The Roland TR-808, a programmable drum machine, was launched in 1980. The TR-808 included unique artificial percussion sounds, such as “the humkick, the ticky snare, the tishy hi-hats (open and closed) and the spacey cowbell.”[4]
The machine is particularly noted for its powerful booming bass drum sound, built from a combination of a bridged T-network sine oscillator, a low-pass filter, and a voltage-controlled amplifier.[5][6] The bass drum decay control allows the user to lengthen the sound, creating uniquely low frequencies that flatten slightly over long periods,[5] which can be used to create basslines[7] or bass drops.[8] It was the first drum machine with the ability to program an entire percussion track of a song from beginning to end, complete with breaks and rolls.[9] The machine includes volume knobs for each voice, multiple audio outputs, and a DIN sync port (a precursor to MIDI) to synchronize with other devices via the Digital Control Bus (DCB) interface, considered groundbreaking at the time.[10] The machine has three trigger outputs, used to synchronize/control synthesizers and other equipment.[11][10]
Producer Rick Rubin and hip hop group Original Concept popularized the technique of lengthening the bass drum decay and tuning it to different pitches to create basslines.[7] The technique was adopted by Miami bass producers,[7] who also used the 808 to produce a bass drop,[8] which has since been incorporated into a number of hip hop and dance genres, either produced by an 808 or using a sample of an 808 bass drop.[16]The Bomb Squad popularized the use of samplers to manipulate the 808 bass, which became common in hip hop music.[16] Dynamix II popularized this technique in dance music, which has since used the 808 sub-bass extensively, in genres such as trap, deep house and drum and bass.[17] 808 samples were the basis for jungle and drum and bass, which developed from British producers using samplers to manipulate 808 sounds.[16]
The analogue-based Roland machines have endured over time. The beats of the TR-808 have since been widely featured in popular music, and can be heard on countless recordings up to the present day.[4] Because of its bass and long decay, the kick drum from the TR-808 has also featured as a bass line in various genres such as hip hop and drum and bass. Since the mid-1980s, the TR-808 and TR-909 have been used on more hit records than any other drum machines,[18] attaining an iconic status within the music industry.[4]
While the TR-808 was fully analogue synthesis-based, the Roland TR-909 combined analogue synthesis with digitalsampling.[19] The TR-909 was also notable for being the first MIDI-equipped drum machine.[20][21] In turn, the TR-909 was succeeded in 1984 by the Roland TR-707, which was entirely based on digital sampling.[22]
Tadao Kikumoto's invention of the TB-303 in 1981 has been listed by The Guardian in 2011 as one of the 50 key events in the history of dance music, for its key role in the foundation of acid house. The article described it as one of the "first boxes to define the sound of electronic dance music."[25]
^Contemporary Keyboard, Volume 7, Issues 1-6, 1981: "The Roland TR-808 will undoubtedly become the standard for rhythm machines of the future because it does what no rhythm machine of the past has ever done. Not only does the TR-808 allow programming of individual rhythm patterns, it can also program the entire percussion track of a song from beginning to end, complete with breaks, rolls, literally anything you can think of."
^Butler, Mark Jonathan. "Unlocking the Groove: Rhythm, Meter, and Musical Design in Electronic Dance Music". Indiana University Press, 2006. ISBN0-2533-4662-2. p. 64