The Roland TR-808 Monograph — RG 01

Section 01 · Recorded music and influence

The music

Early records used the physical machine. Musicians then sampled, reversed and layered its sounds. Later software and new hardware recreated it. The name “808” is now also used for a type of bass sound.

These uses are related, but they do not describe the same process. The chronology below labels each one clearly.

Section 02 · How it works

How the TR-808 makes and repeats a rhythm

A drum machine creates and repeats percussion patterns. On the TR-808, the 16 coloured buttons represent 16 moments in a bar of music. Choose a sound, light the moments when it should play, then let the bar loop.

Instead of playing recordings of kick drums, snares or cymbals, its circuits make each hit when it is triggered. This gives the TR-808 its electronic sound.

Try it for yourself

Section 03 · Design and development · Japan · 1978–82

A programmable rhythm machine for making demos

Roland wanted to make a programmable rhythm machine for musicians recording demos. Sample memory was too expensive, so the team used circuits to synthesise each drum sound instead.

Tadao Kikumoto led the development team and Hiro Nakamura designed the analogue voice circuits. Ikutaro Kakehashi later explained that the design used a selected transistor for its noise circuit and that Roland eventually could no longer buy the part.

Roland notes that some earlier machines were modified at the factory before these thresholds. A serial number identifies a likely revision state, not an untouched circuit—and the threshold is not a count of units manufactured.

1. RUN

   1980–82 · approximately 12,000

   Roland’s dedicated history gives a two-year production span and a run of around 12,000 machines. It is the clearest manufacturer account of the total, but not Roland’s only published date range.

   Roland: The TR-808 Story

3. PART

   Selection is documented; the procurement story is oral history

   Roland’s 1981 parts list verifies that Q35 was a selected-noise 2SC828(R). The later company account says out-of-specification parts were bought deliberately and that their exhaustion helped end production. The service document does not itself record that purchasing history.

   Roland TR-808 Service NotesRoland: The TR-808 Story

4. VARIANCE

   Some surviving units use different components

   One repairer reports finding paint-marked 2SC536 and 2SC945 parts apparently installed as original noise transistors in two machines. It is useful evidence of possible late substitution, but the author labels the listening tests preliminary; it cannot establish how common the change was.

   TR-808 noise transistor update

Primary documentRoland TR-808 Service NotesFirst edition, 15 June 1981; second printing, 12 July 1983Primary documentRoland TR-808 Operation ManualOriginal operating instructions and connection diagramsManufacturerRoland: The TR-808 StoryManufacturer history and production accountManufacturerRoland TR-808 technical specificationsOfficial support record; labels the model 1981–1983ManufacturerTadao Kikumoto: An Exclusive ConversationRoland interview with the development lead, 2020Primary documentRoland Keyboard Catalogue, Vol. 5February 1983 catalogue; TR-808 listing on printed page 10Technical paperA Physically-Informed Model of the TR-808 Bass DrumWerner, Abel and Smith, DAFx-14Technical paperThe TR-808 Cymbal: a Physically-Informed ModelWerner, Abel and Smith, ICMC/SMC 2014; CC BY 3.0Museum recordThe Henry Ford: TR-808, 1981Museum object record and rear-panel transcriptionCorporate historyRoland corporate historyCompany chronology and Japanese factory milestonesBench reportTR-808 noise transistor updatePreliminary repair-bench observations, 2018

Now you know everything about it. Try it out.

Program all eleven synthesised voices, switch between A and B variations, write fills, and save your patterns in this browser. Start with the lit steps, then make the rhythm your own.