I say the TR-808 is coming, bright and early in the morning. That is a classic line in the song of the same name from 1990’s. It was performed by my boy Derrick better known as DJ D-Nice. Roland TR-808 had as much to do with building hip hop as Def Jam did. The drum machine had part in hit songs by artists like Afrika Bambaataa, the Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, Kanye West, Outkast and many others. Before hip hop got a hold of the 808 the legendary Marvin Gaye used an it on his amazing track, Sexual Healing.
Thanks to the wonder of the internet you can make your own hit with a TR 808. The online version of the 808 has all the classic bass that the hardware is known for. The web version of the instrument has all the sounds you’ve heard in the classic songs. Should you want to play with the real thing, you can. Roland reintroduced the TR-808 as the TR8 but play with the virtual one first. The virtual machine lets you play with the TR, LinnDrum and Elektron Machinedrum. After you’ve sequenced something you like, you can export a WAV file of your track. I’ve been playing with it for hours. You can find the virtual 808 at http://html5drummachine.com