Don’t know if I agree with the Infoproduct concept, particularly when we live in the age of free and democratised information.
But here goes…
I know the 808 and 909 drum machines quite intimately and spent time appreciating the circuit design. The circuits can be assimilated into modules and these modules when working together create the individual sounds.
Some of the Machines in the AR and MD already attempt to replicate these modules. It’s just a matter of using them in conjunction with the other sound design tools you have available to get them to sound as close as possible. The tools in the case of the AR & MD refer to the Machines, Filters, Envelopes, LFOs, Amplifier, Distortion etc.
I have had a lot of practice learning how these work together.
For example: You may not know, but the transient of the 808 Kick Drum is actually generated from a digital pulse wave coming from the Sequencer CPU. The pulse wave triggers the analog drum circuit, but is also audible as the transient.
The question to ask is: How to achieve this on the AR using the tools available? Solution: A short burst of distortion at the start of the sound will create a pulse like waveform. You can achieve this using a short LFO routed to DIST. (FYI: The AR already has a pulse at the start of the BD instrument, but it’s not nearly as punchy as the original 808).
When designing a sound I will usually break it down in to 3 regions: The attack/transient, the sustain/body and the decay/tail.
I can then focus on these elements separately. In the case of replicating an existing sound, I will isolate these regions and compare recursively until the region I am working on resembles the original as close as possible.
When working on the individual regions i’ll use my ears in conjunction with a spectrum analyser to view the frequency response. I will also use an oscilloscope and ears to perceive how the volume envelope is shaped with time.
In summary, good sound design is a combination of experience, problem solving and careful listening.
