The Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer, often called the 808, is a drum machine made by Roland Corporation from 1980 to 1983. It was one of the first drum machines that let users create their own rhythms instead of using pre-set patterns. Unlike the Linn LM-1, a more expensive competitor at the time, the 808 made sounds using analog technology instead of playing recorded samples.
The 808 was not successful at first because electronic music was not popular yet, and many musicians wanted more realistic drum sounds. Roland made about 12,000 units before stopping production because the parts needed to build the machine became unavailable. It was later replaced by the TR-909 in 1983.
During the 1980s, the 808 gained a small but dedicated group of fans among underground musicians because it was affordable, easy to use, and had unique sounds, especially its deep, powerful bass drum. It became important in the development of electronic, dance, and hip-hop music, helping to make songs like "Planet Rock" by Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force and "Sexual Healing" by Marvin Gaye popular.
The 808 was used on more hit songs than any other drum machine. Its influence in hip-hop has made it one of the most important inventions in popular music, similar to how the Fender Stratocaster shaped rock music. Today, its sounds are included in music software and modern drum machines, and it has inspired unofficial copies.
Background
In the 1960s, drum machines were often used with home organs. They did not let users create their own rhythms. Instead, they provided preset patterns like bossa nova. In 1969, the Hammond Organ Company hired Don Lewis, an American musician and engineer, to show off its products, including an electronic organ with a built-in drum machine made by Ace Tone, a Japanese company. Lewis was known for using modified electronic instruments long before instrument hacking through circuit bending became popular. He made many changes to the Ace Tone drum machine, creating new rhythms and connecting it to his organ's expression pedal to highlight the percussion.
Ikutaro Kakehashi, the president and founder of Ace Tone, asked Lewis how he created the sounds using the Ace Tone machine. In 1972, Kakehashi started the Roland Corporation and hired Lewis to help design drum machines. By the late 1970s, microprocessors were used in instruments like the Roland MC-8 Microcomposer. Kakehashi saw that they could be used to program drum machines. In 1978, Roland introduced the CompuRhythm CR-78, the first drum machine that allowed users to create, store, and play their own rhythm patterns.
Development
The TR-808 is a remarkable invention. It was designed with great care, using limited technology to create sounds that are both unique and impressive. When studying its circuit diagram, one can see how the engineers at Roland used clever methods to make the best possible drum machine. The design is so complex that it feels like reading a musical score, making it hard to understand how such an idea was created. The TR-808 is widely regarded as a masterpiece of engineering.
When Roland developed the TR-808, the goal was to create a drum machine for professional musicians, primarily for making music demos. The project was led by Tadao Kikumoto, a lead engineer. Makoto Muroi also worked on the project, while Hiro Nakamura focused on designing the circuits that produce the drum sounds. Hisanori Matsuoka was responsible for creating the software and hardware components.
Kakehashi and Lewis requested a machine that could play realistic drum sounds at an affordable cost. Because memory chips were expensive, the team avoided using pulse-code modulation to play recorded sounds. Instead, Kikumoto proposed using analog synthesis to generate drum sounds. The TR-808 allowed users to program sequences and adjust settings like tuning, decay, and volume. To create the 808's unique sizzling sound, Kakehashi intentionally used faulty transistors.
Sounds and features
The TR-808 copies sounds from real percussion instruments like the bass drum, snare, toms, conga, rimshot, claves, handclap, maraca, cowbell, cymbal, and hi-hat (both open and closed). Instead of playing recorded samples, it creates sounds using analog sound creation. The "TR" in TR-808 stands for "transistor rhythm." The sounds do not sound like real drums and have been described as "clicky," "robotic," "spacey," "toy-like," and "futuristic." Fact magazine compared the sounds to "bursts coming from the BBC Radiophonic Workshop" rather than a real drum kit. In Music Technology, Tim Goodyer described the cowbell sound as "clumsy, clonky, and hopelessly underpitched."
The TR-808 is known for its strong bass drum sound, made using a sine oscillator, low-pass filter, and voltage-controlled amplifier. The bass drum decay control lets users make the sound last longer, creating very low frequencies that slightly flatten over time, possibly by accident. The New Yorker called the bass drum the TR-808's most important feature.
The TR-808 was the first drum machine that allowed users to create a full percussion track step by step, including breaks and rolls. Users can program up to 32 patterns using a step sequencer, link up to 768 measures, and add accents to individual beats. Users can also set the tempo and time signature, including unusual ones like 4 and 8. The TR-808 has volume controls for each sound, many audio outputs, and a DIN sync port (a type of connection that came before MIDI) to work with other devices. Its three trigger outputs can connect to synthesizers and other equipment.
Release
The Roland 808 was introduced in 1980 with a price of US$1,195 (the same as $4,669 in 2025). Roland promoted it as a less expensive option compared to the Linn LM-1, a drum machine made by Linn Electronics that used recordings of real drums. The 808 had a simpler, more artificial sound. At the time, electronic music was not widely popular, and many musicians preferred drum machines that sounded more realistic. One review described the 808 as sounding like "marching anteaters," though this comment likely referred to older machines. A magazine called Contemporary Keyboard gave the 808 a positive review, saying it could become the best rhythm machine of the future.
Although some people bought the 808 early on, it did not sell well, with fewer than 12,000 units sold. Roland stopped making it in 1983 because new technology made it impossible to replace the faulty parts that were important to the 808's design.
Uses and influence
Before its release, Roland rented an 808 to the Japanese group Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO), who used it during a 1980 performance of "1000 Knives" at the Budokan. In the same year, YMO member Ryuichi Sakamoto used the 808 on his solo album B-2 Unit. Later in 1980, the 808 appeared on an Indian disco album called Babla's Disco Sensation by Babla.
In 1981, the 808 was used on the YMO album BGM and the single "Nobody Told Me" by the Monitors. In 1982, American R&B artist Marvin Gaye released the first U.S. hit single to feature the 808, "Sexual Healing." Gaye chose the 808 because it allowed him to create music alone, without other musicians or producers.
Although the 808 was not successful at first, it later became the most used drum machine in hit records and influenced popular music. By 1983, when Roland stopped making it, the 808 was often sold for less than $100 (about $323 in 2025). Its simple design, low cost, and unique sound made it popular among underground musicians and helped shape electronic and hip-hop music.
Today, 808 sounds are common in music software, and many unlicensed copies of the machine were made. Flavorwire said the 808’s beats are now so familiar that people can recognize them even if they don’t know about drum machines. In 2019, DJMag noted that the 808 was likely the most used drum machine over the previous 40 years.
The 808 is often compared to the Fender Stratocaster guitar for its influence on music. It was used by early hip-hop artists like Run-DMC, LL Cool J, and Public Enemy. The 808’s bass drum became so important that Hank Shocklee of the Bomb Squad production group said, "It's not hip-hop without that sound." The New Yorker wrote that the 808’s deep bass drum sound is part of American culture. Even after East Coast hip-hop producers stopped using it in the 1990s, the 808 remained central to Southern hip-hop.
Rapper Kanye West used the 808 on every track of his 2008 album 808s & Heartbreak, which Slate called "an explicit love letter to the device." In 2015, The New Yorker said the 808 was the foundation of modern "urban-youth-culture soundtrack," especially in trap music, and influenced a mix of dance and retro hip-hop.
Musicians found creative ways to use the 808’s limited features. Slate noted that its short eight-bar patterns became spaces for innovation. For example, on the 1984 single "Set It Off," producer Strafe used the 808 to mimic the sound of an underground nuclear test. Producer Rick Rubin popularized stretching the 808’s bass drum sound and tuning it to different pitches to make basslines. The Beastie Boys used a reversed 808 sound on their 1986 track "Paul Revere."
In 1980, Ryuichi Sakamoto’s track "Riot in Lagos" from his album B-2 Unit introduced the 808 to clubs. BBC Radio 6 Music’s Mary Anne Hobbs said the track showed a new type of "body music" that "foretold the future" of music. In 1982, Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force used the 808 in their single "Planet Rock," which created "strange, futuristic" sounds popular in clubs. This track influenced electronic and hip-hop music and helped make the 808 a key part of futuristic music. Slate said "Planet Rock" changed how post-disco dance music was made.
The British electronic group 808 State named itself after the drum machine and used it often. Graham Massey of 808 State said the Roland gear helped musicians connect across the world, allowing them to break away from local music styles. As rave culture grew, the 808 became a common sound on British radio. In the early 1990s, Japanese composer Yuzo Koshiro used 808 sounds in his Streets of Rage game soundtracks.
The 808 has been used in pop music. The New Yorker said it started a major change in pop music from 1983 to 1986, using "defiantly inorganic" sounds to create a new musical world. Slate said the 808 helped pop music move away from traditional structures and focus on repeating sequences of sound.
Argentine artist Charly García used the 808 for all percussion on his 1983 album Clics modernos. In the 1984 concert film Stop Making Sense, David Byrne performed "Psycho Killer" with an 808, reacting to its "gunshot"-like sounds. Drummer Phil Collins used the 808 to loop rhythms for long periods, avoiding the changes human drummers might add. Whitney Houston’s 1987 single "I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)" used the 808 extensively.
Other artists who used the 808 include Damon Albarn, Diplo, Fatboy Slim, David Guetta, and New Order. The 808 has been mentioned in songs by the Beastie Boys, Beck, Outkast, Kelis, TI, Lil Wayne, Britney Spears, Beyoncé, R. Kelly, and Robbie Williams. Its bass drum has been compared to a heartbeat in songs by Madonna, Rihanna, and Kesha.
Successors
In 1983, the TR-909 was introduced. It was the first Roland drum machine to use recorded sounds, called samples. Like the earlier TR-808, the TR-909 had a major influence on popular music, including genres such as techno, house, and acid.
The TR-808's sounds were included in ReBirth RB-338, a software synthesizer created by Propellerhead Software. Andy Jones of MusicTech said ReBirth was "especially incredible" because it was the first software to copy the TR-808's sounds. In 2017, Roland retired ReBirth, stating it violated its intellectual property rights. Roland later used TR-808 samples in its Grooveboxes from the 1990s. In the 2010s, Roland released the TR-8 and TR-8S drum machines, which recreated the TR-808's sounds using electronic methods instead of samples.
In 2017, Roland launched the TR-08, a smaller version of the TR-808. It included an LED display, MIDI and USB connections, more sequencing controls, and a built-in speaker. In 2018, Roland released the first official software versions of the TR-808 and TR-909. In 2019, Behringer released the Behringer RD-8 Rhythm Designer, a copy of the TR-808. Unlike Roland's TR-08 and TR-8S, which use samples and virtual synthesis, the RD-8 uses analog circuits to recreate the TR-808's sounds.