LinnDrum II

Many of you know that Akai's MPC would not exist were it not for Roger Linn's "Lindrum" drum machine. Under the design of Roger Linn, the Lindrum would eventually evolve into the mpc 60 then MPC 60II and then the MPC 3000. (Roger Linn had no direct input on later models of Akai's flagship series however he can be credited with inventing the Midi Production Center (MPC).
As of 2001 Roger Linn has started his own company Roger Linn Designs, or RDL. RDL has designed several interfaces and machines since its inception however I find his newest (As of May 2010) project to be extremely appealing.
Roger Linn is creating a sampling drum machine much like his initial design for the Lindrum 1; however, this newer iteration will have modern spec. If RDL can pull this off we may be looking at a new age mpc3000/60 with modern capabilities!!!

Please check the blurb and concept pics from the RDL website below:

LinnDrum II is a drum machine that’s currently in development. Following on my (Roger's) early drum machine products like the LM1-1 Drum Computer, LinnDrum and Linn9000, as well as the MPC product line I originally designed for Akai, the goal of LinnDrum II is be a new musical instrument for the real-time creation and improvisation of beat-oriented music, both in live performance and in the studio.

Originally conceived as a collaboration with Dave Smith, along the way we discovered that Dave’s customers and mine wanted different products and it would be too expensive to make a product that met the needs of both. So it’s going to be a Roger Linn Design product, but still contains many benefits of Dave’s earlier involvement.

There’s still plenty of work for my small company to do, but when we’re closer to release we’ll be posting more information on this page. For now, I can only say that while it won’t be an analog product it will introduce a number of creative and fun ways to create beats, and will provide a very high degree of hands-on, real-time control of beat and sound manipulation in an intuitive way designed to guide new and surprising ideas from the musician’s head with very little effort. And I suspect most people will find the price less than they were expecting. Please hold your questions for now; as more information is available, I’ll post it here and significant updates will be sent to our LinnDrum II Email List.

I recognize that this product has been in development for a while now. However, the fun for me in designing a product is to try to implement it in a new way that surprises and delights, and for better or worse I tend to take my time getting the details right. Thanks for your patience.

- Roger Linn

Shout out to Roger Linn!!!