drum machine

noun

: an electronic device that simulates the sound of drums

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web

But fittingly, given Bangalter’s AI apprehension, the duo decided for the 2013 album to largely abandon the synths and drum machines that colored their previous work. —Jonah Valdez, Los Angeles Times, 4 Apr. 2023

While Rev playing distorted riffs on a Farfisa organ and programming primitive beats on an early drum machine, Vega sang dark, strange lyrics through heavy reverb and wielded a motorcycle chain onstage. —Al Shipley, SPIN, 22 Feb. 2023

The song famously features only vocals, drum machine and Hammond B-3 organ. —Jim Ryan, Forbes, 26 Mar. 2023

In the ’90s the band weathered the rise of grunge — which rendered synthesizers and drum machines temporarily taboo — as well as the departure of the keyboardist Alan Wilder and Gahan’s struggle with heroin addiction. —Alex Pappademas, New York Times, 19 Mar. 2023

Take music, for example… From piano rolls to amplification to guitar pedals to synthesizers to drum machines to digital audio workstations, beat libraries and stems and beyond, musical creators have long used technology to express their visions through different voices, instruments, and devices. —Jem Aswad, Variety, 17 Mar. 2023

De La was a bridge between generations, one of the points around which the electronic aesthetic that ’80s rap had inherited from the earliest samplers and drum machines had blossomed into the kaleidoscope of sounds the genre would pull from in the ’90s. —Vulture, 7 Mar. 2023

Termen introduced a rudimentary drum machine, the rhythmicon, in 1931. —Nathaniel Scharping, Discover Magazine, 31 Oct. 2019

Simplicity is crucial to the introspective sounds of singer-songwriter Léa Sen. With a drum machine, guitar, and a crystalline falsetto, her tracks contain an arresting depth of emotion told through memorable melodies. —Spin Staff, SPIN, 16 Dec. 2022

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Word History

First Known Use

1976, in the meaning defined above