The Linn Drum…where would music be without it? On both side of the pond, the Linn Drum created an iconic sound that we know from Prince, Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, and, I’m pretty sure, that cool drum part on the Miami Vice theme song.
If you grew up in the 80’s like I did, your heart beats these sounds. I recently got a Novation Circuit, which I’m loving more and more. One of the best features about it is the ability to upload samples into it (60 seconds worth!).
The Linn Circuit?
I think you know where I’m going here. I’ve made a sample collection for my Circuit using Francis Prève‘s collection from his Purple Drums project. This is an awesome collection of authentic Linn samples. Purple Drums is intended for Ableton Live, and it has some great modulations there.
Download the pack I’ve assembled and, voilà, you’ve got your Linn Drum settings on your Circuit. Nice!
Making your Circuit Purple
The Purple Drums project provides you tons of great .wav files (308 in fact!). Obviously that’s more than you can use on a Circuit, so I had to be selective. Used the first 16 that are basically the straight-up, no effects sounds on the Linn Drum. After that, I picked from a spectrum from slightly effected to very effected.
I tried to pick the samples that sounded most like what I’ve heard on Prince’s tracks as well.
Remember that you can always throw on some extra reverb and/or delay from your Circuit’s built-in effects as well. Dial the #1 control left to pitch the shift down for some purple funk.
Table of Linn Samples
I’ve set my samples up like this:
Rows
1-2: The 16 normal samples with no effects.
3: 8 Kick drums (from less to more effects).
4: 6 snares (from less to more effects), 2 Rim shots
5: 4 Low Toms, 4 High Toms
6. 2 High Toms, 2 bells, 3 Shakers, 1 long Cymbal
7: 3 Claps (then I ran out of the Circuit’s 60 seconds)
| Kick | Snare | Rim | OH | CH | Ride | Crash | Bell |
| LTom | LTom | LCong | HCong | Clap | Cabasa | Tamb | OH |
| K dirt1 | K dirt2 | K long | K r1 | K r3 | K dir2.2 | K dirt | K wet |
| S dirt | S dirt2 | S long | S r1 | S r2 | s wet | Rim L | R wet |
| LT dirt2 | LT dirt | LT hard | LT long | HT dirt | HT dirt2 | HT long | HT r1 |
| HT 2 Wet | HT 3 Wet | Bell dirt | Bell r1 | Shake dirt | Shake r2 Wet | Shake r3 Wet | Cym long |
| Clap dirt | Clap dirt2 | Clap long | – – – – | – – – – | – – – – | – – – – | – – – – |
The Links
You can download the .syx file you need here. To get all the Linn Drum .wav files so you can make and modify your own patches, be sure to check out Francis Prève’s collection from his Purple Drums project.
Be sure to check out our Complete Guide to the Novation Circuit to learn all the ins-and-outs of this funky box.
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