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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

You don't have to look too hard to hear the influence of Roland's TR-808 drum machine and SH-101 synthesizer. Bedrock to hip-hop and house for the last 30 years, the pair of Roland machines has left ...

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 ...

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 ...

Alexander Dunn's documentary "808: The Movie" focusing on the legendary Roland-808 drum machine has been released exclusively on Apple Music, and will be available for download or rent on the iTunes ...

If you're a fan of 1980s music, then there's a very good chance that you'll already be familiar with the electronic beats provided by what's widely regarded as the drum machine that started it all, ...

The Roland TR-808 is the go-to drum machine for hip-hop. Artists like Afrika Bambaataa, the Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, Kanye West, Outkast and others have used this machine to create some of your ...

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.