Sounds and Presets for the LM Drum – Going Beyond the LinnDrum Sound
Plus the DX100 presets recreated for DX7 V
4,3 / 5,0 | 
So you’ve just picked up your Behringer LM Drum and you’re looking to expand and explore other classic drum machines. Here are some tips!
Behringer’s LM Drum has caused quite the stir in the drum machine world over the last few weeks. Originally announced a few years ago, it finally went on sale just before Christmas of 2024. Units started arriving in January and it seems everyone is going crazy for it.
The creator of the original even felt the need to verbalise his thoughts and feelings on his website. But it is safe to say that the LM Drum has gone down incredibly well, not just because it recreates the UI and workflow of the lauded original, but because it adds the ability to easily import samples and even sample directly into it.
After Linn’s original company went out of business after the Linn 9000, Roger went on to design the MPC for Akai. The MPC was the natural evolution of the Linn line of products and offered users the ability to sample and sequence entire pieces with ease. It went on to define Hip Hop and RnB productions for decades.
Whether it was intentional or not, the Behringer LM Drum, in a way, is like a missing link between Linn’s original drum machines and his later Akai designs. It’s a lo-fi beatmaker’s dream and comes with a huge dollop of nostalgia to boot. This week, I’m going to suggest some samples you can feed into it to take it beyond the original LinnDrum sound but maintain that old school vibe.
Of course, these are samples, so you can use them in any drum machine or plugin that can import them!
Going Beyond the LinnDrum Sound – Sounds and Presets for the LM Drum
Vice, DrumTraks and DrumVerse R8 by Reverb Machine
First up is the brilliant Reverb Machine and three of their sample libraries, one of which is essential if you want the full-on LinnDrum experience in your LM Drum. Back in the day, if you wanted to change the sounds in your drum machine, you had to have one that supported swappable EPROM chips.
Linn themselves had a large library of sounds that could be swapped in and out of the LinnDrum, called the Alternate Sounds for LinnDrum. You could order a demo tape, listen to the contents, select the sounds you wanted and order them on the enclosed order form, that you then mailed back to Linn.
These sounds were incredibly popular and meant that LinnDrum users weren’t stuck with the same stock sounds as everyone else. Another clever idea from Roger Linn! However, since the demise of Linn Electronics, these sounds have been difficult to come by.
Now Reverb Machine has made these samples available to buy as a convenient download. For just £8, you get all 326 samples as 16-bit, 44.1kHz WAV files. For an extra £8, you can also have an Ableton Live pack included which makes using these sounds in Live incredibly intuitive.
For the complete LinnDrum experience, this pack is essential. And if you’re wanting to recreate the classic Tears For Fears drum pattern from ‘Shout’, this pack contains the required Triangle and Bell sounds. For the Kick, Snare and Tom sounds, check out the next item on our list.
Buy Reverb Machine’s Vice Alternate LinnDrum Samples here.
Whilst you’re there, I strongly recommend you take a look at a couple of other drum machine packs that they have for sale. First up, there’s the DrumTraks library. Whilst the LM Drum purports to have some DrumTraks samples in the factory library, this pack gives you 195 brilliantly samples of Sequential’s digital drum goodness. Grab it for £16 here.
Then there’s DrumVerse R8 which delivers the sounds of the Roland R8 ‘Human Rhythm Composer’, a highly respected drum machine from the late 80s/early 90s. Delivering all the factory sounds plus a broad selection of samples gleaned from the numerous expansion cards, this is another essential set of sounds for your LM Drum. Grab it for £12/£24 here.
E-MU Drumulator Drum Samples Library by Empyrean FX
E-MU’s Drumulator was Dave Rossum’s answer to his buddy’s LM-1 and LinnDrum, which were dominating the market and the charts. E-MU had already had a degree of success with the first Emulator keyboard and so they brought their sampling nous to bear on the drum machine world.
The Drumulator was a simpler design to Linn’s units, but it had the same grittiness and charm of the lo-fi samples of real drums. Moreover, it was cheaper than a LinnDrum. A lot cheaper! In fact, it was the first sample-based drum machine under $1000 USD. It was a huge hit for E-MU and spawned cult classics like the SP-12 and SP-1200 which would also dominate the Hip Hop scene.
Like the LinnDrum, the Drumulator featured swappable EPROMs so that users could create their own unique kits. One such company to exploit this new market was Digidrum, which would later become Digidesign, give us Pro Tools and then be swallowed up by AVID. It was their Rock Drums 1 EPROM library that would complete the sound of that Tears For Fears drum sound in ‘Shout’.
Digidrum cleverly sampled the drums from the beginning of Led Zeppelin’s ‘When The Levee Breaks’, capturing the ferocity of Bonham’s tub-thumping and making it available to Drumulator users everywhere. Specifically, it was the kick, snare and toms used on that track and, coupled with the higher frequency bells and triangles from the Alternate LinnDrum set, gave us that unmistakeable groove.
Featuring 129 Drumulator samples that cover kicks, snares, toms, hi-hats, cymbals and percussion, Empyrean FX have gathered these sounds together in one affordable pack that delivers them all at 16bit/44.1kHz in WAV format. And yes, those extra libraries are included!
Pick up the E-MU Drumulator Sample Library from Empyreal FX for just $8 here and start ‘Shouting’ on your LM Drum now!
Reverb Drum Machines – The Complete Collection
Whilst the previous tow items have focused on sounds from a single machine, this next pack covers over 50! This pack could be the only drum machine sample library pack you want to own. Unlike the others though, these packs generally stick the the factory presets, so you may want to embellish with others for some added spice.
I don’t have enough room here to list all 53 drum machines sampled here but they range from all the classic Roland units to the more obscure machines like the Conn Min-O-Matic, the Guild MG10C-1 and the brilliantly named Seeburg-Gulbransen Select-A-Rhythm! And your LM Drum can pretend to be them all!
Every volume contains three folders in which you will find one-shot WAV samples, loops and an Ableton Live 9+ drum rack and MIDI template. So you get a lot to play with here. Whilst there may be more comprehensive individual collections for many of these instruments elsewhere, the Reverb Collection is definitely covering all the bases here.
You can buy these packs individually, but by far the best deal is to buy the pack for just $59.99, a saving of more than $840 over buying the lot individually!
DX100 Factory Set for Arturia DX7 V by Reverb Machine
Ok, so these aren’t drum samples but it would be awfully remiss of me to not mention this recently released library from the previously featured Reverb Machine site, run by the brilliant Dan! Dan has taken it upon himself to recreate all 192 factory presets from the legendary DX100, the mini-keys version of the DX27, and converted them to work in Arturia’s DX7 V.
For the uninitiated, the DX100 was a first-generation 4-Op FM synth with 8 algorithms, unlike the DX7 which had six operators and 32 algorithms. So the sounds don’t directly translate. Dan has taken considerable time and effort to convert the DX100 tones as accurately as possible.
One thing the DX7 V can’t replicate is the grunginess of the originals but I’m telling you, Dan has done a fine job and if you want these sounds, which include the legendary Solid Bass patch, you can now grab them from the Reverb Machine website.
‘How much?’, I hear you ask. Well… nothing, zilch, zero, niente, gratis… they’re free!!! Get them now!
And while you’re there, be sure to check out the numerous and excellent articles on sound design and song breakdowns as well as his well-stocked shop. You may as well just subscribe to his Patreon and get loads more included in the price.
You’re welcome! See you next week!
Oh, and although i’ve centered this article on the Behringer LM Drum, you can use all the samples I’ve mentioned here on other great sampling rhythm boxes, some of which can be had from our affiliate partner. Check out some of my favourites!
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