SOUND MASTER: RHYTHM 1- SM-8 SAMPLES PAGE:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Date = 1980

Country = Japan

Type = Analogue

 

Drum Voices = 5

Rhythms = 8 (Preset)

Rhythm Combining = No

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back at the start of the '80s, a new market was opening up for cheap, user-friendly beatboxes aimed directly at guitarists and bass players. Around that time, quite a few of these preset "stomp box" style rhythm machines were released by various manufacturers designed specifically for practice and auto accompaniment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sound Master, who are remembered mainly for their best selling Dr Rhythm style SR-88 "Memory Rhythm", released two stomp-box models. Their first called "Rhythm 1" came with regular rhythms but later, they must have had a re-think and issued a second model, the cheekily named "Disco Beat" complete with a silver metalflake paint job and black stars!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Knowing nothing about these machines, it was assumed that they would employ the same circuit design as the SR-88 and therefore sound pretty much the same (with cheesy presets). Wrong! Unexpectedly, this unit has completely surprised us. The sounds turned out to be far better! There are 5 voices compared to the 4 on the SR-88 and they sound... well I guess the simplest thing would be to describe them as "more expensive". To top it all, they also have their own character and are pretty unique. The snare is the stand-out sound, it is fantastic and the kick (usually the weak point on cheap machines such as this) is also very good. The closed hi-hat is razor sharp and cuts into a mix like a scalpel. The only weak side is the rimshot and the cymbal. The rim is a bit gungy but that in itself is probably all the more reason to love it. The cymbal is... well unique!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The only downside of the Rhythm 1 is that the 8 patterns are fairly limited, they are only one bar in length and this does affect the Bossa type beats which really need that second bar. Also, the tempo can only go down to 92 BPM for some reason and of course, you can't mix the percussion sounds. The hi-hat and rim are a bit too loud really but then again... there's always sampling.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's actually quite difficult to extract the voices in isolation on this machine but with a bit of sonic trickery, we've managed it. The only sound that wouldn't "come clean" was the rimshot, unfortunately the best we could do was a blend of closed hi-hat and rim (so remember to remove your closed hi-hat hit where the rim comes in when programming). We're thrilled with this drumbox. It's great when you take a gamble on something you haven't heard before and find that it far exceeds your expectations. We hope you enjoy this little rarity as well. You certainly won't find samples of this one anywhere else but at Dubsounds

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DEMO: Here's a demo of the SM-8 programmed from our multi-samples running through our studio...

 

 

 

Sound Master SM-8 Studio Demo Track (WMA)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SAMPLES: All five percussion sounds, multi-sampled to oblivion...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sound Master SM-8 Single Hits Pack - 84 Samples

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RHYTHM PATTERNS: All patterns in RECYCLE RX2 format...

 

Pattern:

Demo

Pattern:

RX2

 

01. BOSSA-ROCK (Demo)

01. BOSSA-ROCK

02. WALTZ (Demo)

02. WALTZ

03. MARCH (Demo)

03. MARCH

04. DISCO-ROCK (Demo)

04. DISCO-ROCK

05. BOSSA-NOVA (Demo)

05. BOSSA-NOVA

06. BEGUINE (Demo)

06. BEGUINE

07. WALTZ-ROCK (Demo)

07. WALTZ-ROCK

08. SWING (Demo)

08. SWING

 

All samples on this site are free for you to use in your music (commercial or amateur) but are NOT to be used on another website/commercial sample library/sample cd/vsti rompler etc... without our prior consent.