808 · 80s music · retro tech · synth pop · synthesizers ·Oct 07, 2026

The Machines That Made the 80s Sound: 808, DX7, Juno-60 and More

by Newretro.Net

The 80s sound wasn't a mood. It came from a handful of machines, some priced for big studios and some cheap enough for a bedroom. Learn these names and you'll start hearing them all over 80s radio.

Each one has a price, a sound and, for most, a hit you can blame on it.

Roland TR-808: the boom

The TR-808 was made from 1980 to 1983 and cost $1,195. Roughly 12,000 were built. Its drum sounds weren't recordings. They were synthesized, and the bass drum is a sine oscillator run through a filter and an amplifier, which gives it that long, deep boom.

It flopped at launch because producers wanted realistic drums. Used units later sold for under $100 in the 80s, so hip-hop and electronic artists grabbed them. You can hear it on Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing" (1982), which Gaye programmed much of himself, and on Afrika Bambaataa's "Planet Rock" (1982). "Sexual Healing" reached number 3 on the Hot 100 and won Gaye his first two Grammys in 1983.

Our 808 T Shirt ($39.99) is the fan version.

Linn LM-1: the drums that were real

The LM-1 launched in 1980 at $5,500, and only 525 were made. It was the first drum machine built on samples of real drums, mostly from session drummer Art Wood. Prince used it on "When Doves Cry," recorded in March 1984, and on "Kiss." The LinnDrum followed in 1982.

Fairlight CMI: the sampler that cost a house

The Fairlight CMI launched in 1979 at 15,000 pounds, and the Series III in 1985 cost 112,000 pounds. You recorded a real sound into digital memory, then played it back at different pitches. Kate Bush's Never for Ever (1980) was the first commercial album featuring it. Peter Gabriel used it that same year.

Illustration close-up of a drum machine with a row of colored step buttons and knobs

Roland Jupiter-8 and Juno-60: the warm ones

The Jupiter-8 arrived in early 1981 at $5,295, with 8 voices and a filter chip that gave it a warm, rich tone. Duran Duran, Howard Jones and Tears for Fears used it, and it turns up on Michael Jackson's "Thriller."

The Juno-60 came in September 1982 at $1,795, with 6 voices and a built-in chorus. Roland engineer Hideki Izuchi said the single-oscillator design sounded thinner and cost less than the Jupiter-8, so the team added chorus and extra bass, which became its signature. It's on hits by a-ha, George Michael and Cyndi Lauper.

Yamaha DX7: the glass

The DX7 launched in 1983 at $1,995 and stayed in production until 1989. It had 16 voices, 61 keys with velocity and aftertouch, and MIDI built in. It sold over 200,000 units and was the first digital synth to pass 100,000.

Its sound comes from FM synthesis, developed by John Chowning at Stanford, which makes bright, glassy tones. It was great at bells, brass and electric piano. It was also hard to program, with buttons and menus instead of knobs, so most players used the presets. The "E Piano" preset is the sound of a lot of 80s ballads.

Casio CZ: the cheap one

The Casio CZ line launched in 1984. The CZ-101, in November 1984, was among the first fully programmable polyphonic synths under $500. About 68,500 were made. It had no analog-style filter, which keeps the cost down and the sound thinner.

Keytars: the ones you could walk with

The Moog Liberation (1980) was the first mass-produced strap-on synth. Yamaha's SHS-10 (1987) was a compact FM keytar. Jan Hammer used keytars in the Miami Vice theme video.

Illustration of a keytar player on a stage under a spotlight

MIDI: the cable that connected everything

MIDI was demonstrated in January 1983 at Winter NAMM, with a Sequential Prophet 600 linked to a Roland Jupiter-6. The specification was published in August 1983. Dave Smith of Sequential Circuits and Ikutaro Kakehashi of Roland created it and received Technical Grammys in 2013. It runs at 31,250 baud over a 5-pin cable with 16 channels. That's why one keyboard could finally tell another what to play.

Wear the sound

If you can't buy a DX7, wear the era instead. The EchoGrid T-Shirt ($39.99) is one for synth fans. The Synthesizer Flip Flops ($29.99) are for summer. And the Sounds Of The 80s T-Shirt ($19.99) says it plainly.

For more on why this music still sounds like tomorrow, Why 80s Synth Music Still Sounds Futuristic goes further. And The Rise of Synth-Pop in the 80s covers the bands.