Chamberlin Rhythmate Tape Loop Drum Machine

This is a quick demo of my Chamberlin Rhythmate. This was an early drum machine which played back tape loops. It's a predecessor of the Mellotron. A lever moves the tape head across 14 different tape loops, each of which has 3 tracks on it, for a total of 42 different drum loops. A sub-lever shifts the head across the tape to align it with one of the 3 loops. Sometimes it's hard to avoid crosstalk.

Samples of all the loops from this Rhythmate are available as bonus material on my Optigan/Orchestron/Talentmaker sample CD-Rom, which can be ordered here:

http://www.optigan.com/shoptigan.html

Here's a little infomercial i put together for the cd-rom:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeUeME...

• Category

  Music

[Eric Rockabilly]

the first Drum Machine or Rhythm box was RHYTHMICON.

[peahix]

The rhythmicon wasn't anything like a drum machine

[JBKShoup]

So nice to see another amazing invention that my Grandpa Did!! :) Thanks so much for sharing. It's great to see it's still around and kickin'.

HUGS

Bridget Chamberlin-Shoup

Southern California

[nancythetall]

That's part of the sound. Tape is pleasant.

[squidfanny]

Your Grandpa was a genius :)

Big love and respect from the UK techno scene.

[museumoftechno]

It's more like a drum machine than, for instance, any other instrument available in the 1930s...?

[snooters]

Most of those beats are pretty cool.

[jasonspacestation]

Sick!

[gordongate]

I presume that as its a tape loop, the tempo is fixed by the speed of the recording otherwise the souinds would pitch shift varying the tape speed.

[rosskstar]

Moody Blues apparently

[nancythetall]

I am salivating.

[Weston Colleon]

I can hear the tape .. pretty shit sound

[David Winter]

This is an amazing machine ! A question: given the enormous number of times the loop passes against the head, what was the typical life of the loops ? What type of tape was used ? At what speed did it play ? It would be fun to see the inside.