203 lines
8.0 KiB
Plaintext
203 lines
8.0 KiB
Plaintext
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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Michael Fischer
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of
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T E C H N O P O L I S
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Presents...
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Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer
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Sound Sample Set 1.0.0 (09/08/94)
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The Roland TR-808 (popularly known as the "808") is, perhaps, the most
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popular analogue electronic drum machine of all time. Since its debut
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in 1982, it has been the drum machine used the most by dance, pop, rap,
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and rhythm and blues artists to produce the drum rhythm tracks for their
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songs. (The famous cowbell sound at the beginning of Whitney Houston's
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"I Wanna' Dance with Somebody", or the famous bass drum sound that
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vibrates the ground when a car playing loud rap music drives by) Without
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a doubt, the Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer is a "classic beat box".
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In recent years, many electronic musical instrument companies (Roland
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and many others...) and studio engineer types have attempted to capture
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its timeless sound through the use of sampling. This has however,
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proven to be an often disappointing endeavour, due the the analogue
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nature of the "808". Because the "808" is a truly "analogue" drum
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machine, with very many (22 to be exact) knobs for the settings for its
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drum sounds, sampling the unit often yields sample sets which are too
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discrete (i.e. too "static" and too "limited" in variation) and simply
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do not do justice to the wide sound range the "808" can produce. As a
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result, people still, to this day, are in hot pursuit of real "808"'s,
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and its U.S. dollar resale value today ($250 - $1,000) is often not too
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far off from its U.S. dollar retail price at its introduction more than
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a decade ago ($1,000).
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I sincerely believe I have made major progress in narrowing the
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difference between owning a real "808" and owning samples of one. When
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put to proper use, these samples can be considered better than using a
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real "808". Unlike a real "808", with these samples one can have the
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certain drum sounds playing simultaneously that cannot do so on a real
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"808", (Hand Claps and Maracas, for example.) as well as scale the
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velocities of the sounds, and even apply grooves and timing to the beat
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in a manner much more sophisticated and clearly beyond the capabilities
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of a real "808". With the right sampler, these "808" samples can, for
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all practical purposes, make a real "808" obsolete. I feel these samples
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are of higher quality than those found in current commercial drum
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machines. I feel these "808" samples are of higher quality than any
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currently offered by commercial sample vendors. Quite frankly, I feel
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this is the best overall sound sample set of the TR-808 to date. And
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best of all, and very unlike many of the "competiting" samples, these
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samples are ABSOLUTELY FREE!
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What I have attempted to do is create a high quality sound sample set of
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the "808" that is so comprehensive in sample range, that even the
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"analogue purist" (the types who are actively pursing real "808"'s still
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today...) would be satisfied. I have, through very time consuming,
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painstaking sampling and sample editing work, using professional grade
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equipment, sampled the "808" at five (see "FILENAME INFO" near the end
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of this text file...) uniformly spaced positions for each sound modifier
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knob. ("LEVEL" being the only exception---as I always kept "LEVEL" at
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full to maintain the best signal to noise ratio.) As a result, this
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rather comprehensive "808" sound sample set has the following :
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25 Bass Drum sounds
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25 Snare Drum sounds
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5 Low Tom sounds
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5 Mid Tom sounds
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5 Hi Tom sounds
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5 Low Conga sounds
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5 Mid Conga sounds
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5 Hi Conga sounds
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1 Rim Shot sound
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1 Claves sound
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1 Hand Clap sound
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1 Maracas sound
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1 Cow Bell sound
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25 Cymbal sounds
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5 Open Hi Hat sounds
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1 Closed Hi Hat sound
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...making for a grand total of 116 sound samples of the Roland TR-808
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Rhythm Composer!
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These samples were taken _DIRECTLY_ from a Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer
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(SERIAL NO. 103852). They are _NOT_ samples of samples (i.e. sampled
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from a recent drum machine, such as the Boss DR-660, Roland R-8,
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R-8MkII, etc...) In other words, these samples were taken from a REAL
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TR-808. All samples were recorded from the individual sound outputs (I
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did NOT use the "HI" or "LO" "LEVEL" "MASTER OUT"puts!). While being
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recorded, each sound (on the TR-808) was at highest volume level (with
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all other volume levels set to the lowest possible setting), and the
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master volume (on the TR-808) was always at the lowest setting. All
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samples were made using SoundEdit 16 1.0.0 on a Macintosh Quadra 660AV.
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EACH and EVERY sample is at 16-Bit, 44.1kHz resolution and was CAREFULLY
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generated, sampled, selected (I recorded many hits of the same
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sound, and picked the one that I felt best represented the average of
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that particular sound) and edited.
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Please enjoy this timeless sample set, and feel free to send me your
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comments (positive or negative).
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Most Sincerely,
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Michael Fischer
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Technopolis
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(810) 650-6396
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fischer1@student.msu.edu
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FILENAME INFO
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Bass Drum sounds start with "BD".
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Snare Drum sounds start with "SD".
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Low Tom sounds start with "LT".
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Mid Tom sounds start with "MT".
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Hi Tom sounds start with "HT".
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Low Conga sounds start with "LC".
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Mid Conga sounds start with "MC".
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Hi Conga sounds start with "HC".
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Rim Shot sound starts with "RS".
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Claves sounds starts with "CL".
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Hand Clap sound starts with "CP".
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Maracas sound starts with "MA".
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Cowbell sound starts with "CB".
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Cymbal sounds start with "CY".
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Open Hi Hat sounds start with "OH".
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Closed Hi Hat sound starts with "CH".
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These two letter abbreviations which determine what the filename begins
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with are the exact ones used to abbreviate the sound names on the actual
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TR-808 instrument select dial.
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The "LEVEL" knob does not count as a knob in filenames, as it
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was always at the maximum setting (to maintain the highest signal to
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noise ratio.)
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On the TR-808, each knob involved in the
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composition/generation/synthesis of a particular drum sound has 11
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uniformly spaced position marks on it (the positions on the dials are
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not numbered, however...and hopefully the synthesis variable they
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control is linearly distributed with respect to the knob position!) I
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consider these 11 marks to be "0" through "10". Due to the fact that
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the "0" position and the "10" position are the minimum (most
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counter-clockwise) and maximum (most clockwise) positions, one may
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consider "0" to be the minimum setting and "10" to be the maximum
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setting. I decided to use dial positions "0" (minimum), "2.5", "5.0"
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(middle), "7.5" and "10.0" (maximum) for my samples. As a result, I
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decided upon the following naming convention :
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"<filename>00.<file extension>" would be a file whose first (and only,
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in this case) knob was set to 0.0 (or the minimum position).
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"<filename>25.<file extension>" would be a file whose first (and only,
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in this case) knob was set to 2.5.
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"<filename>50.<file extension>" would be a file whose first (and only,
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in this case) knob was set to 5.0 (or the middle position).
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"<filename>75.<file extension>" would be a file whose first (and only,
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in this case) knob was set to 7.5.
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"<filename>10.<file extension>" would be a file whose first (and only,
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in this case) knob was set to 10.0 (or the maximum position). It does
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NOT mean the knob was set to 1.0!
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Example : Low Tom with "TUNING" knob set to middle position would be
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"LT50.<file extension>". If the file happened to be a ".WAV" ("WAVE")
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file, the name would be "LT50.WAV".
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For sounds which had TWO knobs, such as the Bass Drum, Snare Drum, and
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Cymbal...
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The naming convention is the same, but with two additional setting
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position numbers after the first two...
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Example : Bass Drum with "TUNING" knob set between the minimum and
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middle position and "DECAY" set halfway between the middle and maximum
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position would be "BD2575.<file extension>". If the file happened to be
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a ".WAV" ("WAVE") file, the name would be "BD2575.WAV".
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Once again, this naming convention was used for ALL the samples.
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Of importance is the following :
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* In filenames, "TONE" and "TUNING" come before "DECAY" and "SNAPPY".
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Once again, please enjoy, and please do send me feedback on what you
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think of these samples.
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Sincerely,
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Michael Fischer
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Technopolis
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(810) 650-6396
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fischer1@student.msu.edu
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