Happy 808 Day!

[allende]

TR-909 has mostly been the machine for trance music and where even most of the modern samples derive from, but I think it would be nice to post some 808 trance here if you can come up with any. I made this tongue-in-cheek 808 mix of "10 Minutes to Infinity", and started wondering do I even know any trance songs that exclusively use 808 as beats.


Here's some 808 history and a documentary for those with amazon prime:

Roland - The TR-808 Story

The TR-808 Story

www.roland.com

Watch 808 | Prime Video

Back in 1980 Japanese electronics manufacturer Roland released one of the most important musical instruments ever, the TR-808. Although it only led a limited life, the 808 became world renowned, its signature low end bass and unique sounds redefining the musical landscape.

www.amazon.com

 

[Elysium013]

Woop, indeed!

 

[Gagi]

Welcome! Glad to have you here. Nice track!

 

[Hensmon]

I made this tongue-in-cheek 808 mix of "10 Minutes to Infinity"

Pretty cool, would like to see more tracks with the 808. Can't think of any myself that use it

 

[allende]

would like to see more tracks with the 808. Can't think of any myself that use it

Indeed! I'll have to go through my collection, there ought to be some tracks from the early 90's at least. BTW this track was on that amazon prime's 808 documentary and it absolutely blew my mind! Kinda ashamed I didn't know about it.

It's called "Raga Bhairav" by Charanjit Singh. It's listed as acid/experimental, but this to me is clearly the first psytrance track ever created (unintentionally or not). Released on 1982!! on the album "Synthesizing: Ten Ragas To A Disco Beat" with bunch of similar songs.

 

[Hensmon]

Oh nice, very cool find. Will check out the 808 documentary. It's funny how a piece of hardware like this and the 303, 909 etc can have documentaries and sub-culture history about them. It says a lot about the impact and personality they brought to the different scenes. I am still convinced hardware has something software just cannot completely replicate

 

[Gagi]

I am still convinced hardware has something software just cannot completely replicate

Well, software synths can't replicate hardware analog (!) synths. That much we know.

But besides that analog vs digital argument, it's also a workflow thing. I bet hardware is much better to play around with, much more fun to tweak, explore etc., rather than just left-clicking all day long. I would say it could affect creative output.

Software can be more capable nowadays, and it has a lot of advantages in general, but it's just not as fun to use as hardware is.

 

[Hensmon]

I would say it could affect creative output.

Yep I agree, the hardware is essentially an instrument and with it comes a slightly different mentality. I also think the nuances in the waveform are lost at some subconscious level when made with software, Brian Eno has talked about this before with the homogenisation of sound via the software heavy approach. Take a natural bird song and compare it to one created digitally and on the surface I doubt I would able to distinguish between the two, but subconsciously the details in the natural one (from the birds throat movements, volume changes, additional vocal tones etc) will be processed and therefore we resonate more strongly with the sound. If anything its the imperfections when creating sound naturally that adds to its charm. That's my guess anyway!

 

[Gagi]

If anything its the imperfections when creating sound naturally that adds to its charm.

That's the most-used argument for analog synths. But then comes the price and everything (you also can't torrent a hardware instrument/effect), so I guess it's easier for most to just go full software.

Airwave has switched to full-software in 2006 I think. But then again, Junkie XL has rooms full of vintage synths, samplers, effects and whatnot (plus a substantial library of software plugins). One is an electronic music producer and DJ, the other is a Hollywood composer.