I've owned a TR-606/TB-303, 2 TR-808s and currently own a TR-8. I bought my first 808 in college in 1998 for 750 bucks. Being a broke college student I sold it to pay for school. After college I bought another TR-808 for 700 in 2003 and kept it for 2 years. I grew bored of the sound, and had taken a decent enough sample set of it to replace it for most uses. The second 808 I had I modded to extend the decay of the kick drum to the point of self oscillation. I also bought a new row of buttons for it. Lastly I added a midi-DIN sync box. I had considered adding a pitch pot on the kick drum but prices were rising to the point that I thought was an 808 bubble(a princely sum of 1600 dollars). Now I see tr-808s on ebay for 3000+ and kick myself.<p>For anyone interested, the TR-8 does a good job emulating the TR-808/909 for the most part. I find the 808 cymbal(and to a lesser degree the hi-hat) sound nowhere near as good as the original and far less adjustable. The snares don't quite have the snap I hear in my 808 samples. It should be noted though that there was quite a bit of variation from unit to unit in the TR-808. My first 808 had a nice long 2-3 second kick decay, while the second one I owned was about .5 seconds(which is why I did the mod) the hi hat and cymbals are a slightly different pitch as well.<p>I bought the 7x7-TR8 expansion and while somewhat useful(I like the 707 snare) the 707/727 sounds rarely get any use. The expansion did include some new takes on the 909 kick, snare and non specific clap and snap sounds. I really like to play with the new snap sounds, as it is a cool noise generator effect. I haven't seen any news around this, but it seems silly for them not to do a TR-606/DR-55 expansion pack for the TR-8. I would have bought that over the 7X7 expansion.<p>There is a TR-808 documentary coming out soon 808themovie.com that will have tons of artist interviews who made their name with the 808. This article did a decent job of naming music that really used an 808, as there was one a few months ago that suggested mostly 909 tracks or tracks that may have used 808 samples sporadically in them. I get a bit pedantic about that because to me, you aren't using an 808 if you loaded a drum sampler with 808 sounds. Beastie Boys licensed to ill is a great example of an album made mostly with an 808(but synced up with a sequential circuits drumtraks and possibly a linndrum on one or 2 tracks) By the late 80s, most rap was made on sp-12/1200s and akai MPCs.
I'm going to break ranks and say the 909 was the far more revolutionary work horse. The 808 has a very 80s hip-hop / electro sound which was limiting. OTOH, the 909 has a very generalized sound with a strong kick and snare that has supported the bulk of EDM for the last 20+ years.
The 808 has such a dominant sound in a mix that it almost ends up dictating the rest of the mix and sets such a powerful mood - it's no wonder that it formed the backbone of so many different dance genres. I always preferred the sound of the 909 growing up, but as I get older the 808 continues to stay relevant as a sound even after the 909 has started to sound a little stale. To this day I mentally catalog drum machines as "808-ish" or "909-ish".<p>The definitive 808 track for me has always been Polygon Window by The Dice Man off of the still absolutely amazing first Artificial Intelligence compilation album, one of the defining electronic music albums ever put together.<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVp6NH59d3M" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVp6NH59d3M</a>
The TR-808 is up there with samplers and the Amen Break in terms of defining modern music. If you have twenty minutes, there's a wonderful video explaining the Amen Break that I suggest everybody watch at least once:<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SaFTm2bcac" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SaFTm2bcac</a>
If you're nostalgic for these kind of drum machines <i>and</i> you're a fan of the old Nintendo Game'n'Watch, you need to check out the stuff Teenage Engineering is creating:<p><a href="https://www.teenageengineering.com/products/po" rel="nofollow">https://www.teenageengineering.com/products/po</a>
There's a documentary about the 808 coming out this year: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIS-o_--wqY" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIS-o_--wqY</a><p>Looks amazing.
For what ever reason I never 'clicked' with the UX of the 808 or the 909. I ended up with the Alesis sr-16 and then later a drum sound module unit. For me, it wasn't until I could program it from my computer that I felt I could tap some of its expressiveness.
There was/is a software version of said drum machine. Back in mac os8 days, it made me realize how odd it is to try and turn nobs with a mouse. It made me think the interface is hard to use on a computer, unless you had the original hardware and knew how to use it already. It seemed like there should be a better way.<p>But it was fun.<p>now touch version on ipad. I haven't tried it but I'm not convinced the knobs work better on touch than they would have on the computer.<p><a href="https://www.propellerheads.se/rebirth" rel="nofollow">https://www.propellerheads.se/rebirth</a>
I wrote about TR-808 when I did an article on drum machines in college newspaper a few years ago. (<a href="http://iwarrior.uwaterloo.ca/2011/06/01/8761/legendary-drum-machines/" rel="nofollow">http://iwarrior.uwaterloo.ca/2011/06/01/8761/legendary-drum-...</a>) Hope you find it interesting.
I found a TR808 in a garage sale 10 years ago. Nice memories!
There is a cheaper alternative with a similar sound and programmation capabilities (althoughfar more cumbersome and no sound tweak possibilities) : the CR8000. All this gear is getting expensive these days, but maybe Roland will follow Korg's lead with the MS20 and rebuild TRs.
I thought that was the machine behind some Prince tunes, but it's a Linn LM-1 not a TR808. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMad5DLHNOw" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMad5DLHNOw</a>.<p>Anyway good read.