Arts Entertainments

Korg KR-55 and KR-55b Retro Analog Rhythm Machines Review

I recently bought and have been using both the Korg KR-55 and KR-55b on some new Anjelicas Baby tracks. I really enjoyed the practical use and retro sound of these two machines. If you like electronic, electronic, new wave, electro, synthpop, dance or pop music in general, you will love adding these sounds to your music productions.

Manufactured in (1982), the Korg KR-55b was the successor to the popular (1979) Korg KR-55. Korg was one of the companies at the forefront of analog technology when everyone was trying to recreate the sound of a real drum set. For its time it was revolutionary and very easy to operate. It had twice the 48 drum programs assigned to the KR-55 with a handy switch to change the swing time in some of the selected patterns. However, on the KR-55 all patterns could use this swing feature, as the new machine had now routed the switch to access the new bank of 48 preset drum patterns. Also, the drum patterns weren’t identical to the original KR-55 with just a new set of 48 programs added just in case. For some, this can be disappointing. For others, this expanded the patterns of an otherwise limited preset drum pattern arrangement. Obviously one would need to have both drum machines to achieve this.

Interestingly, it could be used as a trigger device for other Korg synths like the Korg Delta. It had a pedal jack on the back to connect a pedal to stop and start the drum machine and insert drum fills in live performances. The peddler came with the original unit as standard, as I recall. It even had six knobs to control drum volumes.

It was comparable in many ways to the Roland TR808 analog drum machine in terms of its fat kick and electro like hi-hat and snare etc. So why didn’t it stand the test of time like the Roland TR808 has?

Well, both drum machines suffered in the mid-1980s from artists’ overriding desire to utilize the then extremely trendy digitally sampled sounds of actual drum kits offered, for example, by Fairlight Music Computer.

However, what may have saved the Roland TR808 was the heavy use of the drum machine by then-new electro and hip-hop artists from the United States, particularly New York.

Also, the most damaging thing for the Korg KR-55 and KR-55b was the fact that the drum machine was preset and could not be programmed. It played in mono and it didn’t have separate outputs for each individual drum set and it didn’t have any midi implementation.

Despite its drawbacks, it has had a cult status. Many believe that Depeche Mode used the KR-55 on their first album Speak and Spell. To my ears I suspect this to be true. Also, they are quite rare these days and are an interesting alternative to the TR808 done to death and with modern computers sounds and drumbeats can be easily recorded and edited in software packages such as Cubase or Logic. You can even get retro settings to increase the number of outputs your drum machine has. They can be brought in for around £ 150 or let’s say $ 200-300. It’s a fairly inexpensive price considering what you can do with it once you implement it in a modern studio environment.

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