Hip-Hop, Be-Bop, Drum-Drop
By Paul Dakeyne
| Posted in Music Technology
I’ve always loved electronic percussion. From the late 1970′s trans-euro beats of Kraftwerk, through to the burgeoning technological 1980′s advancement of Japanese manufacturers influencing both Tokyo’s new wave and New York’s B-Boys, break dancers and the Zulu nation. Rap and 80′s electro contained some of the most stunning drum machine delights, as everything from Grandmaster Flash’s ‘The Message’ and Tyrone Brunson’s seminal ‘Smurf paved the way for the likes of Def Jam and House music to follow.
So why the quick history lesson? Well, most of us are armed with a software/hardware drum machine, sampler or percussion VSTi these days. Sure, most of these have a ‘bundled’ bank of sounds either supplied or readily accessible but in the search for some authentic, retro-tastic and dynamically kick arse samples I wanted to give a heads up on the Goldbaby website (www.goldbaby.co.nz) and the company’s rather stunning sounds.
Supplied in various formats (Battery, Guru and .Wav), Goldbaby’s ‘Tape Drum Machine’ collection caught my attention for the pure effort and passion that has gone into transforming some of the most sought after, iconic drum samples. From the Volume 1 bank, the description reads as follows:
- Ten drum machines and four tape machines. 1481 x 24 Bit drum samples
- Many hours recording classic and new drum machines onto tape has finally found the light of day…
- Linn LM-1, MBase01, Roland TR-505, Boss DR110, Sequential Tom, 4 In The Floor, Yamaha MR-10, MRX-185, Emu Drumulator and MPC The Kit.
- Tape machines used: Ampex valve 1/2 inch 2 track, Otari MX5050 1/4 inch 2 track, Teac A-350 Cassette Deck and the Hitachi 3 head Cassette deck.
- Plus a bonus set of Rom based TR-808 sounds also recorded on tape.
Volume two emulates this but with Linn Drum, CR-78, TR-626, DDR-30, Bohm, DR-55, RPM-40, RX-5, KPR-77 and the Synsonics Pro as source hardware. Individual drum machine classics get the full treatment (Emu SP12, Roland 808 and 909, Akai MPC60) plus various keyboard and synth legends too. The Goldbaby guys are not tight fisted with the odd freebie too, having a full page of downloadable audio stimuli available to plunder.
So if it’s a taste of the early 80′s Bronx, mid 80′s hip-hop/Chicago warehouse, early 1990′s Hacienda beats or late 90′s Jeff Mill’s techno ridddims, why not investigate some samples that have been made with some real love and rare technology. Worth a visit? You bet!
Tags: drum machines, Electronica, goldbaby, hip hop, kraftwerk, zulu nation
This music is unbelievably fly. I feel like I’m in the best cop show ever, and am coincidentally wearing a trilby, so it feels very apt indeed.
Rob Sandall
Very ‘Fresh’!
What a great track. I know this is a drum/ percussion focused blog post, but let’s not forget that Tyrone Brunson is an amazing bass player, not to mention that beautiful unmistakable sound of a slapped Musicman Stingray. ; )
David Bell
Whoop whoop to the Goldbaby sounds – I’ve been using them for a while “This stuff is r-e-e-e-e-a-l-y F-F-Fresh-Awwwwwwww”
Stevie