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Models

9 models

  • Yamaha RX11

    Yamaha's answer to the LinnDrum

    Drum machine · Japan

    The RX11 sampled acoustic drums at twelve bits with individual outputs and MIDI, and its dry, clean voices sit under a great deal of mid-1980s pop that wanted the Linn sound without the Linn.

  • Roland TR-505

    Cheap sampled drums with a real sequencer

    Drum machine · Japan

    The 505 put PCM samples and the TR sequencer into a plastic box at a price that made it a first drum machine for a generation, and it turns up on more early house and hip-hop demos than its reputation suggests.

  • Boss DR-55 Dr. Rhythm

    A programmable drum machine the size of a paperback

    Drum machine · Japan

    The DR-55 had four analogue voices and a sixteen-step grid programmed one instrument at a time, ran on a nine-volt battery, and cost almost nothing. For many players in 1980 it was the first machine they could actually program.

  • Yamaha RX5

    Sampled drums a programmer could reshape

    Drum machine · Japan

    The RX5 gave each voice envelope, pitch, and filter editing plus cartridge expansion, which made it less a box of drums than a small percussion synthesizer.

  • Korg DDD-1

    Sampled drums with cartridge expansion

    Drum machine · Japan

    The DDD-1 combined sampled voices with ROM cartridges that added more, plus per-voice outputs and tuning — a machine built for a studio that wanted to change its drum sounds without changing machines.

  • Roland TR-626

    The 505's larger successor

    Drum machine · Japan

    The 626 widened the 505's sample set to thirty voices with Latin percussion included, and kept the same step-and-tap sequencer. It became a staple of home studios in the late 1980s.

  • Casio RZ-1

    A cheap machine that could sample

    Drum machine · Japan

    The RZ-1 offered four seconds of sampling alongside its stock voices at a consumer price, which made user-sampled drums reachable years before that was normal.

  • Boss DR-110 Dr. Rhythm Graphic

    The last of the analogue Dr. Rhythms

    Drum machine · Japan

    The DR-110 added an LCD grid that showed the pattern as you wrote it — the first drum machine many people saw their rhythm on — and was the last Boss box with analogue voices before samples took over.

  • Roland R-8 Human Rhythm Composer

    Feel parameters on every hit

    Drum machine · Japan

    The R-8 let a programmer set nuance, velocity, decay, and tuning per step, and shipped a "human feel" function that varied them deliberately — an early, explicit attempt to answer the complaint that machines do not breathe.