This channel is so consistently good. I love learning about older pieces of hardware but sifting through articles is honestly boring. Your videos make that process fun and interesting. Keep up the great work, man!!
I just genuinely love how much fun you have making these... both from playing with the gear as well as the video editing... it's a fantastic work of art. Thank you for doing what you do!
Me: Looks at prices of old drum machines, picks one and decides to buy one when I can afford it; Audiopilz: I am going to feature that on Bad Gear and make sure the price quadruples! You're welcome!
The orange Roland sequencer he featured was going for 50 dollars. I think I sold it for 60. Now it's 249. The key now is anticipating what he'll feature next!
@@AudioPilz No, your channel has become the "bible of gear nerds". And from a guy that "used" to make a living from turning obsolete gear, your reach has far exceeded your expectations. But still love it anyway.
That cowbell, pitched up three semitones in a sampler, was always popular in my house. We were suckers for the latin versions, so we usually had an RX21L slugging it out with a 727 on most of our neo-classical electro-wibblefunk tracks. You could find battered RX drum boxes for 25-30 euro beer tokens in all the second hand tech shops back then. They actually sounded ok with some Alesis X:tc reverb on them.
By 1985, New Order had ceased using their Oberheim DMX on live performances, and instead only used the RX-11 live. They still used the Oberheim in the studio, however, kind of mixing the two drum machines.
I have an RX-21 L. The L stands for "Latin". It has has only some bongos, congas, whistles and a tambourine. I think I bought it second hand for 15 DM in the 90s. Now I see it for over 100 EUR on ebay lol
For all these supposed "bad machines" you demo, you create some brief, but absolute BANGERS with them in your vids! I wouldn't mind owning an RX....I miss my old gear
@@chriswareham Could you say a bit more about their use of it? The samples on this Yamaha unit don’t sound much like the drums on Paint Your Wagon and Nothing Wrong where the drums are clearly drum machines
Same, if I use drum samples, they're almost always from a Linn VST emulation. This machine would certainly do that same job for 80% for me at least. This is the only sound that I recognize as a drum machine :p
This video had a lot of old computers in it.. The drumsounds of an Amiga Protracker module, The spectrum (love it, my first computer) the TR909 had "atari" written on it (...and teenage riot..) playstation when we heard the crash bandicoot . I actually really like those old 8bit sounds, and they can sound fantastic today with a bit of fx. Its a part of my childhood making music on an Amiga 500 with around 300kB 8bit samples and 4 channel audio. The cheapest sampler of its time :) Great songs you made with it as usual. Thanks for the video.
nice vid, and great post punk Italo disco jam at the end the raw, sterile sounds of the RX-15 are familiar, they remind me of my old Casio MT-500 PCM drums :-)
Sound great man. I've always preferred the Linn/DMX/707 type drum machines over the 808/909 ones. Loved the acid jam. And the post punk gothodelic italo-disco synth pop workout needs an entire album.
I got an RX-5 from a pawn shop for $100, but the pack in expansion cartridge wasn't included and that alone goes for about as much as I paid for the machine. The RX family has super satisfying buttons. So clacky!
Aw, no mention of TMBG's incredible use of it? They used it a LOT in their demos and used it almost exclusively for their first album! Every time I hear those classic sounds I'm always reminded of their songs.
@@PanHoover882 old comment, but i think Puppet Head from their self titled uses specifically the rx15 - there's a few tracks on the album that are identifiable as the rx11 though so it's not all 15 but they're similar machines iirc
Drums in the intro sound weaker than my grandma after a weekend of drinking booze Edit: I've been wondering for a while now, how many hours of work go into a typical episode of Bad Gear and which ones was the most work-intensive one so far? :) Thank you for your hard work, great tunes and funny memes as always. ;P Edit 2: Drums definitely sound a lot more head-bob inducing in the jams. :D
@@covett I doubt most people can produce all the segments and content bits needed for one of these in 4 hours, let alone fully edit the finished video in that timeframe.
Seeing the JHS pedal thumbnail at the end made me laugh. Another great video, & as much as I know you put a lot of thought into the fantastic humour in the script, I really appreciate how there might be a more fully featured version of the piece of gear in question, but you’ll choose the poor cousin version intentionally & discuss why - it makes for extremely insightful context. Brilliant jam as always!
Fun fact: the Sisters had an earlier incarnation of Dr Avalanche in the back of the Monkee-mobile in the Black Planet video. The RX-5 would have been around the Floodland era, I presume?
RX-5 gang we out here. Would like to try a RX-7 too because more sounds. But the individual sliders on the 5 woooo, I feel like I'm a member of Scan7 in my own living room.
I love this thing! My favorite thing is how you can program different amounts of swing to each part, which really loosens up the feel of it when used lightly. Only wish the internal storage was bigger, I end up filling the pattern memory really fast. Never would have guessed it was only three years younger than the Linn though!
I had the even crappier RX21 and think I blotted out every memory of it. Later in life I was given an RX5 which I gave away, in what was almost like a reverse mugging. In years to come, protesters will pull down statues of Yamaha drum machines and burn books that mention them.
Back in the day's our Bass player changed his Bass for a Yamaha RX11, Bass was to hard to play. He sold it 3 months later and got a tambourine . LOL, had so much fun in the 80"s with all that "bad" gear. Keep 'm coming, this is perfect GAS therapy.
I had the Yamaha RX 21L , which was a cut down , low price off shoot ,and at the time on clearance sale. It was described as being able to play "Groovy tropical rythm's" , and in my opinion has the most comical Cuica sounds ever commited to sample.
Yes! it's Friday again! Great episode. I had one of these, sampled it and sold it long, long ago. I'm still pulling for an episode on the Kawaii XD-5 drum synth. Also, if you ever want to do a better gear episode on the Sequential Prophet 600 there are a bunch of mods for it. I developed a mod that adds a noise source and I added features to the GliGli OS mod. Some other guys developed a mod that pans the 6 oscillators left and right, which really opens it up.
I got mine for 40€ a few years ago, and it's my favorite drum machine. Admittedly it sounds like the crappiest of the 80s, and I hated the sound back then when I owned my HR16, but when you get closer to retirement, some things may change... I love my little black bugger...
The Yamaha RX 11/15 is one of the best sounding 80's drum machine. I really love that sound. You can hear them on Erasure or New Order albums. The label "as 80's as you can get" is a compliment for the machine 😊! Looking forward to receiving mine in a few days!
@@AudioPilz I can get your point of course. It is a „poor man‘s toy“ 😅. But unfortunately my bank account refuses a LINN DRUM machine, so what can we poor analog junkies do in the price range under $500? I prefer the old ones from the 80‘s with all their limitations, that can push your creativity. I imagine myself sitting in front of my DAW with the full package of the Arturia synths/drums vst…I would be lost completely 😅. Too many options…
As a person of the 80s, I remember taking my end-of-line, bargain-basement 909 round to a drummer friend's house and being totally underwhelmed by his shiny new RX15. It was as godawful then as it is now. I wouldn't give it house room today, and as I even give house room to a Kawai R-50 that's pretty damning! Of all the RX drum machines that Yamaha burped out only the RX5 is worth considering, and the underrated little RY20 is probably the best-value Yamaha drum machine on the used market.
I own a RY8...found it outside on a little "hill" of garbage. Fully working the display is a lttle blind. midi In/Out, Stereo.Are they from mid 90? Not so bad sounds!! 8 Kits i believe ..and Bass Notes if you will. And a input for guitar for a build in "GuitarSynthesizer". Its not bad when you havent enough inputs you can run an instrument throu without processing the signal. But this tiny box is no fun at all. Its worth a episode on this channel. Havent found so much Info about the RY8.
They take up all the room in the practicespace and tourvan, take hours setting up, are always in your way with those stands and they always hit their drums too freaking loud. And drink all your beer indeed. I know. I’m a drummer.
A long, long, long time ago, before the beginning of time: After exhausting the possibilities of the Yamaha porta sound my folks bought me for Xmas and a mate's Boss delay, I saved up for a used RX17 paired with a Casio CZ101 and CZ 1000 with an Arion delay/sampler. So many all night jams and angry neighbors. Thanks for the nostalgia hit.
@@AudioPilz after my DDD-1 died I used the Matrixsynth samples to appalling effect on my most excellent new single here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-pkTntEpPeSk.html - Enjoy!
Hell yeah. Another great piece of bad gear. As you said, it is a little spendy, but still a cool machine. I think at the price it goes for I would just get a Alesis HR-16 instead or a SR-16. Also, a HR-16 would be cool to see here. Or a Casio Rapman.
I copped an HR-16 from CL this summer (I’m in NYC) for about 90 bucks. Switched out the stock sounds with Linn Drum EPROMs and now it’s cooking. The good: you can pitch the sounds. The Bad: only two outs. Super easy to program. I saw another one on Craigslist for 100 a few weeks ago...
Yes, they sound and play similar, but I prefer that the HR-16 has more room for mods. I have a Casio Rapstation that's fun but I can't find any info on. I've got to replace the tape belt in that thing.
@@AudioPilz I could get a rapman for around 60-70 euro's here. If you're really interested I'm willing to buy one for you. Shipping from The Netherlands is on me, because I love the channel and would love to contribute. One will probably pop up in Austria some time, but hit me up if you're interested.
Yup, I love the sounds of these kinda limited 80s digital drum machines. Good 80s gated kicks, snares and toms go with everything. Cymbals, hihats and that stuff I let the analog machines handle. As you said, you don't need many of these things, but everybody should have one.
Like clothing fashion, production tastes cycle in long loops back to the older stuff. I love these old 12bit pcm units specifically for their dirty sound and limitations. They force you to get more creative with a limited palate.
Ah yes, the RX family was used in so many of my favorite italo-disco tracks (and even more garbage hungarian synthpop). I don't like them dry, but with some reverb and heavy EQ, they can sound really nice, just like the Drumulator or DMX (which are my preferred ones for the genre).
I have a feeling that Behringer's Klark Teknik brand might be cloning one or at least I hope they do. They recently cloned the Roland Dimension D. I mean why not do the Space Echo we've all been waiting for right?
before we had a drummer, about 3 years ago, my bassist and i bought an rx21 off of reverb. one of the worst machines ive ever used in my entire life for programming and the noise floor is insane. i do use rx21 and rx5 samples in my solo music to this day, as well as the drums off my pss480 which are very similar
Awesome video! Been working on a project to recreate the Halo Combat Evolved soundtrack with the original hardware, based on (so far!) a year of research and community collaboration. My travels have led me to the E-mu Procussion which is a very interesting beast. Curious if you've ever worked with one? They sound really powerful but have no FX and suffer from the first generation Proteus style interface. Having a lot of fun accidentally discovering Halo patches though!
I like the RX series drum machines. I have been on the hunt for an RX11 but every time I see one under $300 - I cant afford it at the time. Great vid as always!
@@AudioPilz buy it or don't, Josh doesn't care ;) deep inside he probably does, he's been killing it on YT, is loved by the fans and this stunt added massively to the publicity of JHS. Watch the stream where he reads comments about the Reverb listing for an hour, hilarious AF.
My and my friend had a linn drum at his house. We set it up next to his DAW; selected Linn Drum sounds; and there was no discernable difference. The moral of the story is: stop waiting for over-hyped gear, and start writing better songs with what you have.
Meh 🤷♂️, this thing should be sitting on blocks in the back yard surrounded by tractor tire planters. It’s pretty useless sounding and aging badly. Sorry Wendy 😂
Your videos are what I look forward to the most on a Friday evening. Do you have plans to release the DAW-less jams? They're consistently super good and this one in particular is right up my alley.
I do agree that every engineer and musician should have an old school drum sampler in the toolbox. Mine is the Alesis SR-16 that this very channel turned me on to. Has become quite a regular in my setup.
Actually sounds great when driven and mixed in the DAW. I mean, that does demonstrate that you just need the samples and not the machine itself, bit still.
I still have my RX11 I bought new back the year it came out - still have the manual and a memory cartridge. The multiple outs definitely added a lot more tweakability but one thing too which was cool is that you could change the MIDI note output assignment for each drum instrument, thus using it as a sequencer. I probably used it more in this context than any other. Nowadays I mostly use it as an overly large practice metronome.
Great episode. This was probably the first drum machine I ever saw and heard - a guy in high school had one, he used in a Depeche Mode covers band. I was blown away and later bought a TR-707. So, to me, this is a classic 80s piece of gear. Oh, and I just bought a Keio Minipops on ebay. Talk about limited. :)
Hey I just got an RX-5 a month ago! I love the sound of these machines, they are perfectly 80's for me. At least the RX-5, sits great in a modern mix with some processing.
Love or hate this drum machine Cocteau Twins made it sound amazing and used it to great effect on their records. You know who else used this piece of gear to great effect? AudioPilz. Great video as always!
