It's difficult to overstate how pervasive the 808 cowbell was in early hip-hop, funk, and R&B music during the 80's. To this day it's a sound that pleasantly nostalgic and takes me right back to my younger days.<p>Something I always wondered about: it seemed like not all 808 cowbells were exactly the same. Some seemed to nail a very in-tune perfect fifth. While others were just shy of a perfect fifth, giving more of a sour sound which I think was more common.<p>In Bar-Kays' "Sexomatic," the 808 cowbell's pitch raised up a whole step to match the song's key, but it also sounds like a very in-tune perfect fifth: (3:55)
<a href="https://youtu.be/rqWfERqQlk4?t=235" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/rqWfERqQlk4?t=235</a><p>In 2 Live Crew's "Mr. Mixx On The Mix!!" the 808 cowbell has the more sour sound: (3:19)
<a href="https://youtu.be/yNiAYpd1f84?t=199" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/yNiAYpd1f84?t=199</a><p>The bread board project was producing an interval that was just shy of a perfect fifth, making it closer to 2 Live Crew's 808 in my ears.<p>I always wondered if slight variations and and manufacturing anomalies in the analog components accounted for this difference or if something else going on. If OP is in this thread, I'd love to hear your opinion and conjecture on this. (And I'd also like to thank you for the GREAT write-up and YouTube clip. LOVED this.)
Another 808 cowbell recreation and a lot more here: <a href="https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/synthesizing-cowbells-claves?amp" rel="nofollow">https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/synthesizing-cowbell...</a>.<p>The whole series is a valuable guide to analog synthesis.
I love these deep-dive hardware projects ... best when they are on a small thing like this one (so I'm not too overwhelmed).<p>Electronics + audio has always been my gateway like programming + graphics (and lighting up an LED is "Hello World").<p>I don't imagine you could change the pitch of the cowbell on the TR-808, but it sounds a little high pitched to my ear. I guess though that in the era of the TR-808 people were pretty jazzed by electronic percussive instruments that were even close.
Tube Time took a crack at the 808 including the cowbell last year.
<a href="https://twitter.com/TubeTimeUS/status/1360734047903707139" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/TubeTimeUS/status/1360734047903707139</a>
Cool project, fun writeup, and more cowbell. Personal pet peeve warning—the components and wiring on the breadboard could use some love. It’s a bit of a mess with the long leads jammed into the board. Clipping the leads down would clean it up a lot.
The CB808 eurorack module from Tiptop Audio is almost a perfect replica I believe: <a href="https://tiptopaudio.com/808-2/#cb808" rel="nofollow">https://tiptopaudio.com/808-2/#cb808</a>