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TR808.TXT
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TR808.TXT
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=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Michael Fischer ofT E C H N O P O L I S=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Presents...Roland TR-808 Rhythm ComposerSound Sample Set 1.0.0 (09/08/94)The Roland TR-808 (popularly known as the "808") is, perhaps, the mostpopular analogue electronic drum machine of all time. Since its debutin 1982, it has been the drum machine used the most by dance, pop, rap,and rhythm and blues artists to produce the drum rhythm tracks for theirsongs. (The famous cowbell sound at the beginning of Whitney Houston's"I Wanna' Dance with Somebody", or the famous bass drum sound thatvibrates the ground when a car playing loud rap music drives by) Withouta doubt, the Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer is a "classic beat box".In recent years, many electronic musical instrument companies (Rolandand many others...) and studio engineer types have attempted to captureits timeless sound through the use of sampling. This has however,proven to be an often disappointing endeavour, due the the analoguenature of the "808". Because the "808" is a truly "analogue" drummachine, with very many (22 to be exact) knobs for the settings for itsdrum sounds, sampling the unit often yields sample sets which are toodiscrete (i.e. too "static" and too "limited" in variation) and simplydo not do justice to the wide sound range the "808" can produce. As aresult, people still, to this day, are in hot pursuit of real "808"'s,and its U.S. dollar resale value today ($250 - $1,000) is often not toofar off from its U.S. dollar retail price at its introduction more thana decade ago ($1,000).I sincerely believe I have made major progress in narrowing thedifference between owning a real "808" and owning samples of one. Whenput to proper use, these samples can be considered better than using areal "808". Unlike a real "808", with these samples one can have thecertain drum sounds playing simultaneously that cannot do so on a real"808", (Hand Claps and Maracas, for example.) as well as scale thevelocities of the sounds, and even apply grooves and timing to the beatin a manner much more sophisticated and clearly beyond the capabilitiesof a real "808". With the right sampler, these "808" samples can, forall practical purposes, make a real "808" obsolete. I feel these samplesare of higher quality than those found in current commercial drummachines. I feel these "808" samples are of higher quality than anycurrently offered by commercial sample vendors. Quite frankly, I feelthis is the best overall sound sample set of the TR-808 to date. Andbest of all, and very unlike many of the "competiting" samples, thesesamples are ABSOLUTELY FREE!What I have attempted to do is create a high quality sound sample set ofthe "808" that is so comprehensive in sample range, that even the"analogue purist" (the types who are actively pursing real "808"'s stilltoday...) would be satisfied. I have, through very time consuming,painstaking sampling and sample editing work, using professional gradeequipment, sampled the "808" at five (see "FILENAME INFO" near the endof this text file...) uniformly spaced positions for each sound modifierknob. ("LEVEL" being the only exception---as I always kept "LEVEL" atfull to maintain the best signal to noise ratio.) As a result, thisrather comprehensive "808" sound sample set has the following :25 Bass Drum sounds25 Snare Drum sounds5 Low Tom sounds5 Mid Tom sounds5 Hi Tom sounds5 Low Conga sounds5 Mid Conga sounds5 Hi Conga sounds1 Rim Shot sound1 Claves sound1 Hand Clap sound1 Maracas sound1 Cow Bell sound25 Cymbal sounds5 Open Hi Hat sounds1 Closed Hi Hat sound...making for a grand total of 116 sound samples of the Roland TR-808Rhythm Composer!These samples were taken _DIRECTLY_ from a Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer(SERIAL NO. 103852). They are _NOT_ samples of samples (i.e. sampledfrom a recent drum machine, such as the Boss DR-660, Roland R-8,R-8MkII, etc...) In other words, these samples were taken from a REALTR-808. All samples were recorded from the individual sound outputs (Idid NOT use the "HI" or "LO" "LEVEL" "MASTER OUT"puts!). While beingrecorded, each sound (on the TR-808) was at highest volume level (withall other volume levels set to the lowest possible setting), and themaster volume (on the TR-808) was always at the lowest setting. Allsamples were made using SoundEdit 16 1.0.0 on a Macintosh Quadra 660AV.EACH and EVERY sample is at 16-Bit, 44.1kHz resolution and was CAREFULLYgenerated, sampled, selected (I recorded many hits of the samesound, and picked the one that I felt best represented the average ofthat particular sound) and edited.Please enjoy this timeless sample set, and feel free to send me yourcomments (positive or negative).Most Sincerely,Michael FischerTechnopolis(810) 650-6396fischer1@student.msu.edu=-=-=-=-=-=-=FILENAME INFO=-=-=-=-=-=-=Bass Drum sounds start with "BD".Snare Drum sounds start with "SD".Low Tom sounds start with "LT".Mid Tom sounds start with "MT".Hi Tom sounds start with "HT".Low Conga sounds start with "LC".Mid Conga sounds start with "MC".Hi Conga sounds start with "HC".Rim Shot sound starts with "RS".Claves sounds starts with "CL".Hand Clap sound starts with "CP".Maracas sound starts with "MA".Cowbell sound starts with "CB".Cymbal sounds start with "CY".Open Hi Hat sounds start with "OH".Closed Hi Hat sound starts with "CH".These two letter abbreviations which determine what the filename beginswith are the exact ones used to abbreviate the sound names on the actualTR-808 instrument select dial.The "LEVEL" knob does not count as a knob in filenames, as itwas always at the maximum setting (to maintain the highest signal tonoise ratio.)On the TR-808, each knob involved in thecomposition/generation/synthesis of a particular drum sound has 11uniformly spaced position marks on it (the positions on the dials arenot numbered, however...and hopefully the synthesis variable theycontrol is linearly distributed with respect to the knob position!) Iconsider these 11 marks to be "0" through "10". Due to the fact thatthe "0" position and the "10" position are the minimum (mostcounter-clockwise) and maximum (most clockwise) positions, one mayconsider "0" to be the minimum setting and "10" to be the maximumsetting. I decided to use dial positions "0" (minimum), "2.5", "5.0"(middle), "7.5" and "10.0" (maximum) for my samples. As a result, Idecided upon the following naming convention :"<filename>00.<file extension>" would be a file whose first (and only,in this case) knob was set to 0.0 (or the minimum position)."<filename>25.<file extension>" would be a file whose first (and only,in this case) knob was set to 2.5."<filename>50.<file extension>" would be a file whose first (and only,in this case) knob was set to 5.0 (or the middle position)."<filename>75.<file extension>" would be a file whose first (and only,in this case) knob was set to 7.5."<filename>10.<file extension>" would be a file whose first (and only,in this case) knob was set to 10.0 (or the maximum position). It doesNOT mean the knob was set to 1.0!Example : Low Tom with "TUNING" knob set to middle position would be"LT50.<file extension>". If the file happened to be a ".WAV" ("WAVE")file, the name would be "LT50.WAV".For sounds which had TWO knobs, such as the Bass Drum, Snare Drum, andCymbal...The naming convention is the same, but with two additional settingposition numbers after the first two...Example : Bass Drum with "TUNING" knob set between the minimum andmiddle position and "DECAY" set halfway between the middle and maximumposition would be "BD2575.<file extension>". If the file happened to bea ".WAV" ("WAVE") file, the name would be "BD2575.WAV".Once again, this naming convention was used for ALL the samples.Of importance is the following :* In filenames, "TONE" and "TUNING" come before "DECAY" and "SNAPPY".Once again, please enjoy, and please do send me feedback on what youthink of these samples.Sincerely,Michael FischerTechnopolis(810) 650-6396fischer1@student.msu.edu