Description
Old-school 80s PCM samples from Technics • Kick, snare and hats, plus a very nice ride • Congas, toms and tambourine to fill things out • Crusty vibe that found a following with hip-hop producers • Comprehensive effects including Tilt EQ to tailor the sound
Crash-landing in our lab a bit like that huge black monolith from the start of 2001: A Space 
Odyssey, the Technics PCM DP50 is a massive slab of steel and plastic covered with buttons and LEDs. Nice. It weighs a ton and takes up a surprising amount of space, but essentially all this moody hardware is just an enclosure for a (fairly small) selection of crusty 12-bit PCM samples. Technics were, at the time, better known for home hi-fi components, but their direct-drive turntables had carved out a niche in the deck-spinning world of hip-hop and DJs, and the DP50 seems to have been a bid to capitalise on this pro-audio presence. Sadly, though, the machine falls firmly between two stools: too many preset nonsenses aimed at the home user to make it a proper piece of studio kit, and probably a bit too enormous and complex for the home-organ crowd. Also, the data cartridges were pricey (at £90!) and there was no cassette dump option for patterns. (Hey, remember cassette dumps? Then you should probably book a prostate check, dude.) It tried to flex its studio muscles by including MIDI and programmability, but as is so often the case, the jack-of-all-trades route left most people scratching their heads.
Still, perhaps because the brand recognition of the Technics name carried some weight, and perhaps because second-hand and clearance prices plummeted, the machine did find some champions in the 80s hip-hop scene. If you’re looking to recreate that kind of vibe – where the aliasing lends the samples an almost dusty, crackly quality – then the DP50 definitely plays into that mood.
Samples are of course brief and crusty. Standouts, to our ears, are the ride and the hats – which are crisp and pleasingly shiny – and the meaty toms. Kick and snare do a good job, albeit in a midrangey, quite in-your-face fashion: this can work nicely for some styles but there isn’t the bottom-end thud you might want from a kick. (If you’re after that, you could always layer in something analogue from our collection…) You also get a decent little tambourine thrown in, and while the claps are so-so, the congas are a nice addition.
All in all there’s a lot to like here, but it really should have come in a much smaller, neater, package. Perhaps needless to say, the DP50 failed to make a serious impression on the studios of the 80s, which means they’re actually rather rare now; but its sound is thoroughly of its era. An odd one, but if early digital is your bag, definitely worth checking out.
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