Cherry Audio CR-78: What is it?
Once upon a time, Roland kick-started its business by producing drum machines, designed as add-ons to the music tech of the day: viewed as a ‘home organ’. While its early drum machines adopted the familiar TR moniker, 1978 saw a break with this tradition, through the development of the first drum machine to use a Microprocessor. This was the era of ‘CompuRhythm’, and so the CR-78 was born.
Housed in a wooden box, the CR-78 was a revelation, albeit with very basic programmability. Equipped with rhythmic favourites such as Slow Rock and Bossanova, this didn’t stop it from becoming a hit with significant artists of the day, such as Blondie, Phil Collins and Ultravox.
Fast-forward to today, and the CR-78 still garners an enviable reputation, in no small part due to its passing resemblance to the legendary TR-808. This has undoubtedly triggered Cherry Audio’s desire to rekindle this classic in software, and it hasn’t disappointed us.
Cherry Audio CR-78: Performance and verdict
As with many of its recent releases, the graphical interface provides depth and shading that adopts a three-dimensional image of the machine on screen. It’s a thing of beauty to look at, but it is even more impressive to hear.
• UVI BeatBox Anthology 2
Extensively sampled and production-ready, it contains all the classic drum machines and more.
• Samples from Mars CR-78 from Mars
Another suite of sampled sounds, but with a host of processing captured at source.
All of the sounds are modelled rather than sampled, and while we did not have an original machine to compare it to, we do have many samples. The modelled sounds provide something as close to analogue as we could hope for in the computer-based domain. Could you tell them apart from an original machine? Probably not, given that all the original machines will be knocking on in years now, so any number of originals would sound different to each other. Consequently, Cherry have adopted a stance which gives us the best of everything.
Upon loading, you simply cannot resist choosing one of the original preprogrammed drum patterns, and hitting the large start/stop button. Much of what you will hear sounds incredibly familiar. These patterns have been well exploited by bands and artists in the past, but things have firmly moved on. A quick flick to User mode (within the programmer section) and a familiar XoX-style programmer appears, allowing the assignment of your own beats in a pattern formation. You can select 16 or 24 steps, for duplet or triplet rhythms, or use the Swing function to delay the second duplet by an≈increasing amount. You can also create entire song forms within the plugin itself to run alongside your DAW.
Sounds of glass
While the original sounds are incredibly exacting, there is enormous scope to change things up. A second page labelled Voice Edit allows access to the settings of each sound. From here you can change pitch and decay for all of the instruments, with some additional edits available, such as a ‘click’ for the Bass Drum.
The Effects/Mixer page provides basic balance functionality, alongside four distinct effects. Each instrument can be assigned overdrive, flanger, delay or reverb. The global effect settings are shared, but you can choose which instrument is treated to which effect. As an example, applying overdrive to the bass drum really ups-the-ante, particularly when coupled with the backend compressor, which will squash the output superbly.
Effected originals
One of the Cherry design outlooks that we always applaud is its approach to re-imagining the classics of yesteryear with extraordinary reverence to the originals, while forging a forward-looking path.
The CR-78 is nothing short of a prime example of this. All of the original sounds and rhythms are perfectly on hand, but they have ignited rocket boosters within its programmability, at both the rhythm and timbre level. This provides enormous flexibility in its approach to use.
Moreover, the Effects page is equally flexible, adding another hugely significant layer to its sonic potential. The sum of all of these parts means that whilst it says CR-78 on the front panel, this package is far more capable than the original and can easily adopt a persona which lends itself to any contemporary style that might adopt electronic drum sounds. This is all very accessible and easy to navigate.
Cherry Audio CR-78: Performance and verdict
This is yet another exemplary product from Cherry Audio. It’s taken the premise of a vintage product and produced an accurate facsimile in software, while treating us to a host of very useful upgrades. This presents an instrument, which is brimming with nostalgia and contemporary potential in equal measure.
MusicRadar verdict: This drum machine is both a facsimile and a retro-contemporary beats machine, of the highest detail and calibre. If it had a ‘Smile’ pot, it would easily go to 11.
Cherry Audio CR-78: Hands-on demos
Cherry Audio
Alex Reid
Prod By ThatGuyFace
The Sampleist
Cherry Audio CR-78: Specifications
- macOS 10.13 or above. 64-bit required. Native Apple M1 or greater processor support, including Ultra. 3.4 GHz Quad-Core or M1 CPU with 8GB of RAM recommended.
- Windows 7 or above (including Windows 11), 64-bit required. 3.4 GHz Quad-Core computer with 8GB of RAM recommended.
- CONTACT: Cherry Audio
