Ill-Studio, the Paris-based studio by Thomas Subreville and Leonard published a book called ‘Incomplete Inventory’ in 2019, which contains over 300 photographs capturing part of the endless collection of analog and digital machines from the DEEWEE collection,
I dive into the catalogue and dig into the instruments and gear that was photographed for the book by Maxime Verret.
In the photograph on top of this page, you see a detail of the Roland CompuRhythm CR-78 drum machine.
Here some background information taken from the excellent Roland website:
Programmability is such an integral part of drum machines that we now take it for granted. Yet there was a time when drum machines were preset-only. In those days, all one could do was mash a button to start a foxtrot rhythm and adjust the tempo knob. That is, until 1978 and the arrival of Roland’s CR-78. As the first computer-controlled programmable drum machine, the CR-78 helped free musicians from the tyranny of the preset. It also set the stage for the arrival of Roland’s world-conquering TR-808 and TR-909 drum machines in the next decade. But first, the CR-78 would make some waves of its own.
The CR-78 included 20 presets organized into two rows. The top featured rock and disco, while the bottom had a variety of settings, including Latin rhythms, waltz, swing, and the Japanese-market-focused enka. Musicians could combine these by pressing multiple buttons simultaneously, resulting in new rhythms.
The Rhythm switch allowed users to select between A and B settings, meaning some presets had an additional version. Using the Variation knob, one could choose from a number of different fills and set it to trigger every two, four, eight, 12, or 16 bars—or manually. You could even create fade-ins and outs to spice up live performances.
Another surprising feature included on the CR-78 was trigger out. This function and clock in allowed musicians to use the drum machine in electronic studio settings—not just sitting on an isolated organ. The trigger out was instrumental in one of the first songs to use the CR-78, Blondie’s “Heart of Glass.”
Recently purchased by the band, the CR-78 featured prominently in the chart-busting disco crossover song. The rhythm that starts the song in isolation combines the Mambo and Beguine presets. The CR-78 also lent a hand with the bassline. Its trigger out modulated the filter of keyboardist Jimmy Destri’s SH-5, creating the famous pulsing bassline.
Blondie may have been among the first to use the CR-78 in a song, but Phil Collins arguably made the drum machine the most famous. In 1981—the same year the CR-78 went out of production—the former Genesis drummer dropped “In The Air Tonight.” A smash single from his equally popular Face Value album, “In The Air Tonight,” is a slow burn whose first half features the CR-78’s Disco 2 in its A variation. Run through reverb and plenty of compression, it provides a haunting, minimal rhythmic backdrop for Collins’ vocals. Until the iconic acoustic drum fill slams in.
Other prominent uses of the CR-78 include the Rock 1 pattern on Daryl Hall & John Oates’ “I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do),” Rock 4 on “Vienna” by Ultravox, Enka on “Lady In Red” by Chris De Burgh, pretty much every track on Metamatic by John Foxx, and many others.
Fun fact: one of the first designs of Soulwax.com, back in 1998-1999, was a picture of their CompuRhythm with a litte square cut out (the bit with the knobs under the line ‘Programmer’) where the content would load.
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