Behringer LM Drum is Finally Here! Rejoice!
You'll just have to wait a couple of months...
4,6 / 5,0 | 
Three and a half years after teasing us with images of the prototype, Behringer now have the LM Drum in production and available to order right now!
The Behringer LM Drum Now Available to Order
[December 18th, 2024] After a typically extended gestation period, Behringer’s attempt at a LinnDrum clone is now available to order, with shipping due early next year.
It was three and a half years ago that Behringer first teased the LM Drum after they managed to snag a few items from the Tears For Fears gear auction. They even managed to swipe a few things out from under my nose in the process! And after their legion of fans demanded a LinnDrum clone, their wishes have come true.
Announced with a new video that shows the final production model and recaps the acquisition and restoration of the TFF model, the LM Drum specs are now fully revealed…
- 109 individual sounds including LM1, LinnDrum, Linn 9000 and other iconic ’80s drums
- Analog circuitry including original 3320 VCF and 2164 VCA
- 16-voice architecture with independent level and pan controls for each voice
- 16 independent analog outputs
- 16 velocity-sensitive drum pads with after touch
- Storage of up to 8 songs and 128 patterns
- Line input allows for live recording and sampling
- 16 DACs with variable sample rate and authentic 8/12-bit resolution
- Powerful 64-step drum sequencer supports poly-meter, step-repeat, note-repeat, real-time triggering, track-mute and track-solo
- Integrated FX bus features Wave Designer and dual-mode Analog Filter with per voice assignment
You can place your order now with units expected to ship from stores by the end of February.
- Behringer Website
LM Drum
[June 17th, 2021] Behringer says that their first sampling drum machine is shaping up nicely. It’s passed all the audio tests and much of user interface development is complete. It’s a prototype and still a fair while off yet so don’t get too excited.
There’s not a whole lot of information available yet but this is based (obviously) on the Linn Electronics LinnDrum designed by Roger Linn in 1982. The sound engine was sample-based, using 8-bit samples up to 35kHz and you can hear it on all sorts of records from the 1980s such as Take On Me by a-Ha and Relax by Frankie Goes To Hollywood. It had a total of 15 sounds and could handle 12 notes of polyphony. Each sound had a level fader and, unusually, a vertical slider for pan, and tuning was available on the snare, tom and conga.
Checking out the differences on the front panel Behringer has opted for the same style of buttons as on the RD-8 and RD-9 and extended that to the pads that trigger the sounds. They’ve done away with the cassette load/save section (where’s the authenticity!) and added an internal Bank and Preset system. Also from the RD-8/9 comes the Wave Designer and Analog Filter. They’ve kept the tuning, pan and level controls in keeping with the original.
The big new feature is the display in the middle which is showing a loaded sample and will presumably offer a certain amount of sample editing. Behringer calls it a “sampling drum machine” and there is an audio input on the back. The back also appears to have outputs for everything. According to the writing on the panel, it handles both 8-bit and 12-bit samples.
While there are plenty of modern sample-based drum machines out there I’m not aware of anyone else ever putting forward a LinnDrum clone. Maybe the sounds had their time but then Behringer is betting on the ability to sample to give this machine more than just a nostalgic vibe.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments.
More information from Behringer
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37 responses to “Behringer LM Drum is Finally Here! Rejoice!”
Dear God.
This company gets more trash by the day.
Got £5k for an original?
I certainly don’t!! – my wife would kill me 😉
However at around £500 ( my guess ), bring it on !!!
The linndrum is just a sampler. It was ahead of its time in 1982 but in 2024 it makes absolutely zero sense.
Every daw and (almost) every sampler have linndrum samples already loaded.
B. Is just doing its usual nostalgia bait and bringing nothing new to the table
The LinnDrum was a sample playback device, but you couldn’t sample into it. To get your own samples inside, you had to have them burned into an EPROM. That aside, the big thing about the LM1 and the LinnDrum that followed was the WAY it played those samples back. Roger Linn used a very specific way of using the cymbal samples to create the cymbal sounds. Similarly, it is believed that one of the things that gave the LinnDrum its feel, aside from the Swing feature, was the tiny delay in things like the snare sample, which helped lessen the rigid, metronomic feel. I’ve spoken with Roger about this and he’s fairly adamant that the snare sample is on the money, but many people have shown that there is a tiny delay.
It is these specific quirks that most sample libraries will omit. It will be interesting to see/hear if the LM Drum captures the feel as well as the sound, as it is intrinsic to the lure of the LinnDrum.
just curious, are you offended by all the Harley Benton classic guitar rip offs? or are you just mad that this company is producing clones of 40 year defunct drum machines?
why is it trash? Is harley Benton trash? Are the many companies that make gibson and strat inspired models trash. Or only because they have reproduced a 40 year defunct drum machine that there’s interest in?
This is not a clone.
And it is trash because in 2021 the functionality for this machine is extremely limited and they’ve managed to get a bunch of morons hyped by making this thing look like a Roger Linn machine.
I agree ,those snob beleive only in brands;some harley benton are way better than some 1000 euro gibson!
Now we are talking..
Guess the spelling checker wasn’t working: what’s Precussion?
Typo in title of song “Take on my”
Linn clone with modern sequencing features would be great. Gonna need a Jaspers rack soon for all these toys dammit.
the thing displayed looks like a Digitakt or other Elektron Device Screen as there are even 4 Parameters on Top and on Bottom shown like on Digitakt which there corrospond to the 8 Potis….WTF
The screen look so digitakt.
Modern, and retro Linn. Prefer to have this then a plugin
Would be great if they added the Sequential Drumtracks and MXR 185 sounds to it, or other natural (real) drum sounds to it.
Simmons drumsound, i forgot these sounds.
Looking forward to this. Would be cool to add a flanger effect in the box so that you can find your inner-prince on the sidestick.
Would love to have this.More choices the better.
I know sample developers have sampled the Linn time and time again, but since the Linn was sample-based, how can someone put out a copy using those exact sounds without copyright issues? Unless perhaps the samples are licensed?
Why not SP-1200? It may coming soon…
It would be cooler if they ripped off the Tempest!
I like original vintage gear.
This has the appeal of vintage gear because of options like a dedicated out for every instrument. I like this over paying €5000 for a real one or a plug in.
People who are sour over Behringer’s marketing technique should probably complain about the inability of original brands not being able to grasp what musicians want, and I sure as hell want this device.
“People who are sour over Behringer’s marketing technique should probably complain about the inability of original brands not being able to grasp what musicians want”
This sounds more like your inability to understand that original brands are often trying to do something…. wait for it…. original. This is the best time for sampling hardware there has ever been, so most real musicians are actually trying to explore the new technology, not buy some shitty rehash to ape sounds from 20 years ago.
Jesus, this is the last time I am that I am leave You with my pentium alone. if U want the original go back to work wit Joseph and stop complainin. InI will get Iself the behrLinn. Remember children I am Ur imagination. so imagine rightously!
If it’s what people want, it’ll sell. If it isn’t, it won’t. I don’t need much of Behringer’s clone output, though I have some such as the DM and the Arp, I’m still glad these excellent clones are being made for the people who do really want them. One additional thing, I’ve completed more tunes using only hardware in recent years than with using a stack of VSTs. Hardware’s limitations are often a plus point rather than a negative one, and I can see perfectly why people want a 606 clone, for example.
Beats paying $7k for an original and it’s exactly what I’m looking for!
If this is “exactly” what you’re looking for when there is a universe of better options out there I can only assume your music is equally uncreative.
Let’s hear your über-creative music made with vintage originals, then. Christ on a bike, you’re obnoxious. And somehow it pleases you to be. People who are pleased by douchery are… you guessed it! Ding-ding!
I miss the industrial buttons from the original Linn drum machines. These quirky shiny rubber buttons already feel dated (in the wrong way). They should have invested more in the raw retro look. Recreated the old buttons.
I prefer Behringer gear to the vintage authentic stuff now. Just works better without the breakdowns. I love cheap gear, I live from my music and can’t afford the expensive stuff for rich hobby music collectors.
I agree with what you say real musician.
I own a real linn drum, it broke yrs ago and i don’t have the time or heart to send this to bruce at forat, he’s gotten too expensive.
I despise the price gouge-ing by rich hobbiests over the last 17 yrs as they’ve taken gear like linn out of the hands “Again” of ordinary users by upping the prices exponentially an’ it stinks!!
As a pro musician i’m very happy to use gear like this, minus the break downs n’stuff, this’l probably give the authentic sound required. i know that i used a linn drum on some of my tracks around early to mid 80’s so i’m gonna be thrilled to my big boots! lolll
I need this. I hope this is the final design.
I will be getting one as soon as it is available. I would also buy a drummulator clone if they made one of those.
Indeed, hurra hurra, another copy of the masters of cloning. Rejoice indeed…
The spec say it has comprehensive midi implementation, so it looks like it might be a good choice for a hardware midi interface for DAW functions: all those sliders and knobs like a tactile mini mixing desk, velocity sensitive pads with aftertouch, transport controls (with hardware trigger outputs) – plus the added benefit of being a sample player with and analog filters – could maybe act as a sort of percussion-augmented midi touch controller with a retro-modern physical appearance to be used in conjunction with regular midi keyboards that don’t have percussion pad on them.
It dont mean a thing if it aint got that swing
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