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from the a-feature-is-something-that-is-broken-in-a-useful-way dept.
That headline sounds suspect, but it is the most succinct way to explain why the Roland TR-808 drum machine has a very distinct, and difficult to replicate noise circuit. The drum machine was borne of a hack. As the Secret Life of Synthesizers explains, it was a rejected part picked up and characterized by Roland which delivers this unique auditory thumbprint.
Pictured above is the 2SC828-R, and you can still get this part. But it won't function the same as the parts found in the original 808. The little dab of paint on the top of the transistor indicates that it was a very special subset of those rejected parts (the 2SC828-RNZ). A big batch of rejects were sold to Roland back in the 1970's — which they then thinned out in a mysterious testing process. What was left went into the noise circuit that gave the 808 its magical sizzle. When the parts ran out, production ended as newer processes didn't produce the same superbly flawed parts.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 14 2018, @04:38PM (1 child)
Drum machines sound like shit anyway.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Friday September 14 2018, @07:17PM
Everyone has their opinion, but it's not really accurate to make a sweeping generalization. Most drum machines were synthesized sounds, and sometimes people want that sound. I used to work with (run sound for) a drummer who had a hybrid kit- real + drum machine with triggers and he would use the sound he wanted at that time.
Some older machines, and more and more newer drum machines have recorded (sampled) real drum sounds, and they're getting better and better.