Warren Cann

"There is a considerably modified Roland TR77, which Warren has used for a long time. Snare Drum, Hi-Hat and Bass Drum are available on separate outputs and the Snare Drum voicing is pot controlled to alter its noise content. Bass Drum attack can also be varied by damping the oscillation and the circuitry has been modified to give a stronger initial peak. A 'thud' control changes the Bass Drum oscillation pitch."

"Above the TR77 is the Roland CR78 drum unit. Both these machines have had fine tuning controls added — the original pots as supplied were too coarse. They are never run at the same time because of the problems in synchronising the two together. A very small tempo change in Warren's drumming can quite drastically alter the feel and temperament of a song; 'the psychological aspects of tempo when you're working with drum machines, either playing along with them using acoustic drums like I do on some songs, or just using drum machines entirely on their own, is interesting because it used to be that everyone would tell me the tempo was too fast. But often this was because we were tired, that's all. The 'fine tune' can be used to make adjustments without the rest of the group being aware of any change occuring."

"In Ultravox's music the electronic drum complements the acoustic drum so well that the listener might often find it hard to discern one from the other (try listening to "Mr. X" before looking at the music and see if you can tell the difference). A further example is in 'Astradyne', where the metallic cymbal sound comes from the CR78's 'metallic beat.'"

• Electronics & Music Maker - Apr 1981

"'We Came to Dance' led quickly into the triggered Emulator vocal line of 'White China', with Warren Cann pushing an SCI Drumtraks to its limit to recreate the tuned bass drum patterns of the recorded version, and thence 'One Small Day' with its astonishing vocal gymnastics."