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Korg Rhythm 55 KR-55 Drum Machine

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8 Artists Use This
Trentemøller

You can see Trentemoller using a Korg KR-55 at the 9:20 mark.
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Yannis Philippakis

Along this video we can see Yannis Philippakis using this drum machine to set the drums of 'Daffodils' (Mark Ronson).
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Vince Clarke

Depeche Mode album gear discussion on 1981 album: "I SPOKE TO VINCE CLARKE A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO AND HE TOLD ME THE DRUM MACHINE USED ON SPEAK AND SPELL WAS A KORG KR55 PRESET MACHINE .THE BAND USED JUST THE SNARE AND HIGH HATS SOUNDS FROM. THE BASS DRUM WAS GENERATED FROM AN ARP 2600 SYNTH WHICH WAS SYNCHED TO THE MACHINE AND AN OLD ROLAND MC4 MICROCOMPOSER SEQUENCER. SO THERE THE ANSWER IS!"
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Galantis

In this Twitter picture, one can see Galantis using a Korg Rhythm 55.
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Solvent

Another one of my favourite drum machines is also shown here: the Korg KR-55, which has the most killer, driving preset patterns and in my opinion the best snare drum sound of all time.
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Ric Ocasek

These days Ocasek busies himself while at home with a TEAC 88 8-track tape machine connected to a Sound Workshop 1280 B board in turn hooked up with two Orban 622B equalizers (the board is also equipped with its own parametric equalizers. For keyboards he swears by his Prophets and Roland Jupiter 8. using a Korg Lambda for orchestral coloring and often calling in an assortment of little Casiotones for reinforcement. He probably has more drum machines than anything else-both the old Linn LM-1 Drum Computer and the new LinnDrum. a Korg KR 55, five Roland units (including a TR808. CR8000 and a Dr. Rhythm), some old Univox rhythm gizmos and a drum machine yanked out of a Hammond organ "that has the Liverpool beat." the kind of insect clicking you hear in organ shops in suburban shopping malls.
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Martial Canterel

"All of the music is recorded in one take – apart from the fact that all of the instruments require the clocked master pulse (often coming from a Roland system 104 or TR 606 or Korg KR 55)..."
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Wojtek Olszak

The instrument appears on the list of instruments on official artist's website (http://olszak.pl/).
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Description

The KR55 was, for its time (1979), an advanced preset rhythm drum machine with up to 96 preset rhythm patterns! These patterns cover the whole gamut of presets (Waltz, Samba, Rhumba, Bossa Nova, Tango, Slow Rock, Swing, Rock, etc.). The KR55 also featured a "swing beat" control to add a variation to the groove. Each drum sound's level can be individually adjusted for each pattern. It can also be externally controlled via footswitch jack for the Start/Stop and Intro/Fill switches. The KR55B was a black-chassis version released a few years later in 1982 with twice as many rhythm patterns.

3 reviews

bubbajones

310

Pure analogue drums

Added MIDI and individual outputs

+1

almost 4 years ago
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augustoacuna

115

Amazing retro beat machine. Punchy snare drums.

I use this machine for early synth pop recreation. A la Speak & Speel

+1

17 minutes ago
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kugupu

462

The Korg Rhythm 55 (KR-55) is a non programmable analog rhythm box from 1979. The KR-55 and its little brother KR-33 were the successors of the Korg Minipops series. Same knobs as on the MS/PS-series. The sound of the hi hats is more complex - similar to those on the Roland TR-808/606.

The KR-55 has some special features: a TRIG OUT jack including several triggering modes, SHUFFLE function and volume faders for the most drum sounds.

The rhythms are not mixable like on earlier Korg rhythm boxes (Minipops series). TEMPO and VOLUME controls. It was used by Jean-Michel Jarre (Magnetic Fields) and Depeche Mode (Speak and Spell) among others. It has a very characteristic sound - it sounds fantastic!

+1

over 2 years ago
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