MusicRadar

"It's the most influential drum machine ever created – and has likely featured on more records than any other": A history of Roland drum machines, from the TR-77 to the TR-1000

The stories of Roland and the drum machine are inextricably linked. Roland Corporation is known for many things: the iconic Juno and Jupiter lines, the influential SH-101 and SP-404, and a deep ...
Hip-Hop Wired

Roland Celebrates The 40th Anniversary of The TR-808 Drum Machine

The TR-808 drum machine help crafted many classics records, to celebrate the device’s 40th anniversary, Roland decided to bless beat junkies with some freebies. There is also a very insightful ...
Yahoo

"It sounds like a drum machine instead of a machine playing drums - a sore disappointment": What critics said about the iconic Roland TR-909 drum machine on its release (and ...

The Roland TR-909 drum machine, like other pieces of now iconic Roland gear, was not embraced by the masses when it came out. It received mixed reviews, and like the TB-303 before it, Roland scrapped ...
Pitchfork

The Roland 808 Drum Machine Is Coming Back

The classic Roland 808 drum machine will seemingly be available soon, in some form, once again. As FACT reports, yesterday, the Roland Corporation uploaded a video to its YouTube page about the sought ...
Digital Journal

Roland founder Ikutaro Kakehashi has died

Ikutaro Kakehashi was born on February 7, 1930. He was a visionary of many modern musical instruments and he founded the companies Ace Tone, Roland Corporation and ATV. Among his accomplishments are ...
Hosted on MSN

40 years on, classic drum machines get a successor in the Roland TR-1000

The Roland TR-1000 Rhythm Creator is a direct successor to the famed TR-808 and TR-909 drum machines, each anchoring entire genres of 20th-century pop music and EDM. It's analog, it's aesthetic, and ...
MusicRadar

“The first Roland drum machine in over 40 years with true analogue voices”: The TR-1000 combines analogue 808 and 909 recreations with the best parts of the TR-8S and more

Last week, Roland posted a teaser to its website headlined by the words ‘tomorrow returns’ accompanied by what sounded like a processed TR-808 drum beat. Now the company has unveiled the inspiration ...
KCRW

Ikutaro Kakehashi, Inventor of the 808 Drum Machine and MIDI, RIP

Roland TR-909 and TR-808 drum machines. Photo by Brandon Daniel (CC BY-SA 2.0), via Wikimedia Commons (The original image is no longer available, please contact KCRW if you need access to the original ...
Los Angeles Times

Review: Music stars Pharrell Williams, the Beastie Boys and more discuss influential Roland drum machine in documentary ‘808’

Everything you ever wanted to know — or perhaps never knew you wanted to know — about the wildly influential Roland TR-808 drum machine is laid out with entertaining, if exhaustive, brio in the ...
NPR

Ikutaro Kakehashi, Founder Of Roland, Dies At 87

Ikutaro Kakehashi, the founder of the Japanese music company Roland, died yesterday at the age of 87. The news was confirmed by the company in a statement. Decades of hits performed by everyone from ...
CBC.ca

Slaves to the rhythm

The Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer, a programmable drum machine introduced in 1980. The machine has been used by musicians from Marvin Gaye to the Beastie Boys to Beyonce to Kanye West. ((Roland/Drum ...