Heartland

Hi!
I am somewhat new here. Been listening to the band since -92 or thereabouts.

I am also a hobby musician. And i've been trying to replicate the drum machine sound on some of my favorite songs: Floor show, adrenochrome and body electric as heard on the "Some girls" compilation.

I tried with a boss dr55, but I find that it might possibly not be it. It's to varied and "modern" to be the dr55 i do think? Is it one of the Rolands? (Tr606,tr808 or tr909)?

Hi and welcome to HL ... ...

https://sisterswiki.org/Doktor_Avalanche ... ...

Hello and welcome to HL.

So, The thing about the 'some girls wander by mistake' compilation is that it has a bunch of incarnations of the dok side-by-side.

The DR55 is not the main drum machine of any of the songs you mentioned, in fact, I believe we don't have anything recorded with it (maybe the Damage done?).
Anyhoo, the Drum Machine you are looking for is the Oberheim DMX and the TR808.

Bear in mind that neither of those drum machines will sound like the sisters from the getgo, Von, to this day, is big on customizing his samples/sounds.
If you want to have a sisters-like sound you will have to add your own FX rack, FX Loops and also tweak the individual samples velocity/volume/pitch.

Nice to narrow it down a bit.
Since i aim to emulate it with a vst, the possibilities for adjustment and effects are almost endless as long as know where to start.

I imagine i will record a drum track, and then start adding, subtracting and tweaking all while drinking unhealthy amounts of espresso and some nicotine.

I'll get it done can post a link to a soundclip when I start getting somewhere.

Fredrichl wrote: ↑19 May 2023, 15:54 Nice to narrow it down a bit.
Since i aim to emulate it with a vst, the possibilities for adjustment and effects are almost endless as long as know where to start.

I imagine i will record a drum track, and then start adding, subtracting and tweaking all while drinking unhealthy amounts of espresso and some nicotine.

I'll get it done can post a link to a soundclip when I start getting somewhere.

Ok since you are dealing with emulators and VST you will have to use multi-tracks.
Essentially, on the OG drum machines you could output the sample in different tracks and apply FXs on top of a single sample.

Check out in Adrenochrome, the Snare is a gated-reverb drum, the kicks are are just EQ to cut the high ends with a bit of 'verb.

Floorshow is from 82, so if I had to bet, all these 'junge drums' we hear are coming from the TR606 with EQ + Delay + Verb + some gate.

Hi. Don't underestimate how much knowledge and time Andrew has put into the drums. The book 'Waiting For Another War' details very well Von's obsessive attention to details when programming / producing. I still marvel at the genius of the drums on 'Phantom' - it's as complex and innovative as any 'genre' electronica track I've heard.
I'd love to hear your results, if you wanna share.

I have no illusion of getting exacly 100%
I know i'm dealing with someone a bit more obsessive and meticulous than myself.

But I come from a background of midi and sequencers for EBM bands (As well as guitarplaying and singing for punk and post punk bands)

So my intention and aim is to get as close as i can manage. And Who knows, if I get close and like it, I might compose some songs of my own. I do that from time to time.

Hello @Fredrichl & welcome to

Thanks mate!

Fredrichl wrote: ↑19 May 2023, 18:57 I have no illusion of getting exacly 100%
I know i'm dealing with someone a bit more obsessive and meticulous than myself.

But I come from a background of midi and sequencers for EBM bands (As well as guitarplaying and singing for punk and post punk bands)

So my intention and aim is to get as close as i can manage. And Who knows, if I get close and like it, I might compose some songs of my own. I do that from time to time.

Reptile house uses an 808, my theory is with some other stuff thrown in. I imagine they still had a 606 which could fill out certain tom hits. (606 could have been used on a few demo/sessions for reptile house, also. Some of those drum tracks sound a bit different.)
All kicks seem to be pitched down a non-insignificant amount, though, same as the snare hits. I've never managed to get my 808's snare to sound as mean as lights or valentine. But just through EQing and pitch modifers, I've gotten close with the kick.
My cover of romeo down uses some combination of both the 606 and 808 for the snare and kick, in an attempt to imagine what a modern sisters beat would sound like on old school hardware.

The more I listen, the more layers i find.
Seems to be:
1. Various Toms
2. Muted snare and kick
3. Quite punchy snare and kick. Possibly hihat

I gotta get home and listen to it on my studio headphones. Its somewhat unclear on the sad airpods i'm using (i'm abroad on vacation)

As for the drums on Alice/Floorshow, an excerpt from 'Waiting For Another War':

"Eldritch now owned a Roland TR606 but (John) Ashton had brought along his own ....TR808. Ashton ran the 808's outputs into the board to be mixed, and from there into the PA and recorded the drums in the room, giving them a more robust, heavier sound..."

I just got home. Started doing some stuff.
I had to lay down some slightly untight and dirty supporting tracks to have something to contrast it to.


As of now i get that i have to pitch down quite some more, do some more eq-work on it to make it mellower.
(Disregard anything but the toms for now, the rest is just...well, there for me to have something to try it on.)

It really is a nice thing to have drumpads at home, a bass, and a heap of other instruments.

Frustrating this. I have now gone to the length of ordering a behringer dr6, somewhat of a clone of a tr606 so i'll see when I get it.

But as far as i got, even if I have a long way to go, the soundscape i've gotten this far sounds nice. I might compose my own songs in it or interpretations of sisters songs in it.

Heh, i do like the sound of the drums thus far. But i suspect my rythm parts are a bit simpler than vons.

Got detracked and started doing other stuff.

Floorshow was shaping up nicely, as the song progressed I thought the drums were more and more close to the OG recording, good stuff.

I will be getting back into it once i've learned this new drum machine.

In the mean time i'll do Body Electric. I must say, i'm no producer or studio tech, but it's great fun to just mess with settings and knobs.

https://on.soundcloud.com/1NfPA
Almost done