Roger Linn tells the harrowing story of his horrifying mission to put drummers into tiny boxes.

I must be one of the only drummers in the world to have got my hands around the throat of Roger Linn, inventor of the original digital drum machine. Not that it would have been worth squeezing too hard — it's five years since the LM-1 first found a home in the studio control room and already it's inspired dozens of imitators.

Although many drummers still blame Mr Linn for their increasing unemployment, many have learned to live with drum machines, making the most of them and accepting them as part of their kit. An increasing number of pro drummers prefer to let the machine do most of the work when it comes to the studio, exploring sound and rhythm ideas they couldn't play with their hands and feet but could hear in their heads.

Roger Linn knew all of this from the start, of course. He had no reason to have it in for session players; he was one.

"I was really a jack of all trades master of none. I was a Rock guitar player, and I did a little recording engineering and a bit of synthesizer programming. About the most professional gig I had was playing guitar with Leon Russell in 1975. Other than that it was just bits of studio work."

Contrary to popular belief, Roger Linn didn't invent the original drum machine because he hated drummers, but more because of a need for a good sounding demo studio drum machine.

"I, as most musicians did, had a little four track studio and could play a little guitar, a little keyboards, a little bass, but the one thing that always sounded lousy was the drums. I remember one day I went out to buy a drum machine and couldn't find anything I liked. I had an interest in computers and programming and I bought a simple computer program for a drum machine and I wrote a simple computer program to allow you to programme in rhythm patterns and use some simple sound synthesis programmes, which later evolved into real sound circuits. When I played this to some of my musician friends the response was incredible; everyone wanted one."

Although he made the original drum machine for himself, it wasn't long before he realised there may be a better future in this than as a guitarist. His ideas were developing fast and the first prototypes were coming together.

"The creation of the first prototype was a matter of taking the computer I had and building a simple converter that would allow recorded sounds to be converted into memory chips. At the time I just used drummers I had been working with to give me certain recordings."

By the time the LM-1 went into full production there were plenty of rumours flying about whose drum sounds were in the chips. Perhaps you heard it was Steve Gadd? Or maybe Jeff Porcaro? Who was it?

"The truth of it is that most of the sounds came from a Los Angeles session drummer named Art Wood. There were a few other things; the hand claps came from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers!"

Unfortunately the event was too long ago for Roger to remember exactly how the sounds were achieved in terms of kit and miking, but he remembers going for a fairly specific sound.

"We were generally going for a dry sound, because if we were to use ambient sounds the user of the machine wouldn't be able to take the ambience off. With moderately dry sounds the user can add his own artificial ambience — it's much more flexible."

Of course, when the LM-1 did become popular, many drummers threw up their arms in horror and Mr Linn took a lot of flack. How did he react?

"Well, that reaction amongst drummers I think is really unnecessary, because it really is a drummer's tool. It's turned out to give a lot of drummers that have the machines a lot more work. It's just become part of their kit and they don't have to worry too much about playing exactly on time any more. They can spend more time thinking about how creative they want the part to be and they can do things they couldn't do on a kit anyway.

"It's also true that when someone who isn't a drummer programs the machine on a record, it sounds like it. It sounds very repetitive, dull and lifeless, and when a real drummer uses his creativity to program a drum machine and all the nuances of the song he'd play anyway, then the song sounds much more creative and the drums really respond to the music."

Once the first handful of stars had bought an LM-1 and the first records started appearing, the whole thing really started snowballing. For two years Roger Linn offered the only digital drum machine so they managed to shift a lot of units. Then Oberheim released their DMX.

"At first I was worried because I thought that with competition in the market I'll decrease my sales. But the truth of the matter is it's very healthy for the market. There were many people who did not buy it because there was only one product. They were waiting to have more competition in the market from which they could chose. Many of those people, once they could chose, looked over the different products and selected ours."

Another side effect of competition is that you look more closely at what you're producing, and come up with something better. Enter the LinnDrum.

"The advantages the LinnDrum had over the LM-1 were, number one, ride and crash cymbals. It also had more programming features, more memory, better quality of sound, a lower price and a smaller compact package and the ability to change your own drum sounds."

As he said, all of these new developments came in a cheaper package, making the Linn Drum a very attractive proposition.

"Technology changes very fast. You can design a product and it can literally be obsolete technology in one or two years. The truth of it is that one of the things that makes drum machines so expensive is the amount of computer memory you use. Computer memory is used to store the sounds inside. Between the time of release of the LM-1 and the LinnDrum computer memory prices dropped drastically. We also grew as a company and learned how to design things much more efficiently. That's how we were able to bring out a cheaper product offering more facilities."

With the company growing (Linn Electronics now employs 45 people) Roger can take more of a backseat, but only slightly.

"I always specify the products in great detail. The LM-1 and the LinnDrum were both created entirely by me. We've had an engineering staff on the 9000 and those people are far more talented than I am in the individual areas they are experts in. As the company grows my responsibilities have to include more of the building of a company. However, one thing that's very important to me is that I never lose control over the quality of the products. It's very important to me that the product always meets the musician's demand."

By the time you read this, Roger Linn's Los Angeles plant should be turning out Linn 9000s in quantity; his first product that's more than just a drum machine. The 9000 is also a very extensive keyboard sequencer.

"The idea was to take the latest technology and build a machine that is the centrepiece of the modern electronic music studio. The 9000 incorporates significant advances over the LinnDrum as a drum machine, and as an addition includes, in my opinion, the world's finest MIDI sequencer to date. The problem is that people will tend to think that because we're a drum machines company the sequencer in the 9000 is very simple; but that's not true.The sequencer in the 9000 holds its own against any in the industry, and in my opinion far surpasses them."

As with the original LM-1, Roger Linn had the drummer in mind with the 9000, hence the 12 volume sensitive remote drum pad inputs and his next product release.

"We're going to be coming out with our own drum pads. I think everyone will be very pleasantly surprised — they're going to be very easy to play. They're going to include some advantages over those that are currently available."

There's more from Linn in the future, too, but unfortunately he has to remain secretive as his competition would like tc know about them as much as you would, "It is our focus at Linn Electronics to always produce products that are practical for the working musician. That's what I've always wanted for myself and I know that's what musicians want. We will becoming out with many different products in many different areas of electronic music, and we will do our best in each case to make sure the products incorporate all the features that are necessary to produce excellent music."