I’d sample the drums from records, which was quite a novelty after using a drum machine. I remember in around 1986 or 1987 using a digital sampler/delay pedal to create short, repetitive drum loops for my home recordings.

In the ‘80s, digital recording was available to the home recordist, but because memory was so limited, it didn’t really go beyond sampling. The equipment was typically poor in performance and demanding in terms of maintenance, but other options were impractical or simply far too expensive. Most recordings were made in mono, with a seriously limited number of tracks. But early on, it was a very primitive affair. Home recording really came to the fore in the 1980s, as dedicated multitracking devices such as the Portastudio became more affordable to amateur musicians. It was an interesting hybrid analogue/digital setup which allowed a stereo production with plenty of musical components.

The above recording was made in 1996, using the equipment shown and described in the article.

Guitar pc and samson mixpad 3