| Drum Machine or drum set is an electronic musical | | | | as a kit with parts and instructions which the buyer |
| instrument designed to simulate the sound of a | | | | would use to build the machine. |
| percussion instrument like a drum. | | | | In 1978, the Roland CR-78 drum machine was |
| The original drum machines were referred to as | | | | released. It was one of the first programmable drum |
| rhythm machines because they only played | | | | set, and had four memory locations which allowed |
| preprogrammed rhythms such as mambo, tango and | | | | users to store their own patterns. The following year, |
| others. Drum sets are typically programmed by | | | | Roland offered the Boss DR-55. It was the first fully |
| specifying which sixteenth notes of a bar a given drum | | | | programmable drum machine. |
| will sound on. | | | | Many musicians say that the real breakthrough was |
| By stringing differently programmed bars together, fills, | | | | engineer Roger Linna LM1 of 1979, manufactured and |
| breaks, rhythmic changes, and longer phrases can be | | | | distributed by his company, Linn Electronics. |
| created. Drum machine controls typically include | | | | Discussion on Programmable Drum set |
| Tempo, Start and Stop, volume control of individual | | | | Drum machines can either be programmed in real time |
| sounds, keys to trigger individual drum sounds, and | | | | or in step time, where the user specifies the precise |
| storage locations for a number of different rhythms. | | | | moment in time on which a note will sound. |
| Most drum machines can also be controlled via MIDI. | | | | By stringing differently-programmed bars together, fills, |
| A brief history of programmable drum machine | | | | breaks, rhythmic changes, and longer phrases can be |
| For more than a hundred years, mechanical devices | | | | created. Most drum machines can also be controlled |
| have been used to help musicians keep the beat while | | | | via MIDI. If the drum machine has MIDI connectivity, then |
| practicing, but these had never been intended for | | | | one could program the drum machine with a computer |
| performances. | | | | or another MIDI device. |
| In the 1960s, makers of home electronic organs began | | | | By the year 2000, standalone drum machines became |
| introducing the first drum machines, intended mainly to | | | | much less common, being partly supplanted by |
| liven up home playing or to provide small bands of | | | | general-purpose hardware samplers controlled by |
| limited means a substitute for a live drummer. These | | | | built-in or external sequencers, software-based |
| early drum machines offered a narrow range of | | | | sequencing and sampling and the use of loops, and |
| pre-set percussion sounds and generally did not sound | | | | music workstations with integrated sequencing and |
| much like real instruments. | | | | drum sounds. |
| The technology of digital electronic music took a new | | | | A drum kit consists of 13 pads x 3 banks equalling 39 |
| turn in the late 1970s, when the first programmable | | | | sounds per kit. Sound sources can be freely selected |
| drum machines became available. The first stand-alone | | | | and assigned to the pads. Fine-tune parameters such |
| drum machine, the PAiA Programmable Drum Set, also | | | | as pitch, level, and panning to create original drum kits. |
| happened to be the very first programmable drum | | | | A large number of phrase variations including intro, fill-in, |
| machine. It was first introduced in 1975 and was sold | | | | and ending patterns are also provided. |