Beckstrom's Weird TR-808 Sample Pack

There are tons of great, high-fidelity, finely-tuned, meticulously-recorded libraries of the Roland TR-808 drum machine. This is not one of them!

I wanted to create a collection of weird 808 sounds. I used some more conventional things like a boombox and a tube amplifier, but also some stranger things like a Zoom call, spectral resynsthesis, and low quality mp3 conversion.

The distortion/noise/clipping? It's a feature, not a bug

## The modular

A bunch of these sounds were recorded through my homemade modular synthesizer. It, like this sample pack, is unusual; it's made primarily with CMOS logic chips, it's entirely untuned (no 1v per octave anywhere), and it's built with wood and machine screws, connections made with alligator clips. Read more here https://chrisbeckstrom.com/projects/the-modular/

Also: Here's 1,001 sounds made on my modular: https://archive.org/details/beckstrom_modular_sample_pack_vol1
and 33 analog drum loops made on my modular: https://archive.org/details/beckstrom-modular-drum-loops-1


# The Sounds

## badmp3 and extrabadmp3

I used the sox utility on linux to create very low-quality mp3 versions of the 808 sounds. I then converted them back to wav for consistency, but make no mistake: they still sound wonderfully terrible! If you ever got mp3's from Napster in the early 2000's, these sounds might sound familiar to you

## goto and gotoPacketLoss

First I sent the 808 sounds through a regular GoTo Meeting. Then, using some linux utilities to purposely introduce packet loss and network disruption, I sent them through GoTo Meeting again. It's pretty yucky!

## zoom

Similar to above, I sent the 808 sounds through a Zoom call. Not recommended for pristine, professional quality audio :-)

## microcassette and microcassette_slow

Recorded onto an 80's microcassette recorded, then played back at regular speed and half speed

## casioSK-1 and casioSK-1_var

I recorded each 808 sound into a Casio SK-1 (you know, the one from the 80's where you could sample a fart noise and then make a song with it)

## modular

These sets were recorded through my homemade modular synthesizer. It, like this sample pack, is unusual; it's made primarily with CMOS logic chips, it's entirely untuned (no 1v per octave anywhere), and it's built with wood and machine screws, connections made with alligator clips. Read more here https://chrisbeckstrom.com/projects/the-modular/

### modAM

Sent through a LDR-based VCA

### mod-Env-Fol

Sent through a LDRR-based envelope follower, then the output of that was used to modulate an oscillator

### mod-Env-Fol-Sqr

Sent through a square wave oscillator

### mod-Env-Fol-Tri

Sent through a stepped triangle wave oscillator

### modFLSR

Sent through a stepped noise generator (a linear-feedback shift register, my circuit based on the diagram on this Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear-feedback_shift_register)

### mod-SchmidtTrig

Sent through through a logic inverter (basically converts everything into a pulse wave)

### mod-4049

Sent through a CMOS-based amplifier/distortion circuit

## tube and heavyTube

Sent through an old tube pre-amp, first with moderate gain, then with heavy gain

## tubeSpringReverb

Sent first into the tube amp, then into a very old cruddy spring reverb unit

## virtualANS

The raw audio files opened in the brilliant Virtual ANS software, then exported with minimal tweaking. This basically converts the input into many, many sine waves. It sounds kinda wet and squishy

## cassette_boombox

Sent through a 1990's boombox and recorded in an unifinished basement a few feet away

## megaphone

Sent through a megaphone that apparently came from an old fishing boat

## Found items

These sounds were creating sending the raw sounds through my modular (for amplication) and then into a small speaker. The speaker was placed inside or on different items. The output was recorded with a condensor microphone from various distances.

### snareOff and snareOn

The speaker was placed directly on the head of the snare drum, with the snare on and off, respectively

### guiro

The speaker was placed inside the guiro

### paint_can

The speaker was placed inside the paint can

## original

The original, raw, un-messed-with 808 sounds. They sound nice


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# License

Use these sounds in whatever way you'd like, just please credit me (Chris Beckstrom).

These sounds are licensed as "Creative Commons Attribution" aka "CC BY":

> This license lets others distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. This is the most accommodating of licenses offered. Recommended for maximum dissemination and use of licensed materials.

More info: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

# Enjoy!

I hope you find these sounds useful, fun, and/or inspiring!

- Chris Beckstrom (he/him)
chrisbeckstrom.com
August 2023