Hot take: that $2 thrift store drum machine is actually better than my TR-808

I picked up a beat-up Yamaha RX5 at a pawn shop in Tucson for $2 last year. Everyone online says these are garbage, but I plugged it in and the kick drum sounds like a dying robot that somehow slaps harder than my proper gear. Ran it through a blown amp speaker and got this lofi crunch that nothing else can touch. Am I crazy or did I just stumble on a secret weapon for making trashy gold tracks?

2 comments

2 Comments

spencer_wood17d ago

oh man, the RX5 is such a weird beast. i had one for like a month and sold it because i couldn't figure out how to make it do anything but fart sounds. now im hearing this and im thinking maybe i gave up too soon. truth is my 808 stays in the corner collecting dust while i use a free vst that sounds like a tin can hitting concrete. maybe the real secret is just embracing the trash. you probably stumbled onto something real there.

scott.grace17d ago

Three months with an RX5 and I still couldn't tame it without a compressor, @spencer_wood. The trick is layering those cruddy sounds with something clean, like a 909 kick. Embrace the trash, absolutely, but only if you give it a friend that holds it together.