The Marvellous Mechanical House Organ

November 7, 2012 9:45 AM

MR-808 is a replica of the famous 1980s electronic drum machine TR-808 – with robots playing the drum sounds.
posted by dng (20 comments total)

I'm sure 808 State would approve.
posted by howling fantods at 9:53 AM on November 7, 2012

it's taking out you suckers and it don't know how it did it.
posted by LouieLoco at 9:54 AM on November 7, 2012 [1 favorite]

jwz had a blog post about this today. He also picked out a link to the same guy's building the perfect clap. That 808 clap sound is such an iconic and yet odd noise. It doesn't really sound like hands, nor anything else specifically mechanical, so building a clap robot is kind of amazing. He went with wood-on-wood; too bad, I was kind of hoping for a meat puppet.
posted by Nelson at 10:01 AM on November 7, 2012

This is awesome.
posted by pashdown at 10:05 AM on November 7, 2012

I wanted to enjoy this but the video gave me a seizure.
posted by entropone at 10:09 AM on November 7, 2012 [2 favorites]

I always love the "robots playing instruments" thing, but I’m not sure how this is an 808 besides the fact that there is a kick, snare, etc.
posted by bongo_x at 10:16 AM on November 7, 2012 [1 favorite]

"Nothing sounds quite like an 808..."

Now I'm going to listen to that album all day.
posted by jeffamaphone at 10:17 AM on November 7, 2012

Needs more robotic mannequin parts.
posted by chambers at 10:33 AM on November 7, 2012

the same guy's building the perfect clap

Robots and synthetic biology? Truly a renaissance man for the 21st century! Although I don't understand why chlamydia needs to be improved.
posted by grouse at 10:47 AM on November 7, 2012

Aside from the ingenious use of that stringed thing for the cowbell, this sounds precisely nothing at all like an 808, which sounds precisely nothing at all like actual instruments.

(FWIW, to accurately replicate the 808 snare sound live: A couple sheets of printer paper on top of a pile carpet, struck with a drumstick. Replace the paper often.)
posted by Sys Rq at 10:50 AM on November 7, 2012 [3 favorites]

Aside from the ingenious use of that stringed thing for the cowbell, this sounds precisely nothing at all like an 808...

Totes agree with all this, and the video was edited such that I wasn't sure what was going on...But damn, that stringed thing sounds exactly like the 808 cowbell. Uncanny. E for effort. A+ for cowbell. D for there being nothing remotely like the gut-punch of the 808 kick.
posted by Zerowensboring at 10:58 AM on November 7, 2012

I could really enjoy a salad with this.
posted by Wolfdog at 11:05 AM on November 7, 2012

I think this is great, and they did about as good a job as can be expected of duplicating the sound, but come on, that can't really be the point of a project like this, can it?
posted by empath at 11:11 AM on November 7, 2012 [1 favorite]

Next up: A robot barista, MR-COFFEE.
 
posted by Herodios at 11:23 AM on November 7, 2012

Should replace the instruments with robots hitting a button on an 808. That will satisfy the robot peeps and the 808 peeps. Instrument peeps can go play the lute at a ren faire or whatever instrument peeps do.
posted by Ad hominem at 11:25 AM on November 7, 2012 [1 favorite]

A couple sheets of printer paper on top of a pile carpet, struck with a drumstick. Replace the paper often.

Not an 808, but the bottom of a metal cookie tin struck with a drumstick sounds exactly like a generic mid-80's synth-pad percussion patch. It's uncanny.
posted by ovvl at 11:43 AM on November 7, 2012

I'm assuming the reason the cowbell sounds right is that it is synthesized on the 808 with a couple of oscillators tuned to specific frequencies- something that is easy to simulate with stringed instruments. Sustained oscillators that change pitch dramatically are a lot harder to pull off; also, white noise is hard to create acoustically, especially in a controlled way. Both of those characteristics are central to most of the 808's sounds, other than the cowbell.
posted by ianhattwick at 12:38 PM on November 7, 2012 [1 favorite]

Pretty cool, but this thing doesn't sound anything like an 808.
posted by interrupt at 4:07 PM on November 7, 2012

"808" has just become sort of shorthand for "old-school drum machine" more than an accurate descriptor for a specific set of drum machine sounds.

I guess that depends on who you’re dealing with. I’ve never heard that, but I’m sure it’s possible that it’s "Kleenex" for some people. I would think of it more like "Les Paul". If you pull out a Tele you’re going to get funny looks.
posted by bongo_x at 10:44 AM on November 8, 2012

I gotcha now. And we’re agreed.
posted by bongo_x at 2:28 PM on November 8, 2012