Something I always wondered about: it seemed like not all 808 cowbells were exactly the same. Some seemed to nail a very in-tune perfect fifth. While others were just shy of a perfect fifth, giving more of a sour sound which I think was more common.
In Bar-Kays' "Sexomatic," the 808 cowbell's pitch raised up a whole step to match the song's key, but it also sounds like a very in-tune perfect fifth: (3:55) https://youtu.be/rqWfERqQlk4?t=235
In 2 Live Crew's "Mr. Mixx On The Mix!!" the 808 cowbell has the more sour sound: (3:19) https://youtu.be/yNiAYpd1f84?t=199
The bread board project was producing an interval that was just shy of a perfect fifth, making it closer to 2 Live Crew's 808 in my ears.
I always wondered if slight variations and and manufacturing anomalies in the analog components accounted for this difference or if something else going on. If OP is in this thread, I'd love to hear your opinion and conjecture on this. (And I'd also like to thank you for the GREAT write-up and YouTube clip. LOVED this.)
But generally for analog, component tolerances are either 1, 5, or 10%. 1% is pretty audible on oscillators, and 10% is pretty audible on filters.
So each instance of an untrimmed analog synth and drum machine will sound slightly different, even if they're coming off the same production line and using the same circuitry.
Component values also drift over time, so a contemporary 808 is not going to sound the same as it did when it was shipped in the 80s.
Basically analog's inaccuracies add character, detail, and interesting distortion. You can emulate them digitally, but emulating all of them accurately and convincingly is really quite hard.
https://secretlifeofsynthesizers.com/the-strange-heart-of-th...
I noticed in OP's post that the two frequencies for the cowbell are 540hz and 800hz (although I don't see where this is denoted on the original schematics.) But we'll assume they're accurate numbers.
While a perfect fifth is a difference of 7 semitones, this produces a difference of only 6.804 semitones. It would seem that its designers didn't have a perfect fifth in mind.
Also, 540Hz is C#5 -45 cents and 800Hz is G5 +35 cents. So neither note seems intended to correspond to any natural key.
4:52
https://soundcloud.com/40noisesthatbuiltpop/31-808-cowbell-w...
The whole series is a valuable guide to analog synthesis.
https://www.soundonsound.com/music-business/history-roland-p...
https://www.soundonsound.com/people/history-roland-part-2
https://www.soundonsound.com/music-business/history-roland-p...
https://www.soundonsound.com/music-business/history-roland-p...
https://www.soundonsound.com/music-business/history-of-rolan...
It's quite possible that some producers weren't using an 808 at all, but rather by using the methods described in your link, created their own specially-tweaked 808 cowbells in order to give it the exact sound they wanted.
The TR-909 kick carries this distinction as well as the basis of gabber/hardstyle/etc: BAWHM BAWHM BAWHM BAWHM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLv5x-yduHA
(seriously, thx for posting this - interesting stuff).
Electronics + audio has always been my gateway like programming + graphics (and lighting up an LED is "Hello World").
I don't imagine you could change the pitch of the cowbell on the TR-808, but it sounds a little high pitched to my ear. I guess though that in the era of the TR-808 people were pretty jazzed by electronic percussive instruments that were even close.
