4 ms·

> I think the TR-808 is the only one that might qualify. Only? No way! :D The Roland TR-909 is also extremely popular and was considered the sound of techno a

by ratww 6y ago

> I think the TR-808 is the only one that might qualify. Only? No way! :D The Roland TR-909 is also extremely popular and was considered the sound of techno and house even after the TR-808 started to fade outside hip-hop. In the mid-90s it was one of the first drum machines to start being cloned by new manufacturers due to the demand. The bass drum is still used as the foundation for a lot of EDM. It never went away... while the 808 which is back but was considered passé even in hip-hop for a short while. The TB-303 Bass Synth is also extremely sought after. It was the sound of Acid House in the late 80s and was also a mainstay in the 90s for a lot of producers, even though it's limited. Today it's kind of a novelty but you still hear it in some tracks. More recently Behringer made a clone and Roland reissued it. Both of those two got in the vernacular of EDM fans at the time. Also the TR-606 has some cult status due to being used by artists like Autechre, Aphex Twin and Plastikman among others, which are sort of "musician's musicians" among the electronic music crowd, although it wasn't as famous as 303/808/909 among general listeners.

alisonatwork 6y ago
I think this is where the conversation starts to get a bit far away from the original topic, which was about how the DX7 changed modern music. I am also a big fan of electronic music and owned several of the x0x synths, but they're only really recognizable to people who are already into synths. Of course if you play an 808 and 909 next to one another, they don't sound the same. But if you play a random piece of music and ask a casual listener what drum machine it features, I don't think they would be able to tell you. (Unless, perhaps, it's an 808!) Even something that synth nuts know to be as unique and genre-defining as a TB-303, to the casual listener it isn't distinguishable from an SH-101 or any other analog monosynth. People might know what an acid line sounds like, but they don't tend to have the same kind of ear that musicians do to be able to spot one synth model from the other in the final mix. When I think about a synth so distinctive and widespread that it changed modern music, I think about something that average people who aren't musicians can identify. The DX7 might have been that, since it was the first synthesizer that really went mass-market. All the synths before that were "niche" instruments, but the DX7 made synth music mainstream, so perhaps it was very identifiable. But then the floodgates opened, so it might only have lasted for a few years. The 808, though, I think a lot of people still really know and understand what kind of "sound" that is. But I could be wrong.
- ratww 6y ago
  I dunno... I disagree with the assertion that the DX7 was the synth that made synth music mainstream. A lot of pop from before was already using synths. Funkytown was a Billboard #1 hit 4 years before the DX7, and so was Vangelis, Human League, Eurythmics and Owner of a Lonely Heart a year or two after that, not to mention lots of Michael Jackson and even the Ghostbuster theme... and that's just the Billboard #1 hits. Even Van Halen released "Jump" a year before the DX7, and England was already having synth bands since the late 80s. People were more than used to synthesizers by the time the DX7 hit. And about the 909/303, back in the 80s/90s a lot of EDM tracks had 909 in the title, including a Daft Punk track. Same for some 303 tracks (but Acid was way more obscure). House and Techno people definitely heard about those. In fact, they were probably more popular than the DX7. Sure none of those comes close to the 808 today, but that's because the 808 itself had a resurgence in the mid-2000s, and hip hop only got bigger since them.
  - alisonatwork 6y ago
    You are correct that synth music as a genre existed before the DX7, and that synths were used in popular songs even going back into the 70s. But what this article is discussing, and what most people discuss when they talk about the DX7, is how its sales dwarfed that of any synth that came before it. It didn't just become a piece of equipment used by major studios in countless hits across many different genres, it also became an affordable and useful instrument for working musicians across the board. Right up the top of this thread the first commenter explained it well: "The keyboard player's job moved from playing the piano or organ to coming up with all the accompaniment parts that aren't guitars." What I don't know is if the DX7 itself was particularly recognized as a DX7 by most of the people listening to music that was made with it. My guess is that most casual listeners still just considered it "the thing that the keyboard player is playing". This is why I am not sure that it is as uniquely distinctive as the commenter near the top of this thread suggested. Of course trained musicians can identify a DX7 in a track, just as they might be able to hear the difference between a Stratocaster and a Telecaster. Dedicated fans might also hear the difference, if they're interested enough to pay attention. But someone just listening to a tune on the radio, humming along to it, I don't think they're going to go "yep, that's the good ol' DX7 electric piano patch" or "yep that's a classic Strat sound". Personally, I think laypeople do identify the 808 in this way, just judging from anecdotal conversations with people who are not musicians, not DJs, not "serious" music fans, just regular people. This is why I think the 808 is an interesting instrument, and perhaps special in a way that the DX7 wasn't, and the TB-303 and TR-909 weren't. That doesn't mean those other synths aren't special for their own reasons, I was just commenting on something I perceive to be unique about the 808 - a relatively widespread understanding of what its "sound" is. If you are a hardcore music fan or a musician, it can be illuminating to do some testing with someone who isn't. Play them a song, point out some piece of equipment, explain to them why this song has a 909 hihat but that song has a 707 hihat, and how you can tell the difference. Then play them another song and see if they can identify the hihat. 9 times out of 10 that's not what people are listening for. That's not how they experience music, they don't break it down like that.
scns 6y ago
Agree with you on the 909 and especially the 303, the synth that birthed the acid genre and is still in use to create new music, check out Tin Man Neo Neo Acid. Hard disagree on Plastikman being a musicians musician though. He was beyond huge in the 90ies, saw a guy with a Plastikman tattoo covering his whole back. Richie Hawtin went on to become one of the top DJs in the world. One year he played on four new years eve parties, travelling by private plane.
- ratww 6y ago
  Ooops, just re-read my message and you're absolutely right. My mistake. I fixed it. Actually even Aphex Twin is pretty famous... the only thing not famous is the phrase is the TR-606! hehe
- tomduncalf 6y ago
  Also check TM404, who does very good music in the Tin Man kind of style, maybe a bit more “dubby”, using classic Roland gear (303 etc)

by ratww 6y ago

alisonatwork 6y ago

I think this is where the conversation starts to get a bit far away from the original topic, which was about how the DX7 changed modern music. I am also a big fan of electronic music and owned several of the x0x synths, but they're only really recognizable to people who are already into synths. Of course if you play an 808 and 909 next to one another, they don't sound the same. But if you play a random piece of music and ask a casual listener what drum machine it features, I don't think they would be able to tell you. (Unless, perhaps, it's an 808!) Even something that synth nuts know to be as unique and genre-defining as a TB-303, to the casual listener it isn't distinguishable from an SH-101 or any other analog monosynth. People might know what an acid line sounds like, but they don't tend to have the same kind of ear that musicians do to be able to spot one synth model from the other in the final mix. When I think about a synth so distinctive and widespread that it changed modern music, I think about something that average people who aren't musicians can identify. The DX7 might have been that, since it was the first synthesizer that really went mass-market. All the synths before that were "niche" instruments, but the DX7 made synth music mainstream, so perhaps it was very identifiable. But then the floodgates opened, so it might only have lasted for a few years. The 808, though, I think a lot of people still really know and understand what kind of "sound" that is. But I could be wrong.

ratww 6y ago
I dunno... I disagree with the assertion that the DX7 was the synth that made synth music mainstream. A lot of pop from before was already using synths. Funkytown was a Billboard #1 hit 4 years before the DX7, and so was Vangelis, Human League, Eurythmics and Owner of a Lonely Heart a year or two after that, not to mention lots of Michael Jackson and even the Ghostbuster theme... and that's just the Billboard #1 hits. Even Van Halen released "Jump" a year before the DX7, and England was already having synth bands since the late 80s. People were more than used to synthesizers by the time the DX7 hit. And about the 909/303, back in the 80s/90s a lot of EDM tracks had 909 in the title, including a Daft Punk track. Same for some 303 tracks (but Acid was way more obscure). House and Techno people definitely heard about those. In fact, they were probably more popular than the DX7. Sure none of those comes close to the 808 today, but that's because the 808 itself had a resurgence in the mid-2000s, and hip hop only got bigger since them.
- alisonatwork 6y ago
  You are correct that synth music as a genre existed before the DX7, and that synths were used in popular songs even going back into the 70s. But what this article is discussing, and what most people discuss when they talk about the DX7, is how its sales dwarfed that of any synth that came before it. It didn't just become a piece of equipment used by major studios in countless hits across many different genres, it also became an affordable and useful instrument for working musicians across the board. Right up the top of this thread the first commenter explained it well: "The keyboard player's job moved from playing the piano or organ to coming up with all the accompaniment parts that aren't guitars." What I don't know is if the DX7 itself was particularly recognized as a DX7 by most of the people listening to music that was made with it. My guess is that most casual listeners still just considered it "the thing that the keyboard player is playing". This is why I am not sure that it is as uniquely distinctive as the commenter near the top of this thread suggested. Of course trained musicians can identify a DX7 in a track, just as they might be able to hear the difference between a Stratocaster and a Telecaster. Dedicated fans might also hear the difference, if they're interested enough to pay attention. But someone just listening to a tune on the radio, humming along to it, I don't think they're going to go "yep, that's the good ol' DX7 electric piano patch" or "yep that's a classic Strat sound". Personally, I think laypeople do identify the 808 in this way, just judging from anecdotal conversations with people who are not musicians, not DJs, not "serious" music fans, just regular people. This is why I think the 808 is an interesting instrument, and perhaps special in a way that the DX7 wasn't, and the TB-303 and TR-909 weren't. That doesn't mean those other synths aren't special for their own reasons, I was just commenting on something I perceive to be unique about the 808 - a relatively widespread understanding of what its "sound" is. If you are a hardcore music fan or a musician, it can be illuminating to do some testing with someone who isn't. Play them a song, point out some piece of equipment, explain to them why this song has a 909 hihat but that song has a 707 hihat, and how you can tell the difference. Then play them another song and see if they can identify the hihat. 9 times out of 10 that's not what people are listening for. That's not how they experience music, they don't break it down like that.

scns 6y ago

Agree with you on the 909 and especially the 303, the synth that birthed the acid genre and is still in use to create new music, check out Tin Man Neo Neo Acid. Hard disagree on Plastikman being a musicians musician though. He was beyond huge in the 90ies, saw a guy with a Plastikman tattoo covering his whole back. Richie Hawtin went on to become one of the top DJs in the world. One year he played on four new years eve parties, travelling by private plane.

ratww 6y ago
Ooops, just re-read my message and you're absolutely right. My mistake. I fixed it. Actually even Aphex Twin is pretty famous... the only thing not famous is the phrase is the TR-606! hehe
tomduncalf 6y ago
Also check TM404, who does very good music in the Tin Man kind of style, maybe a bit more “dubby”, using classic Roland gear (303 etc)