TR FROM MARS

All The Classics - Together At Last!

TR From Mars is a bundle of our classic TR packs - the 505, 606, 626, 707, 727, 808, and 909! With this bundle you'll never run low on inspiration - the TR machines are the best of the best, and our extensive multi sampled packs will make you feel like you have the real deal machines at your fingertips 💥

The 505 From Mars

Our 505 is no ordinary drum machine - it's been modified with a bizarre, circuit-bending knob that tunes all of the drums simultaneously - either into totally useable, tuned versions of the original sounds, or mangled into oblivion. And to go a step further, we sampled this modified 505 extensively into our favorite sampler of all time - the SP1200.

The Recording Process

Before anything else, we decided to capture the OG 505 sounds, without modification, cleanly through an API preamp to our mastering reel to reel and finally Apogee Symphony MK2 conversion. The clean 505 hits are among the best sounding 505 samples out there. 

Taking it a step further, we captured an 38 additional pitches per voice to tape, by engaging the tuning modification. Each drum was tuned in half steps by hand and ear (time consuming and challenging to say the least). This gives you a huge variety of pitched sounds not available on the original machine.

We also experimented with different combinations of switches to get extreme, trashy, odd-harmonic drum sounds, including crushed congas, metallic cowbells, crunchy hi hats, trashy timbales, smashes and blips. We can only guess what the mods actually do (the guy who did them couldn't even tell us) - but let's just say they re-arrange the internal architecture of the 505 in the coolest ways possible: 

Sampling the 505 Through the SP-1200

Finally, (and in celebration of 5/05 day) we decided to run the 505 through the SP1200 sampler. The SP is a favorite at our studio (and any studio lucky enough to have one) because it gives everything that passes through it a ridiculously amazing vibe. It adds a gritty, 12 bit sound that, depending on how hard you clip the input, ranges from extremely punchy to dark, hard and warm.

So, by playing back different tunings of our modded 505 into the SP, and tuning them even further (capturing 16 pitches for every sample) we were able to add a punchiness and crispness that no amount of EQ, compression, or traditional saturation can achieve. The 505 is inherently bright, so the SP helped give it an even more vintage and colored sound. Plus, it's been sampled through our new API 1608 to tape. These are the personal favorite of the pack. 

The 606 From Mars

The 606 is an analog drum machine from 1982, originally built to accompany the TB-303. The original drum machine's sound is similar to an 808, but perhaps a little more unique. The bass drum, snare and toms are classically analog and warm, and the hi hats and cymbals are unbelievably groovy and organic sounding. The 606  can be heard all over early Plastikman, Aphex, Autechre, Paranoid London and more. 

Capturing the Original 606

We sampled the 606 cleanly (turning down the volume of each drum voice) and also with 7 different levels of clipping. The 606 was tracked through the punchy API 512 preamp, coupled with a Reddi (tube DI) for added warmth. This signal path went directly to our 1/4" Otari mastering reel to reel, and into an SSL gate *after the tape machine* to add slight analog VCA punch. Finally the results reached our computer via Apogee Symphony. No plugin processing whatsoever.

Re-Sampling Through the MPC60 & SP1200

While undoubtedly excellent, the 606 is limited - with no tuning for any of the drum voices. Not a problem! We ran it through our two favorite 12bit samplers of all time - the MPC60 and SP1200. By capturing the samplers' unique tunings (15 per voice) and clipping the inputs *just* the right amount, we ended up with a killer pack of re-sampled, dirty and characterful 606 drums. The noise and aliasing the samples give the sounds allow them to really punch through a mix - plus it's an interesting way to directly compare the sound of the MPC60 and SP1200 (in Ableton there is a macro you can use to switch between samplers).

The Modified 606

Finally, we sampled a heavily modified 606 that has an entire second body of controls built onto this classic drum machine. There's now a MASSIVE bass boost to the original tom, transforming it into a monstrous, booming sub kick that sounds like a cross between an 808 and 909. There are multi-pitched snares, uniquely metallic hi hats and trashier cymbals, and an extensive collection of tuned toms - none of which you'll find in any other 606 samples. 

The 626 From Mars

The 626 is a classic, 80s drum machine that's some sort of cross between a 505, 707 and 727, while adding additional sounds these other units don't feature. It's based around acoustic samples, and features 80s gated reverb snares, iconic congas, dry bass drums, crunchy cabasas, agogos, timbales, a cool assortment of cymbals and more. In fact, with 30 voices, the 626 packs in a greater variety of sounds than any other TR series drum machine. 

The Recording Process

We decided to capture the 626 in the spirit of the original samples - clean and dry. First, we popped some batteries in to remove the inevitable hum from the original power supply. From there, it was straight into our punchy API preamp, and directly to tape, finally capturing the results through the excellent Symphony MKII converter. We multi-sampled every drum voice at all 15 pitches (the pitching is digital and crunchy!). 

Once we'd captured the samples cleanly, we opted for an additional, slightly colored version of every drum sound. For this coloration, we called on the amazing Overstayer Saturator (in parallel, to open up the sustain a bit) and the super clean Thermionic Swift EQ. We purposefully only applied slight processing, so that whatever EQ, saturation, compression you use will sound better.

The 707 From Mars

Born in 1985, the 707 was a digital drum machine resembling the 909, but was much more affordable. It featured a combination of Linndrum, LM1, and 909 style sounds, but sounded grittier and more compressed. Because of its character and price point, it's no wonder the 707 defined countless early Detroit Techno and Chicago House jams and is still widely used today.

But the 707 was quite limited - with no control of tuning (or any parameters). Thankfully, our 707 features a very unique and crunchy sounding modification: a custom oscillator controls the sample rate for every voice,  providing all sorts of tuning options and aliased circuit bent madness: 

Capturing the Clean Sounds

The 707's drums are inherently familiar: Linn-esc bassdrums, snares toms, and cowbells and tambourines, and 909 hi hats, claps, and cymbals. But, unlike its relatives, the 707 is punchier and tighter. 

Because of this, the drums naturally cut through a mix, with no EQ required. So when sampling, we opted for no additional EQ or compression - tracking the machine through our Reddi tube DI into an API 512C, to tape. We grabbed every hit cleanly (with no modification engaged), and some flams for good measure.

Recording the Modified Sounds

Once we had the classic kit, we engaged the circuit bending / tuning knobs. Each knob controls the sample rate of an oscillator that has been built for every drum voice. This allows super crunchy and aliased pitching to the right, and extreme circuit bending to the left, turning this 707 into one of the more special drum machines I've ever used. 

We captured a huge amount of these knob positions for every drum voice (sometimes up to 65 pitches!). Then, we jammed more spontaneously - twisting and turning knobs, sequencing multiple hits at once, capturing the results to tape. 

Sampling Through the SP

Finally, we plugged the 707 into our favorite sounding sampler: the SP1200. There is a reason we come back to the SP again and again: it just sounds punchier and stranger than anything else. 

Often we'll clip the converter on the SP, but for this batch of samples we opted to preserve the 707's punch, with no input clipping. Once the sounds were on the 1200, we engaged different (analog Curtis) filters at each output, and sampled every pitch for every drum voice, through our API 1608 console, to tape. 

The 727 From Mars

Developed in 1985, the 727 is the latin percussion version of the 707 and is the perfect add-on to any drum machine or sample collection. Like the other TR series, it has defined various genres of dance music with its instantly nostalgic congas, agogos, bongos, timbales, cabasas, whistles & more. But it's really the records that people have made with the 727 that give its kitsch charm meaning to the percussion sounds we've come to love - often appearing alongside the 707, you can find the 727 in everything from Chicago / Acid House, Detroit Techno, 80s Disco / Garage and Balearic and so much more. 

The 727 From Mars includes these classic drum machine percussion samples, plus an additional 30 pitches per voice, created by recording each hit onto a 1/4" tape machine, and playing the tape back at perfect semitones. This will give you not only the classic, instantly recognizable 727 samples, but bizarre and unique, tape-tuned drum machine percussion hits. 

The Sampling Process

Like the 707, the 727 is extremely punchy, and to preserve this punch we captured its sounds as cleanly as possible - through an API 512 preamp straight to tape. The tape adds a noticeable analog punch and crunch, so we also captured the raw sounds, straight through our Apogee Symphony converter. 

While the original sounds on this machine are pretty perfect, there is only one tuning offered per voice, greatly limiting the unit's flexibility. No matter what you do, you're stuck with "that 727 sound". Don't get me wrong, that sound is amazing, but it's not always what you're looking for. And while you could tune them digitally in your DAW, you'd likely lose the vibe of the hardware along the way. 

To remedy this, we recorded each hit to tape at 15 ips along with a C note sine wave. Then, we played the tape back at 30 different speeds (from lower than 7.5 ips to higher than 30 ips), tuning that sine wave with a guitar tuner, to give you 30 perfectly chromatic pitches of every drum. The results mean you can get much more mileage out of these sounds - the following is all 727 From Mars (plus a 707 kick; also included): 

 The Quijadas, bells and chimes become crazy, elongated, dark percussion hits (add a delay and things get really insane). And the agogos, congas & maracas become less recognizable and more malleable to your own production. You can now harmonically tune any of the percussion without introducing unwanted digital artifacts. 

We also created a couple custom hits - cutting into the cabasa to provide an additional, punchier version, and chopping the star chime to create a metallic ride.

The Kits

With just over 1100 individual hits, this is a massive collection of 727 sounds. To make things a bit easier, we've created (10) 16x hit drum kits. These include: the original 727 sounds, assorted and re-pitched kits, conga / bongo / timbale kits with multiple flam levels, agogo kits, chimes, cabasa kits and more. The step sequencer on the 727 doesn't lend itself well to playing percussion - but these kits are really great for jamming on congas, bells & whistles. Plus they're consistently mapped across all formats. 

The 808 From Mars

The 808 is easily the most recognized drum machine in history. It's responsible for the birth of countless genres - hip hop, electro, techno, house, trap - the list goes on. And even though it was developed in early 1980, it is still among the best sounding drum machines of all time - with its classic and pure analog sound. Decades later it can still be heard everywhere - in fact, it's hard to escape the 808.

The Sound of the 808 is Alive

I've used many 808s over the years and it's true that each has its own sound. This is due not only to its 100% analog nature, but because of the internal parameters that, with even the slightest tweak, can completely alter the sound. The toms can sound like a 606 if the noise parameters are messed with, and the bass drum can range from a low G (if you're lucky) to an A#.

We Re-Built the Library From Scratch

Over the years, 3 different 808s have been sampled to create the 808 From Mars, but our most recent unit is far and away the best sounding yet, and for this reason (and the fact we have better gear and more experience than ever) we've decided to completely re-sample it.

So, we multi-sampled our 808 cleanly through our API console, and also dirtied it up with a slew of hardware saturators, EQs, filters and compressors (no plugin processing whatsoever). We re-pitched the Bass Drum through old skool samplers like the SP 1200 and MPC60, to get massive, tuned kick drums: 

The Recording Process

The 808 recording session was a complicated, month-long affair filled with love (and some frustration). But if you break it all down, we basically focused on two different processes - clean samples and dirty samples. 

1. The Clean. Recorded through the API 1608 with minimal gain and no processing. Includes both digital and tape versions
2. The Color. Various types of processing including EQ, Saturation, Compression, Gating, and more. Groups of samples with multiple levels of saturation.

For the processing, we overdrove the 1608 console, and used dynamics like the API 2500, Distressor, SPL transient designer, and SSL. We used overdrive mostly in parallel, to color the sustain and bring the RMS up - and these consisted of an Overstayer Saturator, a Moog filter and Reddi. For EQ, we turned to the Thermionic Swift Tube EQ, API 550B and 560 EQs. And for samplers, we stuck to the classics - SP1200 and MPC60.

We Multi-Sampled Everything

The accents on the 808 hugely affect the drum sound, but most sample packs neglect this. The accent can add a transient spike, slight pitch modulation, or opening of the filter (depending on the voice). For the bass drum, using the accent actually means a less bass-heavy sound. The accented toms become punchier and less tonal, and the rim completely changes timbre. 

We also multi-sampled every drum voice that had synthesis parameters (bass drum, snare, cymbal, etc) - capturing different decay times, snappy and tone amounts, for both accented and un-accented. The end result gives you full control over the drum sounds - just like the real thing: 

The Drum Machine That Changed Electronic Music Forever

The introduction of the TR-909 in 1984 transformed the landscape of electronic dance music permanently. If the 808 defined the sounds of the early 80s, the 909 was the next logical step in the evolution of technology shaping music and music shaping technology back. Like the 808, every voice on this drum machine is a classic - instantly recognizable (for better or worse), and deeply nostalgic yet increasingly relevant in today's music. And despite what anybody says we still have yet to see an emulation nail this sound perfectly. 

The Sound

Like the 808, the 909 is analog, but with one major difference: it uses crunchy 6 bit samples for the cymbal and hi hat. These can punch through a mix in a totally different (crunchier?) way than the previously analog hats because they're sample-based, providing an amazing contrast to the 909's analog voices. In fact, so much of the movement from disco to house and techno can be boiled down, at least partially, to this shift in hi hats. 

The Bass Drum

Also like the 808, the analog bass drum is famously huge and warm. Both are capable of deep sub kicks around which you can base entire albums of music. But while the 808 bass drum is incredible, it can be hard to fit with a big bassline. The sustain is huge and you also just don't really have a punchy envelope to play with. On the 909, though, the introduction of pitch modulation means you can get a super punchy kick because you're effectively raising the pitch of that attack envelope, and the difference (the decay) between that initial attack and the lower, fundamental sustain is where the punch lies. 

The Snare Drum

The snares are wide ranging. On the lower end of the "tone" control, they're thicker than the 808's (moving closer to the 90s) and on the other side of that "tone" knob things can get quite trashy quickly depending on your unit. If you sweep this knob, along with the pitch envelope, you can get those crazy, energetic 909 rave snare rolls that people lost their shit to in the 90s.

Overall, the 909 is quite a departure from the 808, but none of this is to say it is better than the 808, but rather that these differences are what make them the perfect companions. Which is better depends on whom you ask, and mostly its due to taste and musical inspirations / aspirations. So, the 909 is either the best or second-best drum machine ever made. 

The Recording Process

To create the 909 From Mars, we recorded two different TR-909s (every unit sounds different!). First, we captured clean versions of every drum hit, straight through an API preamp into Apogee Symphony conversion. When neccesary, each drum voice was captured in extremely detailed and methodical groups - the Bass drum with varying decay, tune, and attack - the snare, with varying tune, tone and snappy amounts, the Toms & Cymbals at every tuning available, and finally the hi hats at different decays. 

Next, we recorded processed variations of these same drum groups, coloring everything through hardware saturators, tube EQs, tube DIs, transient designing, MPC, SP1200, and a mastering reel to reel 1/4" tape machine. The Bass Drum, for instance, contains Clean, Tube, Tape, and Colored versions of the same exact groups. 

Finally, we took our second 909 and ran it through an SSL 4000, going crazy with EQ, filtering, compression and gating, recording the results to tape. Once on tape, we played back the tape at different speeds to achieve new analog tunings of the 909 previously never heard. The idea of this second batch of samples is to provide a really diverse, somewhat random "Various" folder for every drum voice.