MATRIXSYNTH: An MPC Before the MPC? DYNAMIC DRUMS by New Wave Software for the Amiga


Thursday, March 02, 2017

An MPC Before the MPC? DYNAMIC DRUMS by New Wave Software for the Amiga


Amiga Demo - DYNAMIC DRUMS by New Wave Software Published on Mar 2, 2017 peahix

Thought this was interesting. It's a video demo for DYNAMIC DRUMS by New Wave Software for the Amiga. Notice anything familiar? The UI is a standard MPC style drum grid. Only thing is, according to this site, and the copyright date on the back of the box, this software came out in 1987. You can see the date in the image below. The first MPC to be released from Akai? The MPC-60 in 1988. This software predates it. Wasn't the MPC-60 supposed to be revolutionary for introducing the grid-based pad layout? Does anyone know of any earlier hardware or software that used this format? I'm sure there will be something I forgot and totally overlooked, but I'm drawing a blank at the moment. A funny side note: If this is the first time the classic grid-based drum pad layout came out, then virtual predated actual in this case.

Video description:
"Back in the late 80s I used to use this obscure drum machine program on my Amiga called Dynamic Drums (later Dynamic Studio). I noticed that hardly anyone else used this thing or remembers it, so I thought I'd make a little video of it playing its factory demo songs via WinUAE. I always liked the lo-fi punchiness of the built-in drum samples, and I used them on alot of tracks back in the day, usually synced to my Ensoniq ESQ-1. There's a glitch in the video which causes the screen to go black a few times, but I couldn't be bothered to go back and redo it so sorry about about that."


Pics of the box, description and discs for DYNAMIC DRUMS via Amiga Future.

Update via gwenhwyfaer in the comments: "The Boss DR220(A or E) had its pads in a grid layout in 1986. It may well not have been the first."


Note the floppies are dated 1988, but the back of the box above is dated 1987.

4 comments:

  1. its laid out according to the numeric keypad on the right hand side of a keyboard - you can see the associated numbers on the screen... so technically its not the same type of grid based interface - its a keypad based interface..

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Boss DR220(A or E) had its pads in a grid layout in 1986. It may well not have been the first.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Clive Button's drum computer MPC from 1983 also predates this. :) http://www.muzines.co.uk/articles/industry-profile-mpc-electronics/6230

    ReplyDelete

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