A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument that makes percussion sounds, drum beats, and patterns. These machines can copy the sounds of real drum kits or other percussion instruments, or they can create unique sounds, such as electronic tones. Many drum machines have pre-set beats and patterns for music styles like pop, rock, and dance. Most drum machines made in the 2010s and 2020s let users create their own rhythms and beats. These machines can make sounds using analog methods or by playing recorded samples.

Drum machines are different from electronic drums, which have pads that can be hit like real drums. However, some drum machines have buttons or pads that let performers play sounds live, either along with a programmed beat or on their own. Drum machines can do simple tasks, like repeating a short beat, or more complex tasks, like recording full songs with changes in rhythm and style.

Drum machines have greatly influenced music in the 20th century. The Roland TR-808, made in 1980, helped shape dance music, especially electronic dance music and hip hop. Its later version, the TR-909, made in 1983, influenced techno and house music. The Linn LM-1, the first drum machine to use real drum recordings, was introduced in 1980 and used by artists like Prince and Michael Jackson. By the late 1990s, software versions of drum machines became more popular than physical machines with plastic or metal cases.

History

In 1930–32, Léon Theremin created the Rhythmicon, a new instrument, at Henry Cowell's request. Cowell wanted a device that could play complex rhythms based on the overtone series, which were too hard to perform on regular keyboards. The Rhythmicon could make sixteen different rhythms, each linked to a specific pitch, either alone or together. People were interested when it was shown publicly in 1932, but Cowell stopped using it soon after.

In 1957, Harry Chamberlin, an engineer from Iowa, made the Chamberlin Rhythmate. This device let users choose from 14 tape loops of drum kits and percussion instruments playing different beats. Like the Chamberlin keyboard, the Rhythmate was meant for family singalongs. About 100 of these devices were sold.

In 1959, Wurlitzer released the Side Man, a machine that made sounds using a rotating disc, like a music box. A slider controlled the tempo, which could be set between 34 and 150 beats per minute. Buttons on a control panel also let users trigger sounds individually. The Side Man was popular but faced criticism from the American Federation of Musicians. In 1961, the group said its local areas could not stop people from using the Side Man, though it could not be used for dancing. Wurlitzer stopped making the Side Man in 1969.

In 1960, Raymond Scott built the Rhythm Synthesizer and, in 1963, a drum machine called Bandito the Bongo Artist. These machines were used to record his album Soothing Sounds for Baby in 1964.

During the 1960s, rhythm machines changed from early electro-mechanical designs with vacuum tubes to fully solid-state (transistorized) models. They also became smaller, moving from floor-sized units to desktop size. In the early 1960s, a home organ maker, Gulbransen (later bought by Fender), worked with Seeburg Corporation, a company that made automatic musical equipment, to release early compact rhythm machines called Rhythm Prince (PRP). These were still large, about the size of a small guitar amp, because they used bulky electro-mechanical parts. In 1964, Seeburg created a compact rhythm generator using a "diode matrix" (U.S. patent 3,358,068 in 1967). In 1967, Seeburg released a fully transistorized rhythm machine called Select-A-Rhythm (SAR1), which had pre-programmed patterns. These machines became popular and were later added to electronic organs for use by organists.

In the early 1960s, a nightclub owner in Tokyo, Tsutomu Katoh, was asked by an accordion player, Tadashi Osanai, about the Wurlitzer Side Man he used in his club. Osanai, who studied mechanical engineering at the University of Tokyo, convinced Katoh to fund his efforts to build a better rhythm machine. In 1963, their new company, Keio-Giken (later Korg), released the Donca-Matic DA-20. This machine used vacuum tube circuits for sounds and a mechanical wheel for rhythms. It was a floor-sized unit with a built-in speaker and a keyboard for manual play, along with automatic rhythm patterns. Its price was similar to the average yearly income of Japanese people at the time.

Later, Korg focused on improving the machine’s reliability and reducing its size and cost. Vacuum tubes were replaced with transistor circuits in the Donca-Matic DC-11 in the mid-1960s. In 1966, the mechanical wheel was replaced with a compact transistor circuit in the Donca-Matic DE-20 and DE-11. In 1967, the Mini Pops MP-2 was developed as an option for the Yamaha Electone electric organ. Mini Pops became a series of small desktop rhythm machines. In the United States, models like the Mini Pops MP-3 and MP-7 were sold under the Univox brand by Unicord Corporation.

In 1965, Nippon Columbia filed a patent for an automatic rhythm instrument. It described the device as a simple machine that could create various rhythms using the sounds of drums, piccolos, and other instruments. This patent was similar to one Seeburg had filed in 1964.

In 1967, Ace Tone founder Ikutaro Kakehashi (later founder of Roland Corporation) developed a preset rhythm-pattern generator using a diode matrix circuit. This design was similar to earlier patents by Seeburg and Nippon Columbia. Kakehashi’s patent described a device that used "inverting circuits and/or clipper circuits" connected to a counting circuit to create rhythm patterns.

Ace Tone released the FR-1 Rhythm Ace in 1967. It had 16 preset rhythm patterns and four buttons for manually playing individual instrument sounds (cymbal, claves, cowbell, and bass drum). Users could combine rhythm patterns by pressing multiple buttons at once, creating more than 100 possible combinations (later models allowed adjusting each instrument’s volume with small knobs or faders). The FR-1 was used by the Hammond Organ Company in their organs. In the United States, it was sold under the Multivox brand, and in the UK, under the Bentley Rhythm Ace brand.

Many preset drum machines were released in the 1970s. Early examples of their use can be found on The United States of America’s album from 1967–8. The first major pop song to use a drum machine was "Saved by the Bell" by Robin Gibb, which reached #2 in Britain in 1969. Drum machines were heavily used on Sly & the Family Stone’s There's a Riot Goin' On (1971). Sly & the Family Stone became the first group to have a number #1 pop single using a drum machine: "Family Affair."

The German band Can used a drum machine on songs "Peking O" and "Spoon." The 1972 Timmy Thomas single "Why Can't We Live Together"/"Funky Me" used a drum machine and keyboard on both tracks. Pink Floyd’s Obscured by Clouds (1972) also used electronic drums. The first album where a drum machine produced all the percussion was Journey by Kingdom Come, recorded in November 1972 using a Bentley Rhythm Ace. French singer Léo Ferré combined a drum machine with a symphonic orchestra in the song "Je t'aimais bien, tu sais…" on his 1974 album L'Espoir. Miles Davis’s live band began using a drum machine in 1974 (played by percussionist James Mtume), heard on Dark Magus (1977). Osamu Kitajima’s Benzaiten (1974), a progressive psychedelic rock album, also used drum machines.

In 1972, Eko released the ComputeRhythm, one of the first programmable drum machines. It had a 6-row push-button matrix for users to enter patterns manually.

Programming

Programming drum machines can differ depending on the device. On many machines, users can create drum patterns in real time by pressing trigger pads, like playing a drum kit. Alternatively, they can use step-sequencing, where a pattern is built by placing individual sounds at specific points along a 16-step bar, similar to the TR-808 and TR-909. For example, a basic 4-on-the-floor dance pattern might include a closed high hat on the 3rd, 7th, 11th, and 15th steps, a kick drum on the 1st, 5th, 9th, and 13th steps, and a clap or snare on the 5th and 13th steps. This pattern can be changed in many ways to create fills, breakdowns, or other elements. These changes can then be arranged using song-sequence, which lets the drum machine play back the programmed patterns in the order the user chooses. The machine will adjust any slightly off-beat entries to make them perfectly timed. If the drum machine has MIDI connectivity, it can be programmed using a computer or another MIDI device.

Comparison with live drumming

Since the 1980s, drum machines have been widely used in popular music. However, research shows that human drummers can create certain qualities that drum machines cannot copy or copy well. These include the "feel" of human drumming and the ability to adjust to changes in a song during a live performance. Human drummers can also make small changes in their playing, such as playing slightly before or after the beat for parts of a song. Unlike drum machines, which follow a fixed rhythm, human drummers can create a wide range of different rhythmic patterns.

In recent years, major record labels have increasingly used drum machines and programmed rhythms to reduce the cost of hiring studio drummers.