Unique Custom Made „The German Linn Drum“ - Böhm/Bohm DD-1 - Vintage Digital Drum Machine

"The German Linn Drum"
Böhm Digital Drums DD-1 Made in Germany 1983

Vintage 13Bit Digital Drum Machine with 8 Single Outputs (+ Stereo and Headphone Outputs)
Pro serviced, recently tested

Extreme powerful Drum Machine, full programmable. Punchy sound.

NOTE:

THIS UNIT IS CUSTOM MADE from the bottom.

The Look:

- wooden housing and buttons are a bit different to a conventional DD-1, as you can see on the photos.
Parts are borrowed from an old Böhm organ (of which some contained the DD-1 architecture).

Technique, Function, Sound:

- are absolutely the same like a DD-1. Same eproms, same ICs, same workflow.

Professionally assembled and fitted in a wooden housing.

Device works flawless.
Battery was installed apart from circuit board.
220 Volt - comes with power cable.

Slightly cosmetically damaged power cable, as seen on photo.

This is an absolutely unique Drum Machine with vintage sound.

This device is just the Drum Machine .

Since it has got no Chord Accompaniment the price is reduced.

If you've got any questions about it, please go ahead.

The Story

The Dr Bohm Digital Drums is a 13 bit, EPROM based drum machine produced in 1982 - '83. It features 25 different digital drum samples that pass through an excellent sounding filter. The sounds can be punched into the Bohm's "humanized" internal sequencer, which is groovy beyond belief and makes the Bohm capable of more complex and dynamic drum patterns than other machines of its time. 

The Digital Drums was created as a DIY drum machine kit by a company that began as Dr Böhm but shortly thereafter changed its name to Böhm.

The Sound

While the Bohm has been lovingly branded as the "German Linndrum", its sounds are actually a bit closer to an LM1, DMX or Drumulator, but crunchier, as if they'd been sampled through an SP1200. The samples themselves are crunchy and compressed, but not lo-fi. And they all pass through internally adjustable high and lowpass filters that cloak everything in warmth. 

But it's when you begin creating your own patterns with the Bohm's funky onboard sequencer that this machine really shines. It can sound almost like a 90s Hip Hop beat, despite being from a decade previous.

The Digital Drums comes loaded with 25 unique samples, including a super warm and punchy bass drum, a crunchy snare, filtered snare, snare roll, an amazing rimshot, Kraftwerk sounding clap, bongos, congas and more. 

The Sequencer

While the drum hits are a big part of the sound, it's how they interact with the highly intelligent, "humanized" sequencer that makes this drum machine so special. It comes loaded with funky factory patterns, crazy fills and breaks. Plus, you can program your own. 

But what's going on with the sequencer that makes the patterns so impossibly groovy? In the manuals own words:

With the so-called humanizer, the live character of an actual drummer is modeled by using a random generator - individual instrument stops are minimally delayed. For example: while the hand clap has a relatively large time delay and built-in chance of error, the bass drum's limits are set very tight.

How cool is that? The Synth Doctors over at Böhm clearly put a lot of thought into this instrument, making every effort to build a drum sampler with character and style.

Everything is Stereo

Unlike most other rhythm boxes of its time, the Bohm offers stereo outputs, and part of its quirk is the way it (somewhat arbitrarily) splits the sounds across the stereo spectrum. The beauty of this is that it gives you options.

In the End

So does the Dr Bohm deserve the nickname "The German LinnDrum"? We think it deserves even better. In building an over-engineered rhythm box, the Bohm was perhaps too ahead of its time to achieve commercial success.

Secure, insured, double boxed shipping.

Open to reasonable offers.