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Human drummers have nothing to fear. Yet. Maybe. Check out CyberOne.

When the first programmable drum machines started appearing at the dawn of the 80s (think the TR series by Roland and anything by Linn), drummers like me were put on notice. Anything we could play, these new machines could play better. Their tempos were perfect, they never got hung over or strung out, and you didn’t have to worry about them running off with the guitarist’s girlfriend.

But human drummers survived the challenge and even managed to co-opt drum machine technology (cf. Stephen Morris of New Order). So we’re all good living a steady state of detente, right? For now, anyway.

A Chinese company called Xiaomi continues work on its humanoid robot drummer. And it’s getting better, although we’re still quite a distance from anything Neil Peart might have done. Still, CyberOne keeps getting better. (More here.)

Alan Cross

is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.

Alan Cross has 39665 posts and counting. See all posts by Alan Cross

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