You may not know the 808 drum machine, but you have definitely heard it: the original Roland TR-808 was the first programmable drum machine and has been a mainstay of ...

The sequencer on the 808, a row of 16 color-coded buttons, offered artists a way to store beats they programmed. Courtesy of Roland Even if you don't know the Roland TR-808 drum machine by name, ...

The music-making machine that almost single-handedly birthed pop and hip-hop beats is back in production with some major updates. There hasn’t been anything quite like the 808 in decades, and Roland ...

It’s almost impossible to imagine the modern musical landscape without the distinctive sounds of the Roland TR-808 drum machine. When the Japanese electronics company Roland started releasing the 808 ...

I want to mark the passing of a genius who changed the soundscape of popular music in the 1980’s. Ikutaro Kakehashi (1930-2017) died earlier this month at the age of 87. He founded the Roland ...

Even if you've never heard of the Roland TR-808 drum machine, you've definitely heard it. Developed in Japan as a user-friendly way to produce an electronic drum beat, the 808 grew into one of the ...

If you spent the 1980s hanging out at your local record store, and you don’t have a hankering for spandex and bouffant rock-god hairstyles, the chances are you’ll have more than a few pieces of ...

This year marks the 30th anniversary of MIDI, the language that electronic instruments use to talk to one another. It’s how drum machines stay in sync with arpeggiators, how a keyboard tells a ...

Interviews with Afrika Bambaataa, Questlove, Pharrell, Rick Rubin and more are featured in a film documenting the story of the Roland TR-808 drum machine debuting Dec. 9 as an Apple Music exclusive.

The Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer is credited with more musical innovations than you can wave a plug socket at – even after its rocky start. After flopping commercially upon release in 1980, because ...

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 ...