Each time the 8th of August becomes the date when the entire music world gives shout-outs to the rhythm legend and commercial hit Roland TR-808. The device which conquered each and every beat maker was released 36 years ago and became one of the first affordable programmable drum machines. TR-808 came out the same year Linn LM-1 did but it was 5 times cheaper and it gave us all that recognizable cult kick beginning the long journey hand in hand with electronic and hip hop music acts forever leaving its name in pop culture. TR-808 used to be a first aid tool for so many musicians: New Order, Madonna, Damon Albarn, Phil Collins, Michael Jackson, Outkast, Run D.M.C., Too Short, Diplo, N.W.A., Eminem and others. However, it’s very likely that all the others touched the sacred TR-808 at least once in their lifetime.

A Reunion-based (an island and region of France in the Indian Ocean) company called E-licktronic loves TR-808 as much as we do and we learned about it in 2013 when E-licktronic offered everyone to build the exact copy of the machine themselves. The brand received orders for DIY kits comprising the components of truly high quality ensuring that as a result we get the best Roland clone ever assembled – Yocto.

Yocto system is an accurate replication of the analog 808 (except that BA662VCA was replaced by BA6110) and it’s computer controllable thanks to MIDI sequencer (256 patterns) integration.

Besides this one, E-licktronic has two more projects implemented: Nava which embraces TR-909 and Square Sequence where TR-606 is hidden.