I've noticed that the prices of these are beginning to climb. I know it was a flagship model on release but of course it's ......digital!!!! Not unless members of the cult that is 'analogue' are seeing a future investment opportunity? Be interested if anyone else out there has also noticed the price rising.

Not really, but fashion is a weird thing.

Seeing as the RX5 was a £1000 flagship drum machine back in the day when all I could afford was gear magazines this was another bit of aspirational gear for me for years - until one day, I was walking past this second hand shop and they had an RX5 in the window for, I think, £100.

I of course picked it up, with some voice cartridges, and had it for a few years.

It has a typically Yamaha programming interface of the day - which is, over-complicated and obtuse, and has many weird quirks. The sounds of themselves are nothing special - some kicks and snares you'd recognise because they were on all the UK TV theme tunes of the day, the typically drum Yamaha percussion and mix of FM samples - and of course these are all eminently sampleable.

The best, imo, thing about it is how much you can glitch and bend and mash up the samples, as it has a voice architecture that's quite flexible (though again, with quirks).

It's a fun box, but I really don't think it's worth that much. Fun to mess around with, but so is Ableton Live, some plugins and an RX5 sample set. It definitely has a sound and character though.

After I found I didn't use it, I sold it on, and don't miss it.

Quote desmond:

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Seeing as the RX5 was a £1000 flagship drum machine back in the day when all I could afford was gear magazines this was another bit of aspirational gear for me for years - until one day, I was walking past this second hand shop and they had an RX5 in the window for, I think, £100.

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This really sums up every piece of "vintage" gear I've ever bought. Some of it I don't use that much. But I wanted them at the time and never dreamt I could ever own them.

The RX5 is a great drum machine used on countless Hi-NRG and Italo tracks from the 80s. A very useable drum machine for synth pop and disco. I would not spend more than £150 on one but it would have to have to be impeccable at that price.

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I'm All Ears.

I occasionally use certain RX5 samples. But I wouldn't want the drum machine. Shudder.

Quote chris...:

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I occasionally use certain RX5 samples. But I wouldn't want the drum machine. Shudder.

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Haha so true..

Any whom look at the prices of TR-707's utter madness!

The new generation of kids think that if it's hardware it's analogue, some one was calling all his hardware boxes (access virus etc) My analogues and saying that he wants a Linn Drum cos of the phat analogue tone... I kid you not

Anything old has risen in price due to idiots and ebay, not saying the RX-5 is bad cos it's a pretty cool drum machine for what it is but now days anything old be it good or crap has shot up in price cos it's vintage cool and oh yea analogue

Edited by vinyl_junkie (14/05/12 11:09 PM)

Quote vinyl_junkie:

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he wants a Linn Drum cos of the phat analogue tone...

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Haha - amusing!

That said, aside from the minor factual errors, these kids are only really falling for the same old
"analog == good" bollox we have got used to.

well, 707s have always been the poor man's 909. As a result, there were great records made with the 707. And that is now lore. But Roland MIDI is fun in general.

As for the RX5, I'm not in the market. I'm covered on the drums.

They should bring back the Vintage Gear Forum.

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I'm All Ears.

I used to have a 707, I bought it because I liked the look of it and I'd have loved to have had it paired with the 727. I rarely used it though and sampled it before selling. Whilst many old House tracks used it, it's nothing like a 909 and is easily replicated by sampling. Obviously in hindsight I could have kept it a few more years and made a couple of hundred quid on it. It was boxed as well, which is hard to come by.

Never mind though, the 808 is way more fun and has gone up loads since I bought mine.

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http://soundcloud.com/richie-royale
http://www.mixcrate.com/richieroyale

Don't understand the desire for an RX5 .. as pointed out above, Yamaha aren't the most user friendly manufacturer and the sounds are only really great if you want to recreate 80's tv music.

If I were to get a s/h drum machine, it would be the Roland R8 or R5 - had the latter and it was a blast. The R8 is just a few more bells and whistles (and more grid). All sounds are now dated, but you can always trigger something over midi and it's a doddle to programme.

Oh, it's not just idiocy with the 'analogue' brigade. Years ago when I was selling my MPC60, some guy rang up overjoyed that I still had my '16 bit drum sampler'. When I pointed out it was technically a 12 bit unit, he went 'oh' and put the phone down. Ah well... his loss..



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Veni, Vidi, Aesculi
(I came, I saw, I conkered)

I have a bunch of books on music tech that I rescued from a library closure, and one of them is Electronic Drums, by Frank Vilardi & Steve Tarshis (Amsco, 1985). It has a lovely red flexidisc in the back with rhythm samples on it, reviews of several digital & analogue drum machines and electronic kits, and programming techniques with examples from commercial tracks of the time.

I quote: "The 707 is an improved and updated version of the 909" (p.46).

Well, that's that settled.



I have an RX11, which I actually preferred to the RY30 for the simplicity and more outputs. It also sounds great down-sampled... there's a place for some of these old digital units for sure, but I'm not convinced they're all worth the asking price. The 707 has climbed much higher than it needs to I think. At least the RX5 has some flexibility.

Regarding the LinnDrum, you might be surprised to learn it does have a couple of analogue filters in there, particularly on the bass drum. I think that was to cut out any aliasing that might creep through, but am not entirely sure. The original Linn LM-1 did not have the filters.

Quote nathanscribe:

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there's a place for some of these old digital units for sure, but I'm not convinced they're all worth the asking price. The 707 has climbed much higher than it needs to I think.

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and not the 909 / 808 ?

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I'm All Ears.

Well, they're pretty hefty too... but the 707 is a lot more limited and has no sound-shaping features at all, AFAIK. I think the 626 does more, but that seems to be starting to climb a little too.

Quote nathanscribe:

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I quote: "The 707 is an improved and updated version of the 909" (p.46).

Well, that's that settled

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Well, yeah, it was when it was released. A big screen for programming, all sounds were samples with greater fidelity (as opposed to a mixture of analog and samples on the 909), improved MIDI spec etc etc.

I was always a fan of the under-rated Kawai drum machines which actually had a great spec for their time and were really flexible in programming terms. The Roland R8 is probably the peak of the stand alone, non-Sampler drum machine era and was a great box for it's time but the sounds are not great these days.

At least the sampler boxes, like the MPC, don't get dated by the sound library and they've stayed useful and relevant because of that.

But most of those early drum machines are easily replaceable by samples and I think most people interested in those sounds have probably got most of the drum machines ever made in their sample libraries anyway.

Quote ken long:

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well, 707s have always been the poor man's 909. As a result, there were great records made with the 707. And that is now lore. But Roland MIDI is fun in general.

As for the RX5, I'm not in the market. I'm covered on the drums.

They should bring back the Vintage Gear Forum.

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Haha that was the main reason I got a 707 when I was younger, I couldn't afford a 909 and I wanted a piece of the TR action, I mean if you squint long enough it kinda has that look and vibe (oh dear) also the fact that the PCM ride cymbal was close to the 9 was good enough for me at that age

I got it very cheap though, stuck it on ebay few years ago and it went for too much but errm I wasn't complaining

I got a Yamaha RX-17 before x-mass for £10 which I started to circuit bend.. It sounded really good with the bends actually, but read on lol
The story goes like this though... As I was going to put the last bend point there was a mistake on my notes I did so I powered it up and confirm which pin I was supposed to go to once confirmed I forgot to power it off and yea... you can see where this is going, I put it back down on the table and it shorted something it wasn't supposed to due to my numpty mistake and it constantly sounds messed up now in a rather not so nice way lol

BUT because of this wonderful thread (hehe) I powered it up yesterday and I actually used it in a song! Once layered on top of other drum machines a'la my MPC it sounded wicked! And made these crackling noises that sounded like vinyl

So here is a what that broken RX-17 sounds like with other stuff in the mix... It's running all the way through http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSwIIYJpC04&list=UU0ysg8Om_zET-YzX9lUZh ZQ&index=1&feature=plcp

Edited by vinyl_junkie (19/05/12 01:16 PM)

your music and your vids are great vj.... you should put these out.

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I'm All Ears.

Quote ken long:

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your music and your vids are great vj.... you should put these out.

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Many thanks Ken, I'm slowly working on that :-)

And yes they should bring back the vintage forum heheh

You know sometimes its nice just to turn on a beatbox and jam.

I have a Drumtrax for this. I know I could fire up the DAW and use samples, and have the world of drum sounds at my fingertips. But I just like the standalone thing of beatbox and synth sometimes.

Then I think maybe a Korg tribe or whatever would do, then I could change the sounds, but I have a computer for that - no - sometimes I just want it simple and raw and not have to think about layering and stuff...

Maybe as said elsewhere the fact I can now afford these things adds a sense of fun, but whatever, sometimes it just puts you in the zone. There is no shame in buying these things - they are fun!

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