{"id":150145,"date":"2025-09-03T20:12:39","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T01:12:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/?p=150145"},"modified":"2025-09-03T20:13:30","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T01:13:30","slug":"new-documentary-roger-linn-the-king-of-drum-machines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/content\/2025\/09\/03\/new-documentary-roger-linn-the-king-of-drum-machines\/","title":{"rendered":"New Documentary &#8211; Roger Linn: The King of Drum Machines"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Roger Linn: The King of Drum Machines\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fTek99yM6TA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>Videographer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@jackpearsonfilm\">Jack Pearson<\/a> shared this mini-documentary, <strong>Roger Linn: The King of Drum Machines<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>This is the story of <strong>Roger Linn<\/strong>, a guitarist and songwriter from Los Angeles who created the modern drum machine and changed the sound of modern music. <!--more--><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_30580\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30580\" style=\"width: 250px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/roger-linn.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-30580 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/roger-linn-250x292.png\" alt=\"Roger Linn\" width=\"250\" height=\"292\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/roger-linn-250x292.png 250w, https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/roger-linn-546x638.png 546w, https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/roger-linn.png 561w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30580\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Roger Linn<\/strong> has changed the sound of music with instruments like the LinnDrum and the MPC, but also has a humble and humorous take on his impact.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Video Summary:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">&#8220;I first learned about Roger a few years ago while making a film called \u201cThe History of Sampling in Music\u201d.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">While I didn\u2019t know anything about Roger at the time, I was astounded to learn that he had created both the LinnDrum and the MPC, which shaped the punchy robotic drums of 80s pop music and the grungy experimental grooves of 90s hip-hop respectively. I did a quick bit of research about him for my video, but didn\u2019t really dig much deeper than that\u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">However, a few months ago I decided to rewatch my old project, which reignited my interest in Roger\u2019s story and gave me the idea for this video.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Like my previous project, I\u2019d initially planned to write a script and do a voice-over, but after discovering the assortment of recorded interviews that Roger has already appeared in, I realized that I could just chop them up and have Roger tell his own story. I thought \u201chey that sounds pretty cool, how hard could it be?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Well, let\u2019s just say I\u2019m probably never going to do something like this again. I did enjoy making this and I am proud of it, but if I had just done a voice-over not only would it have been easier to make, but I also could\u2019ve included a lot information without it feeling incredibly clunky. The initial cut was about 26 minutes, but I cut out loads of stuff for the sake of pacing and trying to stick to narrative beats.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Roger is a fascinating guy with a lot of great anecdotes though, so if you enjoyed this video then I highly recommend you seek out some of the podcasts\/interviews he\u2019s done over the years.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Note:<\/strong> The nickname &#8220;The King of Drum Machines&#8221; comes from Dave Smith, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=gWkDOeiDEYk&amp;t=1578s\">a panel discussion at Sweetwater&#8217;s Gearfest 2015<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is the story of Roger Linn, a guitarist and songwriter from Los Angeles who created the modern drum machine and changed the sound of modern music.&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/content\/2025\/09\/03\/new-documentary-roger-linn-the-king-of-drum-machines\/\">Read More <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">New Documentary &#8211; Roger Linn: The King of Drum Machines<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":67487,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13,22],"tags":[2920,30606,271,1010],"class_list":["post-150145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drum-machines-groove-boxes","category-interviews","tag-documentary","tag-drum-machines-groove-boxes","tag-history-of-electronic-music","tag-roger-linn"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/roger-linn-linnstrument-e1449341469643.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150145"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":150146,"href":"https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150145\/revisions\/150146"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.synthtopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}