Difference in sound between LM-1 and LinnDrum?

[Alex.T]

Just wondering...Is there a significant difference between the sound of the Linn LM-1 drum machine and the LinnDrum? Do they use the same samples? I know the sample rate is different between the two machines. Does it add up to much? What about the difference between the Linn 9000 and the LinnDrum -- does it have the same sound?



Alex.T

[7161]

dunno, but i can say having used one extensively that the linndrum is one of the most horrible sounds ever created from an electronic instrument

i'd pay exactly 50 pence for one

[analogbass]

Originally Posted by 7161

dunno, but i can say having used one extensively that the linndrum is one of the most horrible sounds ever created from an electronic instrument

i'd pay exactly 50 pence for one

Assuming you're serious, what's much worse must be your hearing.

[cl516]

well the linndrum don't like you either...

[Meriphew]

I love what Prince did with his Linn.

[markus enochson]

linndrums rule a ok

m

[Feinstrom]

I used to have a LinnDrum and really liked its sound.
A friend of mine used to have both and kept the LM-1, he says the LinnDrum sounds weaker in comparison.

[7161]

oh ha ha haaaa analogbass *slaps side with mirth*.. what a witty retort

used one have u? (and i dont mean listened to samples of one or heard one for a short while)

hmmm, i'm not argueing with you, it's just my experience of having to use one for a year every day almost. i didnt like it. the claps are quite nice and vicious, the tam sounds like someone shaking a baby rattle, the snare has like a nanosecond decay, the toms sound like ski yogurt pots, the kik is clicky and nasty...

IMO.. look, sorry ok, i just cant help thinking SOLID by ashford and Simpson

[waveterm]

I have all three. They sound very different to each other when using the stock sounds.

The LM-1 is the shit ! It sounds freaking huge ! This is the Prince machine.

Linndrum has such a polished sound. All sounds fit together. Lots of classic tracks from the eighties used this one.

Linn 9000. Doesn´t sound as nice.....You must get one with a discdrive and a library. Then it becomes awesome.

WT

[Meriphew]

I liked how you could open up the Linn Drum and change the tuning. It's a cool drum machine IMO, but it will definitely have a dated sound.

[7161]

Originally Posted by Bryan Talbot

A little perspective here - you used it for what year, 1983 or 84? or recently, when in a more modern context it did sound like shit?

yeah back in 83/4. at the time just remember the choices out there were limited, so it was very dynamic for the time albeit with short sample times

i preferred the dmx myself but the studio had an eprom blower we could add our own samples and often we'd also trigger simmons brains from it as was the fashion then

anyways as soon as the mirage came it blew people away even tho it was lofi. i just think you might as well use the samples for it... it has a sound yes, i aint argueing with that, but i dont think it's sound is devalued by using a very good quality sample set instead

arrrr, those were the days :(

[analogbass]

Originally Posted by Feinstrom

I used to have a LinnDrum and really liked its sound.
A friend of mine used to have both and kept the LM-1, he says the LinnDrum sounds weaker in comparison.

Classic internet hearsay. I've owned several Linndrums and a Linn 9000 and have heard the original LM-1.

The LM-1 and Linndrum share most of the same sounds! Therefore your friend is just silly. A few of them are different, such as the kick which is better on the Linndrum, and only a couple of sounds that are on one and not the other.

The main advantage with the LM-1 is individual tuning of each sound vs. a universal adjustment for most of the Linndrum sounds. Not a huge difference. I'll take the Linndrum it's still the best-sounding stand-alone drum machine ever made. It fell out of favor after the mid-1980s when cheap Rolands came into vogue, not because they sounded better.

[analogbass]

Originally Posted by 7161

oh ha ha haaaa analogbass *slaps side with mirth*.. what a witty retort

used one have u? (and i dont mean listened to samples of one or heard one for a short while)

hmmm, i'm not argueing with you, it's just my experience of having to use one for a year every day almost. i didnt like it. the claps are quite nice and vicious, the tam sounds like someone shaking a baby rattle, the snare has like a nanosecond decay, the toms sound like ski yogurt pots, the kik is clicky and nasty...

IMO.. look, sorry ok, i just cant help thinking SOLID by ashford and Simpson

Honestly the main reason some might not like it now is that it's so identified with the 80s ie the Ashford & Simpson comment. But in terms of the actual sounds, they're about the best stock drum sounds that were ever made along with the Oberheim. The only reason the Linns are less desirable to some now is that we've had 20 years of cheap Rolands ruling the market because that cheap sound came to be desired. FYI back in the day when realism was important very few would've chosen a Roland except by necessity, when cost was a factor because the Linns and Oberheims were too expensive.

Prince still uses his LM-1s because the feel's still the best around after all this time. He substitutes the chips just because of those here and elsewhere who dismiss the stock sounds as too 80s, not because they sound bad. They sound better than most of the sounds heard now actually.

[waveterm]

dfegad

Well.....that´s just bollocks. The LM-1 and the Linndrum sounds way different. There isn´t a single sample that is identical when comparing the stock sounds that they shipped with.

WT

[analogbass]

Originally Posted by waveterm

dfegad

Well.....that´s just bollocks. The LM-1 and the Linndrum sounds way different. There isn´t a single sample that is identical when comaring the stock sounds that they shipped with.

WT

More internet crap. Dude i have visited Forat in LA, bought all sorts of linns from them and talked to them about this.

Just applying common sense would tell you that they had a winning formula with the LM-1, then made a sleeker package with the Linndrum - would've made NO sense to change all the sounds that were well-received on the LM-1. Common sense.

I'm guessing you've either lost some hearing or never had a good ear.

[waveterm]

Well......whatever......

Guess I´ll go and compare some sounds then.



fuuck you

WT

[analogbass]

Classy; he loses then resorts to a pissing contest to try to make up for bad judgement LOL

[waveterm]

Troll

WT

[analogbass]

Originally Posted by waveterm

Troll

WT

Down to 5-year old levels with name-calling. Desperate hahahahahaah

[waveterm]

Chill dude, what´s up with the attitude ?

WT

[roginator]

WT ...fight fight fight

i love my LinnDRUM..and soon I will have LM -1 too

this boxes are heroes

[waveterm]

Hell yeah !

Report back when you´ve compared these identical sounding beasts !

lol

WT

[cl516]

anyone have a .pdf of the Linndrum manual please?

[waveterm]

Yahoo! Groups - Join or create groups, clubs, forums & communities

Linndrum users group.

There you´ll find the manual for the machine that sounds exactly as its predecessor.

WT

[analogbass]

Originally Posted by waveterm

Chill dude, what´s up with the attitude ?

WT

Relax tiger, lighten up

[7161]

Honestly the main reason some might not like it now is that it's so identified with the 80s ie the Ashford & Simpson comment. But in terms of the actual sounds, they're about the best stock drum sounds that were ever made along with the Oberheim.

well thats just a matter of opinion anyways, i'd completely disagree, what makes them so 'good' to you?

i'm going on this premise; that they arent in any way 'realistic', and yet also they dont offer much creativity if looked at in terms of them a non realistic unit but which can make plenty of sounds with layering and detuning etc

i do however concede that yes they were quite a decent 'realistic' step up from a 606 or some of the more obscure boom-tish boxes of that era which were affordable, and i think it's that which gave them the rep they had at the time but which now is overated

The only reason the Linns are less desirable to some now is that we've had 20 years of cheap Rolands ruling the market because that cheap sound came to be desired. FYI back in the day when realism was important very few would've chosen a Roland except by necessity, when cost was a factor because the Linns and Oberheims were too expensive.

realism was important? what are you talking about? nobody used linns to sound realistic back then, the styles in vogue were not in anyway trying to sound realistic (although yes i realise MARKETTING at that time tried to pitch the new breed of drum machines around a 'realism' slant), but nobody was actualy using drum machines then to sound like real drums that i can remember, everyone was doing early electro, early electronic reggea and god aweful dead or alive style electro pop

Prince still uses his LM-1s because the feel's still the best around after all this time. He substitutes the chips just because of those here and elsewhere who dismiss the stock sounds as too 80s, not because they sound bad. They sound better than most of the sounds heard now actually.

mebbe that's just cos he's familiar with the unit? although his new album makes it so that frankly you couldnt give a toss what he's doing now




anyways no argument man, we're all just expressing our opinion of how they sound.

[dlmorley]

I never got on with the linn drum either BUT it does have a certain groove. The factory sounds were pretty nasty after a while I thought.
Then again, I was SO HAPPY that I got my 808 from the guy who was upgrading to a linn drum ....
Having said that, it was used on countless popular tracks, but I just felt you needed to really process it in thw studio to get anything out of it.
I find lots of the cool prince drum tracks sound like Fairlight samples...

[analogbass]

Originally Posted by dlmorley

I never got on with the linn drum either BUT it does have a certain groove. The factory sounds were pretty nasty after a while I thought.
Then again, I was SO HAPPY that I got my 808 from the guy who was upgrading to a linn drum ....
Having said that, it was used on countless popular tracks, but I just felt you needed to really process it in thw studio to get anything out of it.
I find lots of the cool prince drum tracks sound like Fairlight samples...

The factory sounds were the best available; people took Rolands mainly because they couldn't afford Linns.

20 years of revisionist thinking have us believing that the Rolands that were mainly laughable facsimilies of the real deal are desirable.

[analogbass]

Originally Posted by 7161

well thats just a matter of opinion anyways, i'd completely disagree, what makes them so 'good' to you?

i'm going on this premise; that they arent in any way 'realistic', and yet also they dont offer much creativity if looked at in terms of them a non realistic unit but which can make plenty of sounds with layering and detuning etc

i do however concede that yes they were quite a decent 'realistic' step up from a 606 or some of the more obscure boom-tish boxes of that era which were affordable, and i think it's that which gave them the rep they had at the time but which now is overated

If you better understood the context of the early-mid 80s you'd already know that companies were trying to sound as realistic as possible, including the Rolands. The Rolands were trying to sound like the real thing but fell short thanks to the limitations of the technology they were using, not because of any effort to deliberately create the reverse-chic cheesy sounds that have since become ubiquitous. Most musicians weren't initially buying Japanese drum machines of any brand because they wanted to, but because the Linns and Oberheims were out of price range.

The Linn did and still does do some of the best sounds out there; all through the 80s some of the sounds were considered better than most efforts at milking real drums. Any rhetoric now about the Linn's sounds has almost entirely to do with "sounding 80s", not much to do with the sounds themselves.

The Rolands on the other hand never came close to the real thing, became popular due to affordability initially, and then later during their rennaisance when reverse chic came in, became in bizarre fashion desirable. Because everyone was using one, not because they sounded better than other machines.

realism was important? what are you talking about? nobody used linns to sound realistic back then, the styles in vogue were not in anyway trying to sound realistic (although yes i realise MARKETTING at that time tried to pitch the new breed of drum machines around a 'realism' slant), but nobody was actualy using drum machines then to sound like real drums that i can remember

Realism was quite important when it came to drum machines in the early-mid 80s. It was only when affordable drum machines became part of the revolt against over-production that better machines were subjugated, as part of the lo-fi "grunge" sound that spread through various musical niches. Unlike you, i was there, watched and heard the change. Quite dramatic and part of why vintage synths and drum machines were dumped on the market in the mid/late 80s at low prices. Nothing to do with merit, rather there was a paradigm shift that you seem to have slept thru.

If there were more onus on sounding realistic over the last 20 years instead of sounding like a cheesy Roland, the entire production aesthetic of the last 20 years would be quite different in various musical genres. The Rolands were for the most part a fashion statement, not a musical step forward

[dlmorley]

Well, we must disagree re the 808.
It's the funkiest drum machine ever in my book. I LOVE the sound not for any retro chic but because it sounds amazing. I have used one since they were relatively new and love the groove and the sounds.
Sure if you are just taking the mono out and trying to make it sound like a drummer it's going to sound crap, but ANY drum machine that tries to sound like a drummer falls short.
Process the sounds and enjoy.
Linn Drum? TOTAL RETRO.