread with fantastic info where someone even uploaded samples. Here you go

https://gearspace.com/board/electronic- ... mples.html

[Uncle E]

Just learned recently (yesterday actually) how influential the Kawai R-50 was for industrial music. Must be pretty obscure because I've never heard of it.

I always thought Ministry used an HR-16 or 16B on Psalm 69. Never read it anywhere but the kicks sound like it.

[stoopicus]

A lot of the early ROMpler samples sound pretty similar. Additionally, few of the bands from that era used just one drum machine. I think Sisters of Mercy has used most of them at one time or another - Doktor Avalanche has multiple personalities