Linn LM 1 drum machine

[fiditgat]

Where Can I Get These Sounds?

[wendileona]

This is going through some external effects unit or something. Unless the chips were installed with sampled Linn sounds sweetened up with effects. Bad idea.

Sampled sounds from this machine and playing them with sampler software is nothing to the real thing. The sounds individually can be tuned precisely to what you want and it thumps warmly, its like an old Fender vs. a sample of a Fender. There's a difference.

You can hear this machine in so MANY 80's songs that it would surprise you.

[canuckcurt]

@wendileona

No, this unit was defective, and I put this video clip up to sell it on eBay. The sounds were OK from what I found, but the sequencing circuitry was all messed up. I spent a few hours on it trying to get it running, but without a lot more service info, there wasn't much I could do. I sold it for $750 or so, and the guy that I sold it to knew a tech that worked at Prince's studio (or so he said) that had worked on these Linns. I never did hear if he got it running.

[wendileona]

@canuckcurt That drum tech was maybe Mr. Forat, but he never worked directly with Prince, only Jimmy Jam, Wendy & Lisa. It should be noted that this drum machine was not a "Prince" drum machine. I mean, he used extensively, but so did other artists throughout the eighties, its used literally in thousands of songs. Well, that was a good price for an abused LM-1. If I were that person first step - Forat - orig. chips, clean and service.

[canuckcurt]

@wendileona

I don't know who he was dealing with, as I said, I never heard back. I got the Linn from another repair shop who had had it for years. What you see in the video is exactly how I got it. The unit lit up but did nothing when I got it. The problem was a voltage regulator on the lower board, it was putting out 7 volts instead of 5 to the chips, so it's possible something got nuked while being overvoltaged. I consider myself to be a pretty good board tech, but when it's something as...

[canuckcurt]

@wendileona ...complex as this, all I can do is the basics without seeing schematics or another working unit beside it. I paid about $200 for the unit, so my return was good enough for me.

[canuckcurt]

@wendileona

The audio that you hear in the video clip is right from the output of the Linn, it's running through nothing external other than an amplifier and speakers on my workbench.

[wendileona]

@canuckcurt Then the chips are custom chips that were replaced or sounds insterted into them. The snare stock OEM should NOT sound like that, nor should the kick, or any other sound!

Its all wrong! Did you change the sound chips? Each sound should be nice and tight, almost air tight, done like that so post production effects could shape the sound individually from the rear outputs.

[tall32guy]

Awesome! Introduced by Linn in 1980, the same year as the TR808 came out. 1980 apparently was a very good year for drum machines considering it yielded the two most well-known and used drum machines in history. LOL

[kingofkeyboards]

@tall32guy it was nice to see a difference in terms of analog and digital samples. The TR was analog and made it's name with Hip Hop and Rnb etc where as the Linn was used extensively in Pop and Disco records mainly during the 1980's. I think they both made a huge impact on music back then and in turn how music is today although some artists I don't approve of haha :-)

[nzSkitzo]

@HBJunlimited Bruce Forat just told me today via email that the number of LM-1s produced was actually just below 700 units! so yes still very rare but that figure is 200 more than the figure most people have posted online.

[alainraes]

i had serial 92 with engraved buttons and sync in bus (with a rotary pot to switch clock ticks between 24 and 192) , i also remember the start

continue button of mine was notably larger than the model in this vid , mine had the rimshot as soundchip (factory models where always shipped with the clave sound instead of the rim) , i bought it in london late 80s from

ex studio sellout from chas jankel

[milesjames23388]

@alainraes I currently have serial 97 (also in london) so i can second the above as being true. The earlier batch with with engraved buttons look the deal! imho

[miamiwax]

lm 1 vs lm 2 ... any thoughts??

[jsharp987]

I owned one of these - the first one ever sold in Australia - it cost us over $7500 to purchase, but we made it all back... great fun to see this clip and relive the memories

[bryngOneOn]

u go into the music shop.... and they demo the product,...... and it sounds wonderful, ....ur excited....u pry ur wallet from ur pocket.... and splash the cash....u hurry home... u plug it in....cable it up to ur studio... and then find all the patches/sounds are totally inapropiate, unusable to sit within the music u create...it gathers dust...but you dont learn... ur back at shop months later impulse buying ...yet again

[eldorado303]

sounds very solid

[GazamYT]

I could do a very long insight I've discovered. Ive done my research but the limit here for sharing text doesnt allow it. Maybe in a post one day.

[SoupIsMoney]

Apparently there were only 500 LM-1's ever made.

[slackdave]

That's a sweets interface!

[vinto34]

nice ...martin ware used one of these in heaven 17 on the penthouse and pavement album i like the old school drum machines.

[radiocontrol666]

Yo lets fuckin dance.!<../

[Vacher12]

how much do they go for?

[Horrorshow655321]

Prince used Linns a lot.

[1200killer]

I'm selling a LM 1 if anyone is looking to buy?

[Mellotronaic]

Did "Partyman" use the LM-1?

[1200killer]

Sounds like tr 909 to me.

[GazamYT]

Nope, not a TR909. It was the LM-1 probably with new sound drum chips on a custom bank, switchable by switches on it.

Around 88 Prince started using a more terse snare sound which you hear on Partyman, but that kick, all the way LM-1. Of course through effects and eq on a Neve.

[DonJuanDeMarco2]

Do you know where i can find more information on Princes studio techniques ?

[GazamYT]

I just noticed the temp is way up on this demo. The machine is also going through an effects unit of somekind, the snares got serious reverb.

To answer your question DonJuaDM2 - Prince's studio techniques are a trade secret. Not unless you can sit him or his engineers and other fellow musicians down for a long talk can you know exactly.

[DonJuanDeMarco2]

Heh i can't find my comment anywhere, so i can't remember exactly what i said but yea your right.

[GazamYT]

I'd search any interviews from a recording engineer that worked with Prince a lot during some of his greatest work. Her name is Susan Rogers. There also may be interviews with Bobby Z. Prince drummer at the time.

Prince did or still has a custom LM-1, probably several, but one does have extra sounds or switches to access other drum sounds chips installed. The LM1 also could be modified for MIDI.

There's a difference between sample CDs of Linn sounds to the actual machine.

[vdoeschaal]

why in the world did u circuit bend that

[outspoken34]

prince got his hands on one of the LM-1 prototypes while he was recording at sunset sound in la, and never really let it go since then lol. an engineer who used to work with him said that he saw at least 5 of them (w/ mods of course)

[wendileona]

I own number 400. What are you doing? You have it hooked up to some effects unit right? Make a beat, thats what its for!

[DancingSpiderman]

Hey, those are really klown suspenders there in that metal box...I need some klown suspenders, wanna sell them to me?

This sounds remind me of comedian Pablo Francisco

[UpTheShakers]

I remember reading about the Linn LM1 in Electronics and Music Maker magazine in the early eighties. Then a Linn LM1 drum machine cost the same as a new Renault 5. I'd take the drum machine any day! Check out the Roland CompuRhythm CR-78 on you tube. Anyone remember the Simmons ClapTrap? Limited in scope but at the time it seemed machines were replacing humans.

[wendileona]

Costing so much is why it was exclusively used in studios and top artists used it. TALENTED artists and producers. Now, any schmo can attain electronic instruments.

[groovechaser]

@UpTheShakers I still have a Clap Trap.

[djcondra]

I use the samples in Abletons Impulse. Kool retro sounds.

[Aretzki]

I absolutely LOVE that snare sound.

Purple Rain, yea.

[wendileona]

That snare was actually Bobby Z triggering the LM-1 onstage via early triggers or somekind of MIDI triggering. Purple Pioneers.

Also, that snare sound is the same one used on Housequake as well and about another hundred Prince songs.

[flicker66]

They're collectors' items now as they're pretty rare. You could buy new sound chips for it which had a dozen new sounds on it! Now you can get 500 sounds on a 1U rack module for £300 new! Still, this was quite a beast and went on to find fame with The Human League (all of the drums on Dare) and Ultravox (quite a lot of Rage In Eden and Quartet). Numan used one too and it became a favourite of the hi-NRG scene. Check the cowbells!

[wendileona]

Rod's Young Turks and Tonight Im Yours is the LM1. Pink Floyds early demo of Learning To Fly used the LM-1. Thousands of songs contain music made by this machine.

[canuckcurt]

I ended up selling this on ebay the 2nd week of July of 2007. I only threw this video up as part of the eBay ad. It sold for $750 USD. Not bad for something that sat on my repair shelf for 10 years..;)

[hendrixonlsd]

wow... you have a LM 1! those are so Rare! they only made 500 of those. Prince was one of the first to purchase that bad boy in 1980.. he made party like its 1999 and i think "Guitar" with that. im glad to see someone demo'd this. this is History of beat making for Electronic music right here. in case no one knows.. it released in the 1980's and it was whopping $4,999. Very first Digital drum machine.

[wendileona]

Guitar from his album Planet Earth WAS NOT DONE with an LM-1 - no way child!

I think the first artist to by one was I THINK Joe Walsh. Roger Linn was local to the LA area, around Universal and Burbank, near the Valley, so artists - big names like Don Henley and I think also Phil Collins were early buyers and testers even.

Prince FIRST song using this machine was Private Joy off of Controversy. Then he went mad - Feel U Up, Extra Lovable, Moonbeam Levels, Purple Music, Delirious, Turn It Up.

[clemens1986]

There's a previously released version of Guitar which was definitely created with the linn.

[TimeKoder13]

Apparently the opening on The Times 777-9311 that Prince produced, wrote and laid the tracks for has a bunch of us in a tizzy on anotha thread. Live or Not, it sounds amazing.

[DJenerateBeats]

It was definitely NOT created on the LM-1! That was an Emu Proteus 2000 or similar sounding emulation. The LM-1 has a seriously distinctive sound, which cannot be heard on either version of Guitar. "Future Baby Mama", from the same album, uses an LM-1/LM-2 or sample emulation for the drums, as well as 99% of Prince records in the 80's. But NOT Guitar!

(D')