Class Notes and Reflection for Tuesday, November 2, 2021

Class Notes and Reflection for Tuesday, November 2, 2021

Main Topic: Beat/drums/percussion-producing technology. 

"Beat Box (R)evolution, Rise of the Machines".

1. Reminder about and reiteration of information about the 5-minute website/app demo for next Tuesday, November 9.

2. Development of drum-machine technology, late 70s/early 80s

•  Initial goal was to cut the cost of having live musicians performing aspects in the music that can be easily reproduced electronically.
•  Beat-boxes: played or programmed trigger pads. Sounds are loaded as "kits" or "groups". 

3. Digital Drums

• Reproductions of acoustic drum sets. Percussion controllers include mallet-lie devices and can be hand-activated. 
• Trigger pads come in a variety of materials and configurations (think the hexagonal ones from the 80s)
• Have become a substitute for the many instruments a percussionist/drummer needs for a single performance.

4. Earlier examples 

• L. Theremin's "Rhythmicon", early 1930s. Had a small keyboard where each key or combination of keys produced distinct pre-programmed rhythms.
• "Ace Tone", "Rhythm Ace": 1960s manufacturer of keyboard-interfaced rhythm-generators.  Extension of this was incorporating these devices into the popular electric home-organs of the 60s - 70s, where there was a built-in device that generated pre-programmed rhythm patterns, usually dance rhythms (samba, fox trot, tango, etc.) with a dial for adjusting the tempo.

5. 1980s devices for sale to the public. 

• 1980: Linn LM-1 Drum Computer. First drum machine to use samples of acoustic drums, and one of the first programmable drum machines. VERY expensive. Became a staple sound of 80s new wave.

• 1980: Roland TR-808. Was very expensive (high $3000s in 2021 currency) and not too commercially successful. Used a process called "subtractive synthesis". Was upgraded to the TR-909 in '83. Sound of the 808 became more popular and widely-incorporated by the mid to late 80s. Has become hugely successful and sought out in the 21st century for its "retro" sound, and lauded for its place in digital and electronic music production. 

• Other manufacturers: Yamaha - RY30 in 1980, RX7 in 1983, RX11 in 1984.                                 Akai MPC-60, 1988: combines sampling and sequencing functions, was one of the first to have the grid of 16 small, square, touch-activated pads. 

6. Digital Drumsets

• 1971: Moody Blues Every Boy Deserves Favour album, first to use and electronic drum kit. 
• 1976: Pollard Sydrum developed by Joe Pollard and Mark Barton. Designed to extend the acoustic instrument array of a percussion section.
  
• 1977: Kraftwerk, Florian Schneider, and Rolf Hütter receive US patent for the design of the "Electronic Percussion Musical "Instrument".
• 1981: Simmons SDS5. The ubiquitous hexagonal drum pads.

• Current options: Simmons SD5K, Alesis DM5Pro, Yamaha DTXplorer, Roland TD12SV (very pricy). Smaller options: Alesis Pad Controller, Alternate Mode DrumKat, Alternate Mode MalletKat, Roland Handsonic (no sticks or mallets, Dr. Jacoby connected this device to GarageBand for an in-class dem), Pearl Malletstation (watched a YouTube vid of a teacher iterating how much this has helped him teach percussion, cut costs,and cut down on damage to acoustic instruments), Alternate Mode Pankat. 

7. Videos: Trailer for "808", Herbie Hancock's "Rockit", Nile Rodgers reflecting on the Rapper's Delight and the beginning of use sampling (from his band Chic's "Good Times" being sampled in the early 80s).

Reflection

This class in particular filled me with nostalgia. The drum-machine technology was really hitting the mainstream when I was a very little kid, and I was a kid very much immersed in 80s music/pop culture. We had MTV earlier than most of my peers, and my neighborhood had lots of teenagers who were into new wave and 'art bands' (Talking Heads, Kraftwerk, Ultravox, and Cabaret Voltaire) and buying synths/drum machines. And seeing and exploring the sounds of the hexagonal-pad drum-sets was a staple of going to the music store at the mall. 

Even as a child, I could easily hear the difference between the 'new' sounds of synths+drum machines sound of the 80s and the 'old' sound of anything before. In later years, I've done quite a bit of reading about how many artists and critics were totally against drum machines. The charge was often that they stripped the soul and humanity out of the music. I remember well how that sound became passé, 'uncool', and harshly derided by the early 90s, only to re-emerge as 'retro' in the early 2000s (e.g. a band like Ladytron) and have overwhelmingly conspicuous presence in current pop (the show Stranger Things and a band like The Wknd). 

My aunt had a Hammond organ with the interface for dance rhythms. We'd fiddle around with it every weekend when we'd visit her! I also can't help but think of the creepy loner woman in the neighborhood in the movie Edward Scissorhands, who plays Christmas tunes on her electric organ in her living room with these various rhythms accompanying. 

Herbie Hancock's "Rockit" video was one of my favorites as a kid and still is today. My sister and I would be rolling around on the floor laughing, esp. over the goose whose beak is sticking through the window, and the hand that keeps snacking the dummy's head and pushing it into the cereal bowl. I'm glad that Dr. Jacoby mentioned how weird and out there early 80s MTV videos often are, and were often so because of budget constraints!

Interesting to know how Chic's "Good Times" was one of the first songs to be sampled, and how Nile Rodgers was initially exasperated by it. I'd always thought of 'sampling' as a mainstay in the music was more of a 90s thing!

My Rapper's Delight Rendering:

https://soundcloud.com/eric-coyne-65528956/rappers-delight-project