BATTLE OF THE BEAT MAKERS

There's never been a better time to dive into hardware beat-making. This issue, we put eight of the finest drum machines and percussion synths head-to-head to crown the king of the beat

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The evolution of hardware drum machines has played a vital role in shaping electronic music as we know it today. They’ve provided the literal pulse of numerous genres, forming the robotic beats behind Kraftwerk’s early electronic pop experiments, driving the synthesised funk of classic house and techno, and providing the bass-heavy kicks and metallic hi-hat trills that define the sound of modern rap.

Various styles of drum machine have come in and out of fashion over the years. The earliest designs were simplistic and limited, often designed to replace a real drummer in a backing track but misused to wonderful effect by early electronic pioneers. In the ’80s and ’90s, advances in sampling and digital technology led those early designs to fall out of fashion in favour of workstations, samplers and – eventually – software.

It would be a misnomer to say those early drum machines ever really went away though; the sound of Roland’s TR-808 and TR-909, in particular, have remained at the heart of club music and hip-hop over the near four decades since they were released. Even as the original machines started to generate eye-watering prices on the second-hand market, their sounds have made their way into modern studios through sample packs, emulations and modern hardware recreations.

As with hardware synths, things have come full circle somewhat. Hardware drum machines have become more affordable and common once again over the past decade, from budget analogue, through sample players up to complex top-end percussion synths.

Why buy a hardware drum machine in 2021?