In May of last year I was awarded funding by the Greater Columbus Arts Council (
@artmakescbus ) for a project which fused my academic and professional experience in art, history, engineering and music technology. I proposed hand-building one of the most iconic electronic instruments of all time, the Roland TR-808.
Produced between 1980 and 1983, the TR-808 has had a profound influence on music. Finding its way into quintessential productions spanning generations. Unfortunately, 45 years later, these instruments are becoming exponentially more difficult to obtain with each passing year.
The RE-808 pictured above is as close to a 1:1 recreation as I can reasonably build in 2025. I spent hours sourcing vintage or original components where possible, only using equivalents if necessary or inconsequential. The circuit boards themselves host thousands of components with thousands of solder points. Every resistor, capacitor, transistor, potentiometer, integrated circuit, wire, nut, bolt, switch or button was populated and installed by me.
The entire instrument was tuned and calibrated to the original Roland service specification and the processor used hosts the original TR-808 code and firmware. The machine thinks it’s an actual TR-808.
None of this would be possible without direct funding from
@artmakescbus . As a full-time artist, a project like this would have been equally out of reach for me as buying a vintage TR-808. However, with assistance from the Columbus City Council and their support of funding local Columbus resident art projects, concepts can become real.
I also want to extend a huge thank you to Paul Barker and the team at
@dinsync for their incredible attention to detail and exhaustive engineering work, both in the electronic and mechanical spheres. You all really have the special sauce.
Thanks to my studio mates
@kcnifhsoj and
@nickfieldse over at
@chargingarea.tv for dealing with my lead fumes and encouraging me to get this project done even when I wanted to throw it against a wall.
It’s a privilege and a blessing to be encouraged and enabled to pursue art in the way one sees fit. Thankful for this experience 💜
