To answer a conversation a few of us were having, the Drumtraks is indeed a hybrid of the same samples found on the Oberheim and Linn machines, albeit it at lower fidelity. I compared the DMX snare to the Drumtraks snare (at tuning 4) in my DAW and they're identical: instagram.com/p/B0GVA09hg0Y/?igshid=8to55lz5nul2 Roger Linn also talks about it in this NAMM interview from 1:20 (thanks to madFame for the link): www.namm.org/library/oral-history/roger-linn He refers to the TOM and the Linn snare and Oberheim hi-hat, but I think he means the Drumtraks and the Oberheim snare and Linn hi-hat. Anyway, the Drumtraks was not only more affordable, but gave the same sounds.
Your style of video is brilliant. No long intro with music 3 times louder than the speech. No shameless product placement or sneaky advertising. No waffle, just straight factual information presented in a very easy way to follow. If I could, I would give this 1000 thumbs up.
You are spot on, Nik! I pay for TH-cam Red to avoid having to watch advertising, but most content creators are now sneaking advertisements into their videos. I don't need Norton VPN or SkillShare or any online learning, Thank You!
Wow! You can't BEAT the free samples. Hope this HARD HITTING video DRUMS UP lots of subs for you and STICKS around. It has motivated me to BRUSH up on my drum sequencing technique, and avoid the SNARE of prefabricated rhythms. Boy, I'm on a ROLL now. A whole SEQUENCE of bad puns. And this is just a SAMPLE!
I love all the detail you go into. It just gives me so much more respect to the machines, the time period and the tech. I can only imagine how much time it takes to do the research. Love it! Also, I’m taking full advantage of the sample pack! Thank you!
Thanks. Yes, very interesting to see what limitations they worked within and yet what they pulled off. Research - David Abernethy's book was a big help for people, places and prices. Recommended it if you're into the history.
I own a Linn 9000 (fully upgraded to F9000), Linndrum, and Drumtraks. I have nothing negative to say about the drumtraks. Super solid and well built machine.
I've always been a silent watcher on this channel, but I'd like to let you know your content, knowledge, pedagogy, and truthfulness is incredible and it stands out from the crowd soo much. Thank you Alex !
Drum machines were magic... especially by the late 80's and early 90's. The sequencers were kind of basic but really easy to work with. I had a Yamaha RY30. It was so well thought out. But saving alternate patches and kits was pretty limited unless you were willing to do a ton of SYSEX dumps.
Great to have confirmed my suspicion that Drumtraks used samples from Linn and Oberheim. I have older sample libraries from that machine and in some of these the samples are completely different so I guess it's really hard to know which was the original soundset.
Fun fact: the technician at Roland who co-developed MIDI with Dave Smith was the ex-drummer of DEVO, Jim Mothersbaugh (Mark’s brother). Jim left DEVO to develop instruments, and MIDI was partially created due to DEVO’s need for a standard amongst all their gear.
You are legend bro. I adore and love your DX samples, which I'm very thankful for, but this as well! You sir, are too GENEROUS! I'm gonna download this right away, since it will be sick to have these sounds when creating compositions! Thank you!
Aside from the great information, I love all of the thought that goes into the actual video. The film grain, titles, transition choices, etc all reflect the content and makes the video that much better. Keep it up!
Thanks, Alex! Little by little more friends of mine are starting to buy some pieces of your gear, you're having so much influence on us all... Hugs. Santi from B. O. F.
The main I bought the Drumtraks was that pitch changes being played could be recorded while recording patterns. The LinnDrum or DMX could not do that on the go, you had to stop the pattern recording, change the pitch and then press record.
Nice video and thanks for sampling and providing them! Also my first drum machine. I just sold mine last year after picking up a TR8S. I never *loved* the sounds except the ride and claps, but always loved the sequencer.
Right from the start, you have a cool pattern (with more to come)-no “traditional” patterns here. An informative video, with free samples to boot! Thank you!
Always fancied one of these to go with Multi-trak that I don’t really get on with. One knob for everything is a real pain to program. I’m sure I’ll have a lot of fun messing about with the samples though. Top job, as always!
Awesome video as always dude! Always great to get the history behind and the details of the vintage gear on your channel. And thank you SO much for taking the time to sample everything!!! Going to go and have a play right now!!!
Have fun! They combine very well with the Oberheim DX sample pack I made too. I use DX kick, snare and hats with Drumtraks percussion. That was the combination in the recent Mono/Poly video.
@@AlexBallMusic Thanks! I think its gonna be a late one haha! Excellent, I don't know how I missed that one but I'll go and check it out! Once I've figured out how to get these samples over to Kontact to play through my Maschine MK3 haha!
Already did the Linn LM-1 about a year ago, that video is on my channel. It includes samples. 808 and 909 were both covered in my Roland documentary "Land of the rising sound", although I didn't give away samples. However, I have multisampled an 808 if I find time to chop them up and arrange them into a library. Thought it wasn't needed as there's so many 808 libs out there.
@@retrosound72 Understandable. "The Rolls Royce of drum machines" as it was dubbed. Only played with a LinnDrum a couple of times, shame the prices have gone so high!
Had one and liked it, lots of fun. But couldn't get decent quality ROM chip sound sets for it. The one's I had (808/909) were very poor and weren't recorded properly by the person who sold them to me. So I sold mine as I had a lucky opportunity to buy a TR707/606 and 808 for the same as I sold my Drumtraks for second hand!! I do kind of miss it, but not that much...
Great video Alex, the drum tracks was a great machine I got one after my linndrum broke. As replacement it was pretty good as it sounded similar plus you could use the 2764k eprom chips from the drumulator & oberhiem dx inside the machine and you had midi as standard.
@@AlexBallMusic Thanks for the educational video. It's surprising that to see they had to use four separate roms for the cymbals, i thought i would have just been one for each. It's like the limitations of the hardware made them let creative on how to use the space.
@@theshyguy1580 Yes, creativity from limitation I guess! On a related note, the most amazing thing Roger Linn did with the LM-1 is that the hi-hat sample is actually an open hi-hat and the machine takes a random snippet of it and envelopes it to create a fake closed hat. As the snippet it grabs changes with every new trigger this means that you get round robins from a single sample. Incredibly clever.
I love the 'one sample split into four parts' stored on 4x 8k EEPROM. Whereas now we can have an infinite amount of high fidelity samples stored on terabytes of storage... My main library is on 4x 2TB externals. Then there's the cloud services plugin for many more :) Watching this really puts it into perspective. Thanks for the sample pack, it's most appreciated and great historical info to boot 👍
I'm suspicious the samples are LinnDrum and DMX. They're lower fidelity but the wave forms look pretty identical and they sound basically identical. The snare is DMX and the kick is Linn I think.
My first drum machine mid 80s. Immediately clear that it was a very obvious combination of Linn and DX samples, but less fidelity. Nice touch having tunable sample memory, but I sold it due to the feel of it, or lack there of.
@@AlexBallMusic Damn... nailed it. Another steal of theirs is the crash which, if pitched properly (EDIT: Alex you found it at "Tuning 10" in your zip file), is clearly the LinnDrum's. Plus those hihats sound like DX and the toms are DMX.
One of the interesting things about this particular machine and how successful it was in the market is that, it came out along with a group of other Sequential Circuits products which pretty much tanked on arrival: the SixTrak, MultiTrak, Split-8, MAX and sequencing/editing software for the Commodore 64 computer. They were attempting to reach out to consumers with all of these products, but they failed. The success of this machine looks almost like a fluke, amidst all the turkeys. You know what would be awesome, Alex? You should do a video comparing this one with the RX5. Last year when I got my DTX multi 12, I created a drum kit using RX5 samples that Yamaha had uploaded to the hard drive memory. I would not be surprised if their R&D department had utilized the same EEPROMs in the design of that model.
Absolutely right. Experiments with synths and sequencers setup to work with computers flopped and ironically became the norm years after Sequential went under. I played a Max and Sixtrack and they have a nice sound, but are pretty unworkable without computer control. Drumtraks was a success in the midst of that, as you say. Think the TOM did OK too.
@@AlexBallMusic I think the Sixtrak was a swan amongst those turkeys. I still use it today with a SixTweak controller box from Stereoping to bring the functions to the surface. Based around the CEM3340 VCO its six voice Unison mode is just marvellous!
Great video, I have that prophet 5 book by Mr Abernethy and agree it’s a great book but what happened to your signature greeting “hey I hope you’re well?” Used to give me a warm fuzzy familiar feeling 😁
"Hey, I hope you're good.." Does that feel right now? :) Yep, David's book is perfect. Would be amazing if one existed for each manufacturer in such detail.
Thanks. I sold mine some time ago, and didn't sample beforehand. Check out Dark Entries issues of Patrick Cowleys film soundtracks (School Daze for example) for extensive and superb use of the Drumtraks
Can you please expand on what digital to analog conversion means? Will this machine essential sound analog if used in a mix as opposed to using digital samples in my daw? Thanks!
The original tone sources are digital samples, but in order to hear them they have to go through analogue converters. Similarly, your DAW is digital, but when your computer is connected to an audio interface or sound card, this contains D/A converters so the audio that comes out of your speakers is analogue. But they are both inherently digital. D/A converters vary massively and are part of a devices sound quality.
My first drum machine, mid 80s. Very obvious combination of Linn and Oberheim sounds but lesser fidelity, and I’ve always strongly disliked the feel. Traded it in and got the originals it was worth it.
Love that Bass drum! But I too could only afford the KPR-77 at the time. Not a bad little box. But then when Depeche Mode made it famous on their Speak & Spell album, it was time to move on. LOL
Great video man I can say, and a long time coming. The Sequential Circuits Drumtraks, hell and Sequential Circuits Drum machine is hard to find information on. You wouldn't happen to have a Studio 440 that you can review would you?
I don't have a Studio 440 or even know where one is unfortunately, but there's a chance I could borrow a Sequential TOM or a Linn 9000. Possibly a LinnDrum too if I'm very lucky. Will see whether the stars align on any of those.
Ha. Well, I mentioned that and played 10 seconds of metal in my Roland documentary, but I don't know enough about it to make something like that myself. I also did a video with it on the Juno-6 recreating Daft Punk. I have got a very specific guitar pedal thing I'm hoping to do if I can pull it off...
I guess almost nobody can hear 22kHz even as a baby. The sound at 4:09 sounds exactly like the sound from Boing Boom Tschak/Techno Pop by Kraftwerk. (People say it was a Linn 9000 but this one here songs so close)
Great video Alex! I just picked up a Drumtraks and the previous owner has deleted all the factory patterns and written over them. Do you by chance know where to get the original factory patterns? Thank you!!
Hi! I have no idea I'm afraid. I don't think this unit had any factory beats on it and I sold it 18 months ago anyway. Perhaps some nerd online will have posted the file? The source code of the original samples are online.
Nice video. You made one minor mistake regarding the backstory, though: I believe Tom Oberheim was also involved with the creation of MIDI. Still, great video, and interesting to learn that despite its price, it was like the original Linn LM-1 in that all sounds could be tuned. Will download the sounds to try out for myself soon.
Don't think Tom was involved other than agreeing to drop his own system to support it in order to pressure others to follow suit. Think there were suggestions on what it should include from a number of parties (including Tom) but it was only Dave Smith and Ikutaro Kakehashi who were awarded the Technical Grammy for its actual creation.
Great video! I first found about this machine a few months ago after learning it was used by Tame Impala for a lot of tracks on his album Currents. I’ve been looking for good samples of it!
Great demo! I got one recently and when I save patterns and I turn off the drumtraks, The presets are erased when I turn it on. Is there another step in saving presets with this machine?
Alex Ball This is understandable but a real shame. I was relistening to the series the other day and they work on so many levels educationally, insightfully, humourously..etc. I wondered whether you’d be able to approach a tv company to finance a series on tv or maybe an open university type programme. You clearly have the compositional and ‘comprehensionable’ chops to understand and interpret the scores, and can also script the programme in an interesting, involving and enlightening way. I imagine the viewing numbers are diminishing under weight of youtube uploads and a thirst for the latest release...I think if more people were aware the ‘spiffing series’ was out there the numbers would increase expedentionally. Whatever your ambitions/ inclinations I look forward to every upload you make, so will be around for the long haul as you are my favourite youtuber!
They were fun to do, but as they became more in depth I was having to more and more work to make the videos. The last one on woodwinds involved about two months of reading theory books and going back and forth to the scores to find key elements to extract quintessential examples. A year later and it's had a trickle of views and the views have dropped with every episode I made. I started a brass one and got about two weeks into it and it was hard going. I knew it would take weeks and weeks to research and get very little response, so I totally lost motivation. My channel has also changed direction quite a bit and so I think it would seem completely bizarre to the 20,000+ subscribers who've joined since I last uploaded one. I also don't want to be involved with production companies because I work in TV and my TH-cam channel is an outlet for things I want to keep separate from that. Sorry it's not worked out. I know there's a handful of people who enjoyed them. Maybe someone else could finish it off.
Alex Ball I appreciate you taking the time to respond so fully. You’re right to follow your instincts. I’ve loved everything you’ve done so far, so will welcome whatever direction it takes. Is it ever possible you will ever run out of old gear to review?! No need to answer - I await your next adventure!
I've tried to grab a DMX about three times and it's never worked out, but I'd love to if I can. Ditto the Linn Drum. I might be lucky and be able to borrow one at some point because they're too expensive to buy nowadays.
So I have one of these end wondering about the time keeping - it’s slowly goes off the grid … so it’s starts ok but after the first bar the latency starts and slowly stays more and more behind the actual grid …. anyone ?
Off the grid? When clocked via midi clock? Have you set the correct PPQN value? If you haven't, then it will drift. Edit: Just checked the original manual and midi clock setup is in section 10. PPQN configuration is on page 50. www.vintagesynth.com/sites/default/files/2017-05/DrumtraksOperationsManual.pdf
To answer a conversation a few of us were having, the Drumtraks is indeed a hybrid of the same samples found on the Oberheim and Linn machines, albeit it at lower fidelity.
I compared the DMX snare to the Drumtraks snare (at tuning 4) in my DAW and they're identical: instagram.com/p/B0GVA09hg0Y/?igshid=8to55lz5nul2
Roger Linn also talks about it in this NAMM interview from 1:20 (thanks to madFame for the link): www.namm.org/library/oral-history/roger-linn
He refers to the TOM and the Linn snare and Oberheim hi-hat, but I think he means the Drumtraks and the Oberheim snare and Linn hi-hat.
Anyway, the Drumtraks was not only more affordable, but gave the same sounds.
Thanks you so much you are the best
In other words...crunchy.
Your style of video is brilliant. No long intro with music 3 times louder than the speech. No shameless product placement or sneaky advertising. No waffle, just straight factual information presented in a very easy way to follow. If I could, I would give this 1000 thumbs up.
You are spot on, Nik! I pay for TH-cam Red to avoid having to watch advertising, but most content creators are now sneaking advertisements into their videos. I don't need Norton VPN or SkillShare or any online learning, Thank You!
What the hell dude your samples are better than every paid pack I've come across.. Absolute legend for doing these!
Glad to know they're useful. Thanks for dropping by.
Wow! You can't BEAT the free samples. Hope this HARD HITTING video DRUMS UP lots of subs for you and STICKS around. It has motivated me to BRUSH up on my drum sequencing technique, and avoid the SNARE of prefabricated rhythms. Boy, I'm on a ROLL now. A whole SEQUENCE of bad puns. And this is just a SAMPLE!
Incredible punnage. I salute you sir.
I think I have cancer now
I love all the detail you go into. It just gives me so much more respect to the machines, the time period and the tech. I can only imagine how much time it takes to do the research. Love it! Also, I’m taking full advantage of the sample pack! Thank you!
Thanks. Yes, very interesting to see what limitations they worked within and yet what they pulled off.
Research - David Abernethy's book was a big help for people, places and prices. Recommended it if you're into the history.
I own a Linn 9000 (fully upgraded to F9000), Linndrum, and Drumtraks. I have nothing negative to say about the drumtraks. Super solid and well built machine.
I've always been a silent watcher on this channel, but I'd like to let you know your content, knowledge, pedagogy, and truthfulness is incredible and it stands out from the crowd soo much.
Thank you Alex !
Drum machines were magic... especially by the late 80's and early 90's. The sequencers were kind of basic but really easy to work with. I had a Yamaha RY30. It was so well thought out. But saving alternate patches and kits was pretty limited unless you were willing to do a ton of SYSEX dumps.
Alex, thank you for this historical review and the download. Such a great channel. Your history of Roland is by far one of the best videos on TH-cam.
nothing more to say! Thank you so much!
Very kind of you to take the time to sample it so well and give them away. I'm certainly benefiting from them.
I can't stop using these samples! I love the punchy, old-school feel on my, "Level Up!" vid. Thanks so much for sharing them!
Great to have confirmed my suspicion that Drumtraks used samples from Linn and Oberheim. I have older sample libraries from that machine and in some of these the samples are completely different so I guess it's really hard to know which was the original soundset.
Fun fact: the technician at Roland who co-developed MIDI with Dave Smith was the ex-drummer of DEVO, Jim Mothersbaugh (Mark’s brother). Jim left DEVO to develop instruments, and MIDI was partially created due to DEVO’s need for a standard amongst all their gear.
Thanks for the samples! They're very neatly organized.
Pleasure. Enjoy!
You are legend bro. I adore and love your DX samples, which I'm very thankful for, but this as well! You sir, are too GENEROUS! I'm gonna download this right away, since it will be sick to have these sounds when creating compositions! Thank you!
Aside from the great information, I love all of the thought that goes into the actual video. The film grain, titles, transition choices, etc all reflect the content and makes the video that much better. Keep it up!
Thanks!
Seeing the drum machines listed by price is really informative, from Michael Jackson, New Wave, Italo down to Chicago House. Awesome video, thank you!
Thanks, Alex! Little by little more friends of mine are starting to buy some pieces of your gear, you're having so much influence on us all... Hugs. Santi from B. O. F.
Happy to spread the G.A.S.
:)
I love ❤️ the clap sound, and thanks for taking your precious time to sample this nice drum machine.
The main I bought the Drumtraks was that pitch changes being played could be recorded while recording patterns. The LinnDrum or DMX could not do that on the go, you had to stop the pattern recording, change the pitch and then press record.
Nice video and thanks for sampling and providing them! Also my first drum machine. I just sold mine last year after picking up a TR8S. I never *loved* the sounds except the ride and claps, but always loved the sequencer.
TR-8S is a far better machine. The Drumtraks is for crunchy nostalgia and history nuts.
You could even load my samples into your TR-8S!
again, these documentaries are simply amazing!! thank you so much for your work and for the samples! abraços do brasil!
Alex, how super generous to go to the trouble of all the samples, most kind!
Right from the start, you have a cool pattern (with more to come)-no “traditional” patterns here. An informative video, with free samples to boot! Thank you!
Informative, on point and well produced. As always from Mr. Ball 👌 - btw that thing sounds just awesome 🤘
Always fancied one of these to go with Multi-trak that I don’t really get on with. One knob for everything is a real pain to program. I’m sure I’ll have a lot of fun messing about with the samples though. Top job, as always!
Awesome video as always dude! Always great to get the history behind and the details of the vintage gear on your channel. And thank you SO much for taking the time to sample everything!!! Going to go and have a play right now!!!
Have fun! They combine very well with the Oberheim DX sample pack I made too. I use DX kick, snare and hats with Drumtraks percussion. That was the combination in the recent Mono/Poly video.
@@AlexBallMusic Thanks! I think its gonna be a late one haha! Excellent, I don't know how I missed that one but I'll go and check it out! Once I've figured out how to get these samples over to Kontact to play through my Maschine MK3 haha!
Thanks for the samples. You have a killer channel. Lot's of great info!
Fantastic watch, thanks for sharing! Added bonus that you provided the samples too - going to use and abuse these... 😁
The Linn LM-1 claps were heard in this video.
This is gold! Please, please do the same for Linn LM and DMX next! Or TR 909 / 808!
Already did the Linn LM-1 about a year ago, that video is on my channel. It includes samples.
808 and 909 were both covered in my Roland documentary "Land of the rising sound", although I didn't give away samples.
However, I have multisampled an 808 if I find time to chop them up and arrange them into a library. Thought it wasn't needed as there's so many 808 libs out there.
I really enjoy learning the history behind these machines. Thanks Alex.
Thanks Chris. Yep, I think it's quite interesting to find out about the who, why, how etc.
Alex Ball absolutely
Very cool and informative, many thanks Alex!
Thank you kindly for this amazing sample pack as well as for another stunningly produced info video.
Thank you so much for VERY high quality sample pack! Amazing!
You're welcome. Enjoy!
One of my first drummachines. Long before the LinnDrum. Great video.
But which is your favourite?
@@AlexBallMusic The Linn.
@@retrosound72 Understandable. "The Rolls Royce of drum machines" as it was dubbed. Only played with a LinnDrum a couple of times, shame the prices have gone so high!
@@AlexBallMusic yes very expensive these days. :(
Again such an enthusiastic and competent insight into great gear of the past. Thank you so much!!! Great review (whished I had one 30yrs ago😀)
Had one and liked it, lots of fun. But couldn't get decent quality ROM chip sound sets for it. The one's I had (808/909) were very poor and weren't recorded properly by the person who sold them to me. So I sold mine as I had a lucky opportunity to buy a TR707/606 and 808 for the same as I sold my Drumtraks for second hand!! I do kind of miss it, but not that much...
Thanks for the samples though, really appreciated!!
Great video and very informative, always look forward to your old school reviews/history lessons.
Thanks!
Thanks for the detailed video and the sample pack that you've prepared meticulously! I have no doubt that It will help me a lot.
Wonderfully done, thank you Mr. Ball, learn so much from you
Great video Alex, the drum tracks was a great machine I got one after my linndrum broke. As replacement it was pretty good as it sounded similar plus you could use the 2764k eprom chips from the drumulator & oberhiem dx inside the machine and you had midi as standard.
You can call the sounds lo-fi as long as you want, that drum machine sounds lovely!
Oh yes! The lo-fi sound is part of the crunch and bite!
The Drumtraks kickdrum is punchy. It's probably from the Linndrum and if you have one you have a Linndrum and Oberheim DMX in one
I had no idea this machine existed. This makes guessing which songs used the oberhiem even more confusing 😅. Fantastic video!
Thank you for the samples! Diggin' them so far.
I totally love the video! It's so great to get some of the background story! And you're also giving away the samples!! You are too generous!!! Thanks!
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it.
Wah! never knew about aliasing when using low bit samples! Just thought it was a cool lowfi sound, now I'm gonna look it up further!
The crunch and fizz that has become part of the sound we know and love!
@@AlexBallMusic Thanks for the educational video. It's surprising that to see they had to use four separate roms for the cymbals, i thought i would have just been one for each. It's like the limitations of the hardware made them let creative on how to use the space.
@@theshyguy1580 Yes, creativity from limitation I guess!
On a related note, the most amazing thing Roger Linn did with the LM-1 is that the hi-hat sample is actually an open hi-hat and the machine takes a random snippet of it and envelopes it to create a fake closed hat. As the snippet it grabs changes with every new trigger this means that you get round robins from a single sample. Incredibly clever.
In the Graffiti Rock theme, the DrumTraks is heard.
I had one last year. I couldn't get on with it's sequencer. The sounds were very punch though.
I love the 'one sample split into four parts' stored on 4x 8k EEPROM. Whereas now we can have an infinite amount of high fidelity samples stored on terabytes of storage... My main library is on 4x 2TB externals. Then there's the cloud services plugin for many more :) Watching this really puts it into perspective. Thanks for the sample pack, it's most appreciated and great historical info to boot 👍
Yep, so painfully limited and yet, enough to make instruments that inspired many artists and producers.
Very cool, thxs !! Can’t wait to try the samples tomorrow!
Im pretty sure that the samples are a mixture of a Linndrum and an Oberheim DX/DMX.
I'm suspicious the samples are LinnDrum and DMX. They're lower fidelity but the wave forms look pretty identical and they sound basically identical. The snare is DMX and the kick is Linn I think.
My first drum machine mid 80s. Immediately clear that it was a very obvious combination of Linn and DX samples, but less fidelity. Nice touch having tunable sample memory, but I sold it due to the feel of it, or lack there of.
Checked in my DAW and the snare is definitely the DMX snare: instagram.com/p/B0GVA09hg0Y/?
@@AlexBallMusic Damn... nailed it. Another steal of theirs is the crash which, if pitched properly (EDIT: Alex you found it at "Tuning 10" in your zip file), is clearly the LinnDrum's. Plus those hihats sound like DX and the toms are DMX.
Thanks for the samples, man! Always a good day when an Alex Ball video drops.
Cheers. Have fun with them!
One of the interesting things about this particular machine and how successful it was in the market is that, it came out along with a group of other Sequential Circuits products which pretty much tanked on arrival: the SixTrak, MultiTrak, Split-8, MAX and sequencing/editing software for the Commodore 64 computer. They were attempting to reach out to consumers with all of these products, but they failed. The success of this machine looks almost like a fluke, amidst all the turkeys.
You know what would be awesome, Alex? You should do a video comparing this one with the RX5. Last year when I got my DTX multi 12, I created a drum kit using RX5 samples that Yamaha had uploaded to the hard drive memory. I would not be surprised if their R&D department had utilized the same EEPROMs in the design of that model.
Absolutely right. Experiments with synths and sequencers setup to work with computers flopped and ironically became the norm years after Sequential went under.
I played a Max and Sixtrack and they have a nice sound, but are pretty unworkable without computer control.
Drumtraks was a success in the midst of that, as you say. Think the TOM did OK too.
Yamaha - yes, interested to look at their drum machines at some point.
@@AlexBallMusic I think the Sixtrak was a swan amongst those turkeys. I still use it today with a SixTweak controller box from Stereoping to bring the functions to the surface. Based around the CEM3340 VCO its six voice Unison mode is just marvellous!
Thanks a lot, really appreciate the effort you put in to this.. Both samples and history/video!
Great video, I have that prophet 5 book by Mr Abernethy and agree it’s a great book but what happened to your signature greeting “hey I hope you’re well?” Used to give me a warm fuzzy familiar feeling 😁
"Hey, I hope you're good.."
Does that feel right now? :)
Yep, David's book is perfect. Would be amazing if one existed for each manufacturer in such detail.
Alex Ball that’s much better thank you 👏👏👏
Just downloaded these Samples, thank you very much!
Enjoy!
Fun fun fun! 😍😍😍 Loved seeing these, thank you!
Enjoy!
Thanks. I sold mine some time ago, and didn't sample beforehand. Check out Dark Entries issues of Patrick Cowleys film soundtracks (School Daze for example) for extensive and superb use of the Drumtraks
This is the real deal, i love these machines! Thanks for making a kit for us. PS: You've earned a sub, for good overall work!
Your samples of theese machines are gold! Thank you Alex. :)
Can you please expand on what digital to analog conversion means? Will this machine essential sound analog if used in a mix as opposed to using digital samples in my daw? Thanks!
The original tone sources are digital samples, but in order to hear them they have to go through analogue converters. Similarly, your DAW is digital, but when your computer is connected to an audio interface or sound card, this contains D/A converters so the audio that comes out of your speakers is analogue.
But they are both inherently digital.
D/A converters vary massively and are part of a devices sound quality.
great knowledge in this vid thanks !!
Excellent mini documentary!
Thanks for looking out ✌🏽🙂
Nice!
My first drum machine, mid 80s. Very obvious combination of Linn and Oberheim sounds but lesser fidelity, and I’ve always strongly disliked the feel. Traded it in and got the originals it was worth it.
You're such a generous man!!
Love that Bass drum! But I too could only afford the KPR-77 at the time. Not a bad little box. But then when Depeche Mode made it famous on their Speak & Spell album, it was time to move on. LOL
Great video man I can say, and a long time coming. The Sequential Circuits Drumtraks, hell and Sequential Circuits Drum machine is hard to find information on. You wouldn't happen to have a Studio 440 that you can review would you?
Yeah, Alex would I'm sure do a great job on the Linn 9000 or Studio 440, doing whole tracks with one machine etc...
I don't have a Studio 440 or even know where one is unfortunately, but there's a chance I could borrow a Sequential TOM or a Linn 9000. Possibly a LinnDrum too if I'm very lucky.
Will see whether the stars align on any of those.
thanks for the samples. may your car always be parked in shade.
1:15 DX beat reminds me of Stevie Wonder - That Girl.
4:12 *Morrrtaaaalll Combaaatt!!*
Round 1
*FIGHT!*
Awesome! Thank you so much Alex!
Great video. Many thanks for the samples.
I love your videos. Thank you for making them.
One thing it really had going for it was a nice crash sound: many of the early drum machines had awful ones, or often no crash at all.
Yes, a sustained sound took up several bytes of data and so was too big to fit on an EPROM. Hilarious to think now in our world of terabytes.
I noticed a BOSS HM-2 with all the knobs dimed on your pedal board. Can we expect a video on Swedish death metal soon?
Ha. Well, I mentioned that and played 10 seconds of metal in my Roland documentary, but I don't know enough about it to make something like that myself.
I also did a video with it on the Juno-6 recreating Daft Punk.
I have got a very specific guitar pedal thing I'm hoping to do if I can pull it off...
I love your samples. Thank you.
I guess almost nobody can hear 22kHz even as a baby. The sound at 4:09 sounds exactly like the sound from Boing Boom Tschak/Techno Pop by Kraftwerk. (People say it was a Linn 9000 but this one here songs so close)
Totally. Life is one long filter sweep.
Most adults hearing is drifting down towards 18 - 15kHz at the top.
Great video Alex! I just picked up a Drumtraks and the previous owner has deleted all the factory patterns and written over them. Do you by chance know where to get the original factory patterns? Thank you!!
Hi! I have no idea I'm afraid. I don't think this unit had any factory beats on it and I sold it 18 months ago anyway.
Perhaps some nerd online will have posted the file? The source code of the original samples are online.
@@AlexBallMusic Thanks for the response. Love your videos, keep up the great work!
Nice video. You made one minor mistake regarding the backstory, though: I believe Tom Oberheim was also involved with the creation of MIDI. Still, great video, and interesting to learn that despite its price, it was like the original Linn LM-1 in that all sounds could be tuned. Will download the sounds to try out for myself soon.
Don't think Tom was involved other than agreeing to drop his own system to support it in order to pressure others to follow suit. Think there were suggestions on what it should include from a number of parties (including Tom) but it was only Dave Smith and Ikutaro Kakehashi who were awarded the Technical Grammy for its actual creation.
@@AlexBallMusic Hmm, fair. I admit I didn't research the invention of MIDI extensively: I just thought I heard what I said.
I've read about people who were consulted, but it was basically just those two who did the actual work.
Another great video! I actually read that book; it was wicked.
Cheers Adam. Yes, would be amazing if there was a book like that for each manufacturer!
could you upload an HQ version of the wallpaper plurs? :3c
I wanna hug you! You are the best!
that clap reminds me of Revenge of the Nerds
Ahhh thank you, for the breakdown.
Thanks, Alex!
Great video! I first found about this machine a few months ago after learning it was used by Tame Impala for a lot of tracks on his album Currents. I’ve been looking for good samples of it!
Yes, it's on Tame Impala stuff doubling the live drums I believe. Works well for adding consistency.
Great video! and thanks so much for samples
Great demo! I got one recently and when I save patterns and I turn off the drumtraks, The presets are erased when I turn it on. Is there another step in saving presets with this machine?
Sounds like the battery that powers the memory has died, but I'm not a tech.
I sold mine 18 months ago but it used to save easily.
Thank you! Love the channel!
Cheers!
We really need another episode of Utterly Spiffing Guide to Light Music) Pleeeeeaaaaase!!!
I'm afraid it's unlikely to happen. They take too much effort and fewer and fewer people were watching them, so I've put it on the shelf.
So sad :(
Alex Ball This is understandable but a real shame. I was relistening to the series the other day and they work on so many levels educationally, insightfully, humourously..etc. I wondered whether you’d be able to approach a tv company to finance a series on tv or maybe an open university type programme. You clearly have the compositional and ‘comprehensionable’ chops to understand and interpret the scores, and can also script the programme in an interesting, involving and enlightening way. I imagine the viewing numbers are diminishing under weight of youtube uploads and a thirst for the latest release...I think if more people were aware the ‘spiffing series’ was out there the numbers would increase expedentionally. Whatever your ambitions/ inclinations I look forward to every upload you make, so will be around for the long haul as you are my favourite youtuber!
They were fun to do, but as they became more in depth I was having to more and more work to make the videos. The last one on woodwinds involved about two months of reading theory books and going back and forth to the scores to find key elements to extract quintessential examples. A year later and it's had a trickle of views and the views have dropped with every episode I made.
I started a brass one and got about two weeks into it and it was hard going. I knew it would take weeks and weeks to research and get very little response, so I totally lost motivation.
My channel has also changed direction quite a bit and so I think it would seem completely bizarre to the 20,000+ subscribers who've joined since I last uploaded one.
I also don't want to be involved with production companies because I work in TV and my TH-cam channel is an outlet for things I want to keep separate from that.
Sorry it's not worked out. I know there's a handful of people who enjoyed them. Maybe someone else could finish it off.
Alex Ball I appreciate you taking the time to respond so fully. You’re right to follow your instincts. I’ve loved everything you’ve done so far, so will welcome whatever direction it takes. Is it ever possible you will ever run out of old gear to review?! No need to answer - I await your next adventure!
Thanks!
You're welcome. :)
How come this comments don't have any likes
Nice one. Interesting video. Which door should I load your samples into...front or back?.....I'll get me coat....
If you're going to load samples into a back door, make sure you know the owner very well. ;)
Awesome, thank you Alex 😎
VERY NICE job with the sample pack.. Could you do this with the DMX also? (linndrum too would be awesome if you have one)
I've tried to grab a DMX about three times and it's never worked out, but I'd love to if I can. Ditto the Linn Drum. I might be lucky and be able to borrow one at some point because they're too expensive to buy nowadays.
Once again, you are the man!! ❤️
Can you tell me which tuning (0 through __) is the neutral or native tuning?
This makes me want to get my Drumtraks fixed.
So I have one of these end wondering about the time keeping - it’s slowly goes off the grid … so it’s starts ok but after the first bar the latency starts and slowly stays more and more behind the actual grid …. anyone ?
Off the grid? When clocked via midi clock?
Have you set the correct PPQN value? If you haven't, then it will drift.
Edit: Just checked the original manual and midi clock setup is in section 10. PPQN configuration is on page 50.
www.vintagesynth.com/sites/default/files/2017-05/DrumtraksOperationsManual.pdf