Roger Linn at 2008 NAMM Show

Roger Linn is an industrial designer, mainly of electronic drum machines, and has recently branched out into guitar effects pedals.^[1] His products have become underground hits, being used on many famous recordings. Besides being an accomplished guitarist and producer, Roger Linn is also a member of the Dead Presidents Society, a group of distinguished innovators in the field of electronic music.^[2]

The LM-1[link]

The Linn Electronics LM-1

In 1979, Roger Linn revolutionized the world of electronic musical instruments by designing the world's first drum machine to use digital samples, the LM-1 Drum Computer.^[3] The LM-1 was the first drum machine to use samples of a real drum kit, though Roger Linn cannot recall exactly who the session drummer was that played the hits.^[3] To further add to the mystery, an entry in the online museum of the Roger Linn Design company credits L.A. session drummer Art Wood with most of the samples.^[1] Examples of the LM-1 in use can be found on recordings by Prince, Gary Numan, and Michael Jackson.^[1] Linn Electronics released two other designs after the LM-1: the LinnDrum and Linn 9000, which became synonymous with the music of the 1980s.

MPC60

MPC3000

Linn Electronics went out of business in 1986, at which point Linn was recruited by the Japanese company Akai to help in designing the MPC60, and later, the MPC3000.^[1]

Roger Linn Design[link]

AdrenaLinn II (front)

As of 2001, Roger Linn has founded a new company, Roger Linn Design. RLD's products so far are the AdrenaLinn series of guitar pedals, now updated to a third version. The AdrenaLinn is a digital multi-effects unit with a drum machine and amp modeler all in one, designed by Roger Linn with some help from Dave Smith (credited with helping to conceive MIDI) and Tom Oberheim (designer of early analog synthesizers). Most notably, unlike other guitar pedals, the AdrenaLinn specializes in beat-synced effects, including modulation and delay but also a sequencer that provides looped patterns of filtered tones, all moving in sync to its internal drum machine or to midi. The drum section can also be affected by the filter section, allowing dance-style beats. Other unusual aspects of this pedal include note-triggered filter effects such as auto-wah, simulated talk box and guitar synthesizer sounds. The AdrenaLinn technology was also the basis of Roger Linn's partnership with M-Audio to create the Black Box guitar multi-effect and recording unit.^[1]

The AdrenaLinn can be heard on the following records (among many others):

• John Mayer – "Heartbreak Warfare", from the 2009 album "Battle Studies", "Bigger Than My Body" from the 2003 album "Heavier Things" and "I Don't Trust Myself (With Loving You)" from the 2006 album "Continuum"
• Green Day – "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" from the 2004 album "American Idiot"
• Red Hot Chili Peppers – By The Way – Warner Bros. – 2002 (produced by Rick Rubin)
• Morcheeba – Parts Of The Process – Reprise Records – 2003
• Marillion – Marbles – 2004^[4]

LinnDrum II preview (2008)

Tempest (2011)
by Dave Smith Instruments (DSI)
  & Roger Linn Design (RLD)

LinnDrum II[link]

Roger Linn and Dave Smith have announced co-development of a drum machine product, originally to be called BoomChik, but changed to LinnDrum II in December 2007, a reference to one of Linn's early popular drum machines. The LinnDrum II page on Linn's site^[5] states that the product is still in development, though no release date is given. The same page also shows three earlier but rejected designs for the product. The LinnDrum II was renamed the DSI Tempest, and released in 2011.

Music career[link]

Roger Linn has had a level of songwriting success, penning hits ("Promises", Eric Clapton 1979; "Quittin' Time", Lou Ann Barton 1986, Mary Chapin Carpenter 1991, Amy Bishop 2009), and having toured as a guitarist with the pianist/songwriter Leon Russell in the 1970s at age 21.^[1]

In 2011 Roger was awarded a Grammy Award for Lifetime Technical Achievement, recognizing his many contributions to the music recording industry. This award was previously awarded to people such as Thomas Edison and Leo Fender.^[6][7]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Akaipro.com
• Roger Linn Design
• About Roger Linn; biography, video interview by Sweetwater Sound
• A BBC Radio 4 programme devoted to Roger Linn's drum machines.
• LinnDrum II
• The Linn 9000 Homepage
• Mr. MPC: Roger Linn
• Linn MidiStudio (a very early prototype of the MPC60)
• Auction on VEMIA listing the Linn MidiStudio

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Dave Smith is an engineer and guitarist who has pioneered many groundbreaking technologies in music technology. Smith was responsible for the first polyphonic and microprocessor-controlled synthesizer, the Prophet 5, and later the multitimbral synthesizer^[1]. He is also referred to as the "Father of MIDI" for his role in the development of MIDI, now a standard interface protocol for electronic instruments and recording/pro audio equipment.

History[link]

Smith has degrees in both Computer Science and Electronic Engineering from UC Berkeley. In the mid-'70s, he founded Sequential Circuits, one of the most successful music synthesizer manufacturers of the time. In 1977, he designed the Prophet 5, the world's first microprocessor-based musical instrument and also the first programmable polyphonic synth,^[2] a functionality adopted by virtually all synthesizer designs ever since.

In 1981 Smith set out to create a standard protocol for communication between electronic musical instruments from different manufacturers worldwide. He presented a paper outlining the idea of a Universal Synthesizer Interface (USI) to the Audio Engineering Society (AES) in 1981 after meetings with Tom Oberheim and Roland's Ikutaro Kakehashi. After some enhancements and revisions, the new standard was introduced as "Musical Instrument Digital Interface" (MIDI) at the Winter NAMM Show in 1983, when a Sequential Circuits Prophet-600 was successfully connected to a Roland Jupiter-6. In 1987 he was named a Fellow of the AES for his continuing work in the area of music synthesis^{[citation needed]}.

After Sequential, Smith was President of DSD, Inc, a Research and Development Division of Yamaha, where he worked on physical modeling synthesis and software synthesizer concepts. In May 1989 he started the Korg R&D group in California, which went on to produce the innovative and commercially successful Wavestation synthesizer and other technology.

Smith went on to serve as President at Seer Systems and developed the world's first software based synthesizer running on a PC. This synth, commissioned by Intel, was demonstrated by Andy Grove in a Comdex keynote speech in 1994. The second generation of this software synthesizer sold over 10 million copies, as a result of being licensed to Creative Labs in 1996; it was responsible for 32 of the 64 voices in Creative Labs' AWE 64 line of soundcards.

The third generation of Smith's software synthesizer, now named Reality, was the world's first fully professional software synthesizer, and was released in 1997. Dave was both the lead engineer on Reality, and wrote all the low-level optimized floating point synthesis code. Reality was the recipient of a 1998 Editors' Choice Award, and earned Electronic Musician Magazine's highest possible rating.

Currently Dave is designing hardware instruments again with the Evolver, Poly Evolver, and recently released Prophet '08 and Mopho synthesizers from his new company, Dave Smith Instruments. He is currently collaborating with Roger Linn (the inventor of the first drum machine to use digital samples) to release a new drum machine utilizing analog synthesis called the Tempest.

Awards[link]

Dave Smith

• Induction into the TECnology Hall of Fame at the AES show by Mix Foundation in September 2005.^[3]
• Received (AES) Fellowship Award in 1987, which is given to a member who had rendered conspicuous service or is recognized to have made a valuable contribution to the advancement in or dissemination of knowledge of audio engineering or in the promotion of its application in practice.

Prophet '08'

• Key Buy Award (Keyboard Magazine, November 2007)
• Muzikmesse International Press (MIPA) Award, March 2008
• Musiciplayers WIHO Award (2008)

Evolver and Evolver Keyboard

• Key Buy Award (Keyboard Magazine, March 2003)
• Key Buy Award (Keyboard Magazine, August 2006)
• Musicplayers WIHO Award (2006)

Poly Evolver Keyboard

• Future Music 2006 Ace Award
• TEC Award nomination (Mix Magazine, 2006) Technical Excellence & Creativity in the category of Outstanding Technical Achievement, Musical Instrument Technology.
• Synthesizer Of The Year Award (Electronic Musician Magazine, 2006)
• "Most psychedelic electronic instrument 2005" (Psychedelickitchen.org, 2005)

External links[link]

• 2006 audio interview: Sequential Circuits, Korg, Yamaha, soft synths, and his new Evolver synths.
• Dave Smith: The father of MIDI — interview with Smith, from MacMusic
• Dave Smith Instruments

References[link]

Notes