Where does this come from, and can I check it?

It used no samples at all, only synthesised thumps and bursts of noise. The figure is taken from Roland, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.

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Yes. It sits on the Music shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.

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The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.

Mondo Knows Facts

The Roland TR-808 built its drums from oscillators

It used no samples at all, only synthesised thumps and bursts of noise Roland's 1980 drum machine made its kick from a tuned sine wave with a falling envelope, and its snare and cymbals from filtered noise. It sold badly at launch because it sounded nothing like a real kit, then became the backbone of hip hop and electro once second-hand units grew cheap. It sits in Mondo's music collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

Roland

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Tags: drum-machines, roland, hip-hop

The Roland TR-808 built its drums from oscillators: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?: It used no samples at all, only synthesised thumps and bursts of noise. The figure is taken from Roland, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a music fact?: Yes. It sits on the Music shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?: The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.