Roger Curtis Linn is an American designer of electronic musical instruments and the co-founder of Linn Electronics. He is the designer of the LM-1 (the first drum machine to use samples), and its successor, the LinnDrum, which were both used extensively in 1980s pop music. Later in the decade, he created the MPC sampler which had a major impact on the development of hip-hop.
Linn Electronics
In 1979, Roger Linn and Alex Moffett founded Linn Moffett Electronics, soon renamed Linn Electronics, to develop Linn's design for a drum machine that used samples. It was named LM-1 for Linn/Moffett/1. Moffett left the company in 1982. Linn used his new drum machine and performed with Leon Russell on his album Life and Love in 1979.
LM-1 In 1980, Roger Linn released the LM-1 Drum Computer. It was one of the first programmable drum machines and the first to use samples of acoustic drums. Linn wanted a machine that would produce more realistic sounds and offer more than preset patterns. The LM-1 became a staple of 1980s pop music and helped establish drum machines as credible tools. It appeared on records by artists including the Human League, Gary Numan, Mecano, Icehouse, Michael Jackson, Queen, Tears For Fears and particularly Prince.
LinnDrum In 1982, Linn released the cheaper and more stable LinnDrum, which was a commercial success. It was cheaper and more widely produced than his first drum machine, the Linn LM-1,. It was used by artists and producers including Trevor Horn, Mark Knopfler, Naked Eyes, Stock Aitken Waterman, Sandy Vee and Justin Hayward.
Linn 9000 In 1984 Linn released the Linn 9000 as the successor to the LinnDrum. It was the first integrated digital drum machine and MIDI sequencer. The 9000 had innovative features, like dynamic sensitive rubber pads, and would influence many future drum machine designs. But chronic software bugs led to a reputation for unreliability and contributed to the eventual demise of the company. The 9000 can be heard on Michael Jackson's 1987 album, Bad, on the cuts such as "Bad" and "Liberian Girl".
LinnSequencer In 1985, Linn released the LinnSequencer, a rack mount 32 track hardware MIDI sequencer. It used the same flawed operating system used in the Linn 9000. As a result, the machine earned a reputation for unreliability.
LinnDrum Midistudio In January 1986, Linn debuted the LinnDrum Midistudio at the NAMM Winter Music & Sound Market as the successor to the Linn 9000. The Midistudio is essentially a rack mount version of the Linn 9000 with some improvements. It used the same flawed operating system used in the Linn 9000. It never went into production because Linn Electronics went out of business the following month. Similarities between the LinnDrum Midistudio and the Akai MPC series lead some to perceive a family resemblance. Most notably, the Midistudio has sixteen dynamic sensitive rubber pads in the distinctive four by four pattern that would become the hallmark of the MPCs, starting with the MPC60.
Legacy Linn Electronics went out of business in February 1986. Forat Electronics purchased their remaining assets, manufactured and sold the Forat F9000 and LinnSequencer until 1994 and provide service, sounds, customization and upgrades for the entire Linn Electronics line. The LM-1, LinnDrum and Linn 9000 became synonymous with the music of the 1980s. The Linn 9000 and LinnDrum Midistudio pioneered the concept of the Music Production Center or MPC.
Akai MPC
After Linn Electronics, Linn collaborated with the Japanese company Akai to design the MPC60, an integrated sampler, drum machine and MIDI sequencer released in 1988. According to Linn, "[The collaboration] was a good fit because Akai needed a creative designer with ideas and I didn't want to do sales, marketing, finance or manufacturing, all of which Akai was very good at." The MPC60 was followed by the MPC60 MkII and the MPC3000. Linn aimed to design an affordable user-friendly instrument that did not require extensive musical knowledge or studio equipment to use. It had a major influence on the development of hip hop and electronic music. The 4x4 grid of pads was adopted by numerous manufacturers and became standard in DJ technology. Linn left Akai after the company went out of business and its assets were purchased by Numark. According to Linn, the new organization was led by "a very unscrupulous fellow ... he immediately stopped my royalty payments, refused to take my calls and had his lawyer send me threatening letters. I checked around and learned that he has a reputation of being a real bastard, so given that challenging him would have been long and expensive, I let it go." Akai has continued to produce MPC models without Linn, such as the MPC2000; Linn was critical, saying: "Akai seems to be making slight changes to my old 1986 designs for the original MPC, basically rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic."
Roger Linn Design In 2001 Roger Linn founded a new company, Roger Linn Design. The company's first product offering was the AdrenaLinn, with the LinnStrument music performance controller added later.
AdrenaLinn
The AdrenaLinn is a digital multi-effects unit with a drum machine and amp modeler all in one, designed by Roger Linn with some help from Dave Smith (credited with helping to conceive MIDI) and Tom Oberheim (designer of early analog synthesizers). Most notably, unlike other guitar pedals, the AdrenaLinn specializes in beat-synced effects, including modulation and delay but also a sequencer that provides looped patterns of filtered tones, all moving in sync to its internal drum machine or to midi. The drum section can also be affected by the filter section, allowing dance-style beats. Other unusual aspects of this pedal include note-triggered filter effects such as auto-wah, simulated talk box and guitar synthesizer sounds. The AdrenaLinn technology was also the basis of Roger Linn's partnership with M-Audio to create the Black Box guitar multi-effect and recording unit. The AdrenaLinn can be heard on the following records (among many others):
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