Related link: http://www.keyboardmuseum.org/d_machines/vdrums.html
It’s my 50th O’Reilly blog (!), so for this nostalgic occasion, I thought I’d cover something old but cool. Coincidentally, I just stumbled across the Virtual Drum Machines site, where you can play Flash emulations of dozens of electronic rhythm boxes.
A couple of them are classics, but most are wonderfully obscure thrift-store discoveries, unearthed and sampled by Joseph Rivers of the Audio Playground Synthesizer Museum. The emulations, apparently built five years ago, are primitive-looking as well, but I found their fizzy sounds and jerky rhythms strangely inspiring. Consider the 1970s Conn Min-O-Matic, with its wacky “Teen Beat”:
…Or the Boss DR-110, with its classic Roland programming grid:
After you’ve explored the three dozen drum machines, check out the virtual keyboards, such as the unbelievably grungy Bee Gees Rhythm Machine, built in 1978 by Mattel:
A note on the site says you can buy a CD containing high-quality samples of these museum pieces for just $35. I e-mailed Rivers yesterday for more information but haven’t heard back yet. In the meantime, you could try using a streamripper application to grab the audio from the online emulations and use it to inspire your own music.
All in all, a golden opportunity.
Found any other pawnshop prizes lately?
Categories
Audio
Comments (0)
Read More Entries by David Battino.
Leave a comment