E-mu Drumulator

In the market

• 1983-01 (archive attribution; full issue not yet checked): GBP 985 — One Two Testing review price; archive attributes issue to January1983. Drumulator; options unspecified Source ↗
• February1983 issue designation; combined issue periods: USD 995 — Prototype intended list price reported by Craig Anderton. Prototype Drumulator; anticipated production list price Source ↗

On record

• Tears for Fears — Mothers Talk. Orzabal identifies Drumulator Rock Kit on the recording. Source ↗
• Tears for Fears — Shout — demo. Orzabal identifies Drumulator Rock Kit on the demo being discussed. Source ↗
• Depeche Mode — Construction Time Again. The overview identifies Construction Time Again as an early Depeche Mode use of the Drumulator. Source ↗
• Keith LeBlanc / Malcolm X — No Sell Out. Keith LeBlanc’s catalogue credits the Drumulator and Oberheim DMX on Malcolm X: No Sell Out. Source ↗
• Cocteau Twins / Robin Guthrie — Early Cocteau Twins work; no single recording specified. The published account places an E-mu Drumulator in Cocteau Twins’ early working method. Source ↗
• Roger O’Donnell — Early Los Angeles soundtrack work; no named recording. Roger O’Donnell identifies the E-mu Drumulator as his first drum machine and an early LA working tool. Source ↗
• Howard Jones — Dream Into Action. Howard Jones said two Drumulators held the memory for a whole set; for Dream Into Action, he generally completed each track with one drum machine rather than mixing kits. Source ↗
• Anders Trentemøller — Fixion. Anders Trentemøller says he used his old E-mu Drumulator “quite a lot” on Fixion, pairing its programmed coldness with live-played toms, rides, hats and snares. The record becomes a useful later-life case for the blue E-mu: a fixed early sample box made flexible by arrangement and processing. Source ↗
• Chris Hughes / Tears for Fears — Shout. A published producer account of “Shout” connects Chris Hughes and Tears for Fears with the Drumulator during the record’s development. Source ↗
• Direct Hit Productionz — beat-making source library. Direct Hit Productionz lists E-mu Drumulator sounds among the drum-machine sources used for its beat-making work. Source ↗
• M-1 Alternative — Controller. The Drumulator anchored a 1983 three-song studio session. Source ↗
• M-1 Alternative — Controller. M-1 Alternative recall bringing a new E-mu Drumulator to their 1984 Controller session and using its outputs to control a Pro-One bass synth and BOSS digital delay. Source ↗
• USR / Mirco Dalos — Glimpses Of Intellect. USR lists an E-mu Drumulator among the instruments used on Glimpses Of Intellect. Source ↗
• Gonzalo Martinez — gonzalo martinez y sus congas pensantes. Gonzalo Martinez lists a Drumulator among the equipment used for gonzalo martinez y sus congas pensantes. Source ↗
• Rhythm Electronics — Vintage Drum Machines for Roland MC-707 & MC-101. Rhythm Electronics includes a E-mu Drumulator kit and pattern set in Vintage Drum Machines for Roland MC-707 & MC-101, describing the source samples as recorded from mint-state machines. Source ↗
• Rodney Shelden Fehsenfeld — i don’t do music… MUSIC DOES ME.. Rodney Shelden Fehsenfeld’s 1986 track credit names the E-mu Drumulator. Source ↗
• Andrew Jones — Sketchpad I: Electronic Studies 2019–2021. Andrew Jones lists an E-mu Drumulator in the component equipment for Sketchpad I. Source ↗

Four buttons, twelve sounds

Select a drum sound, choose one of the four Drum Play buttons and press Enter. Those buttons can then enter a part, before being reassigned for the next sounds. The twelve factory voices include bass drum, snare, two hi-hats, three toms and percussion. Accent supplies a second level for a sound rather than another drum.

E-mu Drumulator ↗ Drumulator Owners Manual — Emulator Archive enhanced edition ↗

From a segment to a song

Write a short rhythm as a segment, then order segments into a song. The June 1983 review describes thirty-six segments and eight songs, with programmable tempo, length and swing. Repeats save memory; cassette storage preserves the programming when space is cleared for another set.

E-mu Drumulator ↗ Drumulator Service Manual ↗

Beyond the mixed output

Individual audio outputs let the drums reach a mixer and external effects separately. Clock and trigger connections bring another sequencer or instrument into the arrangement, extending what a programmed rhythm can control.

E-mu Drumulator ↗ Drumulator Owners Manual — Emulator Archive enhanced edition ↗

Changing the installed sounds

The original sounds reside in ROM chips. Digidrums advertised replacement Drumulator sounds by May 1984; service and software documents also record later changes to the machine. A replacement set changes the available voices, not the instrument into an audio-input sampler. The Rock Kit named by an artist is not, by that name alone, proof of one particular chip supplier.

Drumulator Service Manual ↗ New Drumulator Sounds! advertisement, Musician no.67, p.86 ↗ E-mu Drumulator ↗

Two machines for a live set

Howard Jones’s March 1985 interview describes two Drumulators providing enough memory for a whole set. He also described starting a song with one pattern, adding a few as it developed and making the detailed arrangement in the studio. That method gives the segment-and-song controls a practical setting: the arrangement grows around the song.

Synthpiana Jones ↗

The Rock Kit on ‘Mothers Talk’

Roland Orzabal names the Drumulator’s Rock Kit on ‘Mothers Talk’ and on the demo of ‘Shout’ in his October 1984 interview. He liked those replacement sounds but also reported chip failures. His account is specific about the kit and the demo; it is not a complete allocation of every sound on the released ‘Shout’.

Tracks Of Our Tears ↗

Two credited machines on ‘No Sell Out’

Keith LeBlanc’s artist catalogue credits him with both the E-mu Drumulator and Oberheim DMX on Malcolm X: No Sell Out. The record brings programmed drums together with Malcolm X’s recorded speech, but its retrospective equipment credit does not assign individual drum parts to either machine. Reverb’s Drumulator history also names Depeche Mode’s Construction Time Again; that remains a reported album association, alongside the separately sourced live account in the archive.

Malcolm X – No Sell Out: artist catalogue credits ↗ Drumulation Sensation: The Short But Smashing Reign of the Drumulator ↗

A guide rhythm for Cocteau Twins

Reverb’s Cocteau Twins account reproduces Robin Guthrie’s explanation of starting with a basic guide drum on the Drumulator and finding its editing straightforward. He mentions new Rock chips and varispeeding drums after recording them to tape. The instrument supplies a guide rhythm that can be edited before recording and processed afterwards.

The Drum Machines of the Cocteau Twins ↗

Roger O’Donnell’s first drum machine

Roger O’Donnell identifies the Drumulator as his first drum machine. He used it after moving to Los Angeles in 1985 to try movie soundtrack work, then returned six months later. His recollection documents an early working tool and an attempted change of direction, not a named film score or a Cure recording.

Interview with Roger O’Donnell of The Cure ↗