To Jam Like This
The perspective hinge between drum machine and sampled rap
Acknowledgements
Peace and love to BOSS Dr. Rhythm DR-55, Yamaha RX21, Yamaha RX-5, Yamaha PortaSound VSS-100, Technics SL-QD33 Quartz Direct-Drive Automatic Turntable System, Realistic 32-1200 Stereo Mixing Console, Bang & Olufsen Beocord 1600 reel to reel; to Sanyo MW828K, Sharp GF-7400E boombox, Realistic Highball 7 Dynamic Microphone and WHSmith C15 Premium Grade Ferric Computer Tape.
Skill and technique
It was early 1988, and although we were well aware of sampling in hip hop, as teenagers with a limited budget acquiring and working with our own sampler was still a few months off, which at the time, seemed like the dim and extremely hazy future. However, the frictions and accords that developed in the relationships between equipment and practitioner, processes and production, product and aesthetic are deserving of attention. Whilst these four sets of complex relationships intertwine and overlap, I have split them as such in an attempt to gain clarity on the themes of skills, technique and creativity in this in-between time of hip hop music. There is, of course, a slippage in the timeline between the high profile innovative and pioneering hip hop artists of 1985, 1986 and 1987 experimenting with sampling vis-à-vis those of us only beginning to engage with making structured rap songs, this juxtaposition is also critical to this exploration. This is the first of a six-part extended article which addresses the relationships mentioned above and this first part explores equipment and practitioner.
Equipment and practitioner
The first recordings that we experimented with used a BOSS Dr. Rhythm DR-55 which could be played live or programmed in step-time, a pair of Technics SL-QD33 Quartz Direct-Drive Automatic Turntables and either of the Sanyo MW828K or Sharp GF-7400E boombox, plus a Realistic 4 Channel Stereo Microphone Mixer 32-1105 and Realistic Highball 7 Dynamic Microphone. On the mixer, the turntables occupied channels 1 and 2, the drum machine channel 3 and the microphone channel 4. Left and right 6.35mm jack outputs then led to the RCA inputs to enable recording on the boombox. The real time playing option on the BOSS Dr. Rhythm DR-55 was useful for testing percussion patterns ahead of step-time beat writing, the Technics SL-QD33 were our first engagement with direct-drive turntables and introduced the idea of tension, torque, lithospheres and the convergent boundaries between hand, vinyl record and (handmade/homemade) slipmat.
