Linn LinnDrum

The LinnDrum (sometimes known as the Linn LM-2) was the successor to the Linn LM-1, released in 1982 by Linn Electronics. It was the second drum machine to be produced by Linn, and proved to be the most popular of the Linn drum machines.

Note that some people (incorrectly) refer to the Linn LM-1 as the "LinnDrum" - despite that being the name of its successor - which had led to confusion between the two machines. However, both drum machines are rather different in character, the LinnDrum having an improved rhythm clock and having a cleaner sound in comparison to the Linn LM-1.

Phil Collins' LinnDrum
The LinnDrum was one of Phil Collins' go-to drum machines during the mid-1980s period. It was one of the range of different drum machines he had at his home studio, which included multiple Roland drum machines and the Oberheim DMX.

He originally used the LinnDrum for the live rendition of "Mama" with Genesis during the Mama tour from 1983 to 1984 and the Invisible Touch tour between 1986 and 1987 (alongside other songs). The LinnDrum's predecessor, the Linn LM-1, features on the original studio recording of "Mama" and was programmed by Mike Rutherford.

In terms of Phil's solo work, the Linn features heavily on select songs from the No Jacket Required album (1985): "Only You Know And I Know" and "Don't You Lose My Number". On those songs, the Linn was treated with the Non-linear setting on the AMS RMX-16 digital reverb by Phil to add his own character to the sound. Interestingly, one of the Linn sounds from "Don't You Lose My Number" was sampled and available as a stock sound on the E-mu SP-12.

Phil had also used the LinnDrum on Invisible Touch with Genesis, mainly for programming drum patterns and loops. The first section of "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight", for example, has the Linn run through an AMS RMX-16 reverb.

The Linn pattern on the title track also uses the pitched down rimshot sound, influenced by work of Prince and Shiela E.

Mike Rutherford's LinnDrum
Mike Rutherford had a LinnDrum for writing purposes in the mid to late 1980s.

A LinnDrum was sold among old Genesis equipment at The Farm in 2001, which was reported to be owned by Mike Rutherford. It's currently owned by producer Andrew Kingsglow, and from photos it has a sticker saying something along the lines of "property of the group", so it wasn't necessarily Mike Rutherford's (or Mike was using that same drum machine when it was on The Farm).

Peter Gabriel's LinnDrum
While the majority of the Security album had been done with the Linn LM-1, Peter Gabriel would upgrade to the LinnDrum (a.k.a. LM-2), which was used on the Security tour in late 1982. The Linn featured on songs like "Shock The Monkey", "I Have The Touch" and "No Self Control" (the latter replaced by a revamped version of "Games Without Frontiers"). The machine is heard on those songs (except "Games") on the Plays Live album, released in 1983. Peter likely did the Linn programming for those songs (as he'd later do so on the So tour with the Linn 9000) and had Jerry Marotta operate the machine in concert. It's possible that Jerry Marotta's own LinnDrum was also used (which he still owns to this day).

Peter would also use the LinnDrum (LM-2) in some of his 1983-84 studio work. Which includes the Laurie Anderson collaboration "Excellent Birds" (which he probably did with a rented Linn): different versions were released on Anderson's Mister Heartbreak album (1984) and on Peter's So album in 1986, the latter of which retained fewer Linn parts than the other. Other examples of the LinnDrum include "Walk Through The Fire" (single version) and "Out Out" (from the Gremlins soundtrack). Both tracks/versions were produced by Nile Rodgers, who probably recruited Jimmy Bralower as a rhythm programmer on those songs whose main drum machine was the Linn.

Also, Peter had the LinnDrum around during the early So sessions at least. He had just acquired the then-new Linn 9000 and was still getting to grips with it when it came to recording, so the LinnDrum was possibly around as a backup option. The 9000 would end up being used for most of the drum machine parts that made it on the album, while Chris Hughes programmed a LinnDrum (probably Peter's) on "Red Rain".

On Robbie Robertson's song "Broken Arrow", Peter added a tuned-down tambourine sound from the LinnDrum.