Weird TR-808 Sample Pack

There are tons of great, high-fidelity, finely-tuned, meticulously-recorded libraries of the Roland TR-808 drum machine. This sample pack is not one of them.

Chris Beckstrom’s “Weird TR-808 Sample Pack” is a free collection of experimental drum sounds sourced from the iconic Roland TR-808 drum machine. Unlike traditional 808 libraries, Beckstrom intentionally distorted and transformed the samples to create unconventional textures and tones.

The sample pack includes processed 808 sounds such as low-bitrate MP3 conversions, low quality Zoom and GoTo Meeting transmissions, microcassette recordings and manipulations through his DIY modular synthesizer built from CMOS logic chips and wooden panels. Additional sound treatments involve tube amplification, spring reverb, and spectral resynthesis using Virtual ANS software.​

In short, if you like your music to have a bit of lo-fi grit, unpredictability, and a taste of the unusual, this sample pack could serve as a great source of inspiration!