All About The Drum Machines

[Jeremy Connolly]

A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument designed to imitate
the sound of drums and other percussion instruments. These machines
are very useful instruments for a wide variety of musical genres, not
just purely electronic music. They are also an urgent necessity when
session drummers are not available.
Drum Machines offers a choice selection of classic, meticulously
sampled to faithfully reproduce the original sounds. They can be
easily tweaked with cleverly mapped controls, allowing users to
experiment with the inner workings of the instrument and adjust to
taste.
A brief history
The first commercially available rhythm machines were included in
organs in the late 1960s, and were intended to accompany the organist.
The first largely successful drum machine was the Rhythm Ace. It was
produced by a company called Ace Tone which was later named Roland.
Early drum machines were often referred to as rhythm machines.
In 1960 Raymond Scott constructed Rhythm Synthesizer and in 1963 a
drum machine called Bandito the Bongo Artist. Most of these modern
machines are sequencers with a sample playback or synthesizer
component that specializes in the reproduction of drum timbres as well
as the sound of other traditional percussion instruments.
Synthesis of drum sounds
The early machines used analog sound synthesis rather than digital
sampling in order to generate their sounds. A snare drum sound would
normally be created using a burst of white noise whereas a bass drum
sound would be made using sine waves or other basic waveforms. This
meant that the resulting sound may not be very close to that of the
real instrument.
There are specific percussion sound modules that can be generated by
pickups, trigger pads, or through MIDI. Most of these special machines
can also be controlled via MIDI. Drum machines can be programmed in
real time where the user specifies the precise moment in time on which
a note will sound. The controls usually includes tempo, start and
stop, volume control of individual sounds, keys to generate individual
drum sounds, and storage locations for a number of different rhythms.
Digital sampling of drum machines
The Linn LM-1 Drum Computer was the first machine of this kind to use
digital samples. It was released in the year 1980. Many of the drum
sounds on the LM-1 were composed of two chips that were generated at
the same time and each voice was individually tunable with individual
outputs. But since there was a limitation of memory a crash cymbal
sound was not available.
Conclusion
Drum machines are the widely used by the pop and rock musicians.
Though it is rarely used in a classical concert, the demand for an
expert drummer who can program their machines perfectly has almost
become an imperative for the artists. These drums can be programmed to
store different beats in its memory. Many modern machines are capable
of producing unique sounds and it also allows the artist to compose
unique drum beats and store them as well.

Make Beats on Computer Fast and Easy: http://www.sonicapro.tk/