Micro Music Biz: Vet Boi™ Making a Beat Using Maschine

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Vet Boi™ Making a Beat Using Maschine

Beat Making Using Native Instruments

Maschine

I grew up playing drums in my father’s church. Once I was exposed to my very first drum machine, I put the sticks down for years. Today, I will, occasionally, pick them up and dust them off. I will play along with my brother. He plays keyboards, piano, and organ. To me, the drum machine was my escape from reality. Despite the limitations of the ROM chips, I remember back in the day learning how to create beats with my old friend and production partner, Willie. He would show me tips and tricks I would have never thought.

Modern music has been utilizing drum machines for many years. The very first drum machine dates back between1930-1932 by Henry Cowell who commissioned Léon Theremin. It was called the Rhythmicon. Some experts will argue the Wurlitzer Sideman from the 1950s was the first (Synthgear).

(Joseph Schillinger and the Rhythmicon)

(Wurlizter Sideman)

Recently, I did a Google search on vintage drum machines. To my surprise, I found many of them I had previously owned. Here are just a few that I found:

Linn LM-1 by Roger Linn (Prince made this famous in the early 80’s)

Oberheim DMX

Alesis Hr-16

Roland RY-30

I know there are plenty of sampler based drum machines, but most of these you had to think outside the box if you wanted extra sounds.

With the evolution of the music industry, technology has also changed. The Maschine brought back feelings of inspiration with the feel of legacy gear but with the freshness of today’s software integration and efficiency. I have included two videos for comparison.

Vet Boi™ Maschine Part 1 of 2