You may not know the 808 drum machine, but you have definitely heard it: the original Roland TR-808 was the first programmable drum machine and has been a mainstay of ...

Yeah, we love to tweak our knobs and faders aight, so this project by Andy Huntington caught our eyes — it's a drum machine whose sounds are programmable by actual physical manipulation of several ...

This sequencer, called Drumssette, uses audio tape to churn out some beats. [Mike Walters] built this around a Tascam four track cassette recorder. The tape inside has a different drum sound on each ...

The TR-808 is the Fender Stratocaster of electronic music. The programmable drum machine was heavily used by pioneers like Afrika Bambaataa, the Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, and Derrick May, and its ...

Boston DJ/producer/drum machine connoisseur Joe Mansfield owns nearly 150 beat boxes but he still hasn’t landed his Holy Grail collectible: The ComputeRhythm. Joe Mansfield “You could store your beats ...

All Hail the Beat, directed by Nelson George, is a three-minute celebration of the Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer, which has inspired countless musicians since it was discontinued in 1984. From Kanye ...

A step change for live performance and practice sessions? When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. If you want to really take the creative ...

This was the first programmable drum machine in history, first produced in 1975. Although it was eventually replaced by the Linn LM-1, and has since become something of a rarity, early adapters like ...

The English are a curious lot and among their many curiosities is a tendency to overthink and overanalyze various musical trends. Like the fabled trainspotters who camp out in railway stations ...

For many, drum machines are encapsulated by the big, booming sound of an 808 kick drum or the snappy whipcrack of a 909 snare. Resurrected by hip-hop and dance musicians, those classics reshaped our ...

NAMM 2025: Billed as “the first fully programmable drum machine in guitar pedal form,” Polyend’s Step is the beatmaking box that you can control with your feet. If you want to really take the creative ...