Roland TR-08

Appendix: Music terms

A plain-English glossary of the terms used in this course and in drum machine circles generally.

Rhythm and timing

Term	Meaning
4/4	The most common time signature: four beats per bar. Almost all pop, rock, dance and hip hop is in 4/4. On the TR-08, one 16-step pattern is one bar of 4/4.
3/4	Three beats per bar, the waltz feel (“1, 2, 3”). Needs a 12-step pattern on the TR-08 (starter beat E).
Bar	One cycle of the beat count. In 4/4, a bar is “1, 2, 3, 4”. Also called a measure.
Beat	The main pulse you tap your foot to. Steps 1, 5, 9 and 13 on the TR-08.
BPM	Beats per minute, the measure of tempo.
Tempo	The speed of the music.
Downbeat	Beat 1 of the bar, the strongest beat.
Backbeat	Beats 2 and 4, where the snare or clap usually sits (steps 5 and 13). The backbone of most popular music.
Offbeat	The “and” between beats (steps 3, 7, 11 and 15). The open hat in house music and the guitar or uke chop in reggae both sit here.
Eighth note	Half a beat; two per beat, eight per bar. Every second step on the TR-08.
Sixteenth note	A quarter of a beat; sixteen per bar. One step on the TR-08 (with PRE-SCALE on 3).
Syncopation	Accents placed off the main beats, which makes a rhythm feel funky or unexpected.
Swing / shuffle	Delaying every second note slightly so the rhythm lilts, as in jazz, blues, UK garage and much hip hop. On the TR-08, hold BANK and turn FINE.
Triplet	Three notes in the space of two. The TR-08’s PRE-SCALE switch positions 1 and 2 write in triplets.
Groove	The overall feel of a beat; how it makes you want to move.
Polyrhythm	Two or more rhythms of different lengths playing at once, so they drift against each other.
Quantise	Snapping played notes to the nearest grid position. The TR-08 quantises tap write to the nearest step.
Half-time	A feel where the snare hits on beat 3 only, so the music feels half as fast as the tempo.

Beats and styles

Term	Meaning
Four on the floor	A kick on every beat (steps 1, 5, 9 and 13). The foundation of disco, house, techno and trance.
Boom-chick	The simplest kick (boom) and snare (chick) alternation, used under folk and country strumming.
Boom bap	90s hip hop style named after the sound of its heavy kick (boom) and cracking snare (bap).
Breakbeat	A drum pattern originally sampled from the “break”, the drums-only section of a funk or soul record. Also a genre built on those samples.
Amen break	A short drum solo from the Winstons’ 1969 track “Amen, Brother”, probably the most sampled drum loop ever, and the basis of jungle.
One drop	Reggae beat with nothing on beat 1 and the kick and snare together on beat 3.
Two-step	In drum and bass, a sparse beat with the kick on 1 and the “and” of 3, snare on 2 and 4. (Not to be confused with UK garage 2-step.)
Jungle / drum and bass	Fast UK genre (about 160 to 175 BPM) built on chopped breakbeats and deep bass.
Trip hop	Slow, moody, sample-based style from Bristol in the 90s (Massive Attack, Portishead, Tricky).
Big beat	Late 90s style mixing heavy breakbeats with rock energy (The Prodigy, The Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim).
Electro	Early 80s style built on drum machines and synths, a bridge between funk and hip hop.

Drums and sounds

Term	Meaning
Kick	The bass drum.
Snare	The drum with wire snares underneath that rattle, giving a sharp crack.
Clap	A handclap sound, often layered with or used instead of the snare.
Hi-hat (hat)	Two cymbals on a stand. Closed is short and tight; open rings longer.
Toms	Pitched drums used for fills.
Crash	A loud cymbal for marking the start of a new section.
Ride	A cymbal played in steady patterns. The 808 has none, so the cymbal with a short DECAY stands in.
Rim shot	A drummer hitting the rim and head of the snare together; a sharp click.
Conga	A tall, single-headed Cuban hand drum. The TR-08’s toms switch to low, mid and hi congas.
Maracas	A pair of shakers. Shares a channel with the TR-08’s clap.
Claves	Two wooden sticks struck together; a bright, short click.
Cowbell	A metal bell sound, and one of the 808’s most famous voices.
Fill	A short burst of drumming, often on toms, that leads into the next section.
Ghost note	A very quiet drum hit, usually on the snare, that adds feel. Needs velocity; on the TR-08, sub steps and accent get part of the way.
Accent	A hit played louder than those around it. On the TR-08, the AC row makes every instrument on that step louder, by the amount set with the ACCENT knob.
Velocity	How hard a note is played, controlling its volume. The TR-08 has accent instead, one row for the whole kit.
Decay	How long a sound takes to fade away after it’s struck.
Pitch / tuning	How high or low a drum sounds.
Snappy	The level of a snare drum’s wire rattle.

Machines and gear

Term	Meaning
808	The Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer (1980), an analogue drum machine. Its long, booming kick, snappy clap and cowbell shaped electro, hip hop and later trap. “808” is now also slang for a long, pitched bass kick.
909	The Roland TR-909 (1983), part analogue and part sampled (its cymbals). The core sound of house and techno.
CR-78	Roland’s CompuRhythm CR-78 (1978), an early programmable drum machine heard on “In the Air Tonight”.
DMX	The Oberheim DMX (1981), a sample-based drum machine heard on much early 80s rap.
Analogue	Sound made by electronic circuits in real time. The original 808 is fully analogue; the TR-08 models its circuits digitally (see ACB).
PCM / sample	A recorded sound played back digitally. The 808 uses none; the 909 used samples for its cymbals.
ACB	Analog Circuit Behavior, Roland’s method of modelling each part of an analogue circuit in software. The TR-08’s sounds are made this way.
Step sequencer	A sequencer where you program a beat by switching steps on or off on a grid, as on the TR-08’s PATTERN WRITE mode.
Pattern / rhythm pattern	One programmed loop of beats. Roland calls it a rhythm pattern, with A and B variations.
Variation	The A or B version of a TR-08 pattern. AB alternates them.
Fill-in / intro	A short pattern played once, to lead into the next section or start the song. The TR-08 keeps four per bank.
Rhythm track	Roland’s word for a song: a list of which pattern plays in each bar.
Sub step	A note placed between two steps. On the TR-08, half a step late.
Pre-scale	What one step is worth on the TR-08: sixteenths, 32nds or triplets.
Chain / chaining	Playing patterns one after another automatically. On the TR-08, press two pattern buttons together in MANUAL PLAY.
Mute / solo	Mute silences a part; solo silences everything except one part.
MIDI	The standard digital language electronic instruments use to send notes, clock and control changes.
MIDI clock	Timing messages that keep instruments in time with each other.
Sync / analogue sync	A simpler timing method: a voltage pulse per step down a 3.5 mm cable, as used between Korg Volcas. The TR-08 has a trigger out but no sync in.
Trigger	A short voltage pulse that tells another device to play a note or move on a step. The TR-08 sends one from TRIGGER OUT.
DAW	Digital audio workstation: music software on a computer, such as Ableton Live, Logic Pro or GarageBand.