[HN Gopher] The Bare Minimum Beats: Panasonic's RD-9844 Rhythm M...
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       The Bare Minimum Beats: Panasonic's RD-9844 Rhythm Machine
        
       Author : nicole_express
       Score  : 66 points
       Date   : 2024-08-16 20:00 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (nicole.express)
 (TXT) w3m dump (nicole.express)
        
       | bluehex wrote:
       | Some searching online in Japanese shows a production date for the
       | RD-9844 as Showa 49 (1974).
       | 
       | It's interesting that they released this as Panasonic and not
       | Technics which was already an established Panasonic brand for
       | audio equipment since 1965.
        
       | chillingeffect wrote:
       | Great explanations of drastically minimalist design.
       | 
       | Looks safe to bend... it's interesting to bend drum machines bc
       | the sound and sequencer circuits are quite different. I did that
       | on a tr-626 and it was wild :)
        
       | vr46 wrote:
       | Most excellent breakdown, I wonder who these machines were
       | targeted at?
        
         | neom wrote:
         | Maybe the same person as this?
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvglZptaBuY heh :D
        
       | jim-jim-jim wrote:
       | Cute. I love music made with machines like this: Suicide,
       | Tuxedomoon, Young Marble Giants, etc.
       | 
       | The preset reminds me of a somewhat obscure single by an act
       | called Perfect Jewish Couple, which features similarly hissy
       | percussion. I lit up when I first heard it, because I thought
       | they might be the same, but listening again it's clearly a
       | different device.
       | 
       | https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=t1T-1jPCFtg
        
       | Animats wrote:
       | The first drum machine: the Wurlitzer Sideman.[1]
       | 
       | Another example of things built the hard way before the
       | technology to build them was available.
       | 
       | [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNgJcX2ckZQ
        
         | omnicognate wrote:
         | What an extraordinary channel. Thanks for introducing me to it!
        
       | cesaref wrote:
       | The 'pop' example given at the beginning of the article when
       | switching on an 80s machine with built-in audio is typically
       | caused by a DC blocking capacitor in line with the speaker.
       | Because those machines typically only had a +ve supply rail, the
       | output amplifier swings the output between gnd and +5v (or +12v,
       | whatever the supply is), so there's a 1/2 rail voltage DC offset
       | on the speaker output, and the blocking cap absorbs this during
       | that 'pop'.
       | 
       | So the sound is quite analog, it's an exponentially decaying
       | voltage as the capacitor charges :)
        
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       (page generated 2024-08-17 23:02 UTC)