LM-1

Linn Electronics' LM-1 was the world's first programmable sampled-sound drum machine. Announced in 1979, this first product of Linn Electronics started a revolution in 1980s popular music. Originally sold for $5,000 each, only about 500 were ever made, but those 500 owners were a "who's who" of the music industry. The 18 fixed drum sounds were mostly recorded by local L.A. session drummer Art Wood, and sampled at only 28 kHz using an 8 bit non-linear format. Cymbals weren't included due to the high cost of long sounds. The operating system allowed both real-time loop recording of rhythm patterns as well as step entry, and introduced innovations such as quantize, swing and creating songs by chaining patterns together. See the LM-1 brochure, LM-1 ads, and a funny fake ad, all created by the company's ad artist Eric Wrobble.