Linn Electronics • LM-1 Drum Computer
This is THE classic drum machine of the 80's - it launched the drum machine revolution! The Linn LM-1 Drum Computer was created by guitarist Roger Linn and he used samples of acoustic drum sounds. At the time, they sounded great and much more realistic and they were a fresh alternative to the analog drum sounds of the '80's drum machines. About 500 LM-1's were made before the LinnDrum model appeared in 1982.
There are twelve 28kHz samples including: snare, kick, three toms, hi-hat's, tambourine, congas, claps, cowbell, and rimshot, but no ride or crash. There are also 100 memory patches! Patterns can be created in real or step time. An innovations of the time was the swing and quantize functions that appeared on the LM-1. The LM-1 is an historical synth that has a place in the sound of music from the heart of the '80's. Only 500 of these things are out there so don't count on finding one easily. It has been used by Phil Collins, Thompson Twins, Stevie Wonder, Gary Numan, Depeche Mode, The Human League, Jean-Michel Jarre, Vangelis, John Carpenter, Todd Rundgren, Prince, and The Art of Noise.
LinnDrum has cymbals and more extra features, but it does not have all the tuning abilities, or f'd up sample set that the LM1 has. No music gear company on the planet nowadays would put the weird 28khz samples Roger Linn put into the LM1 on today's gear - their audio engineers would hang them for it because they are technically "incorrect"
Here's a cool video demo of a front-panel tuning modded Linn LM1 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkJV5S0VV1o
Don't get me wrong, I love the LinnDrum as well. The killer 'Genesis - Mama' drum machine beat is a LinnDrum + AMS reverb unit + Yamaha guitar amp w/ distortion according to Mike Rutherford (Wikipedia says it's a LM1, so go figure...)