Roland CR-78 CompuRhythm

The Roland CR-78 CompuRhythm was a preset-based (and partially programmable) drum machine owned by Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford, Tony Banks and Peter Gabriel.

Phil Collins' Roland CR-78
Phil Collins had a Roland CR-78 drum machine at his Old Croft home studio for the writing and recording of material that would form the basis of Face Value. Here is how he recounted his encounter with the Roland: "When Genesis was in Japan, Roland came up to us and showed us these drum machines. They were the first three off the production line. Tony wanted one, Mike wanted one, and I said, 'I don't want one; I'm a drummer.' But Tony said, 'Why not get one to see what it's like? If you don't like it, the band can have it.' So I took it home and there realized what it could do."

It would prove instrumental in helping him flesh out the music inside him. He went on to use the CR-78 to great effect - he credited the drum machine for helping simplify his drum playing and making him more solid as a player.

Having become familiar with the drum machine, with Genesis Phil programmed the CR-78 pattern on "Duchess" from Duke. In his autobiography, he acknowledged the machine was incredibly limited but worked really well on the song. He also took the CR-78 on the Duke tour with him, introducing it to the audience as "Roland".

The CR-78 notably provides the looped drum machine pattern on "In The Air Tonight". On that song he used the 'Disco 2' rhythm preset (on a slow tempo), with some additional bass drum (programmed by Phil himself) into the machine. The basic drum machine and keyboards were retained from the demo on the final record as it was rather difficult to recapture the mood and feel of the demo.

Even though Collins stopped writing or recording with the CR-78 by the time of No Jacket Required (as he began to favour the newer, programmable drum machines like the Linn LinnDrum and Oberheim DMX), he continued to use the CR-78 live on "In The Air Tonight" and "This Must Be Love".

Mike Rutherford's CR-78
Along with Phil and Tony, Mike received the Roland CR-78 fresh off the production line while the band were on tour in Japan in 1978. His CR-78 notably appears on Mike + The Mechanics hit "Silent Running".

Tony Banks' CR-78
Tony Banks, Like Phil and Mike, received his CR-78 fresh off the production line. He used it a lot for recording demos to his A Curious Feeling album in 1979, but all the drum machine parts were removed on the final record and replaced with real drums played by a variety of different drummers while the essence of the songs were there from the demos. Unlike Phil, who occaionally retained some of his CR-78 parts.

Peter Gabriel's CR-78
The CR-78 was one of two drum machines on Peter Gabriel's third album, known as Melt - the other one being the pAiA Programmable Drum Set. Peter was quoted saying the sounds on the Roland were in some ways better than the pAiA, but it wasn't as easy to program. As far as drum machine parts go, CR-78 sounds is heard very prominently on "Games Without Frontiers", and provides the treated drum machine sounds closing "No Self Control". Larry Fast claimed the drum machine on "Games Without Frontiers" to be the pAiA Programmable Drum Set, but upon close listen there is a distinctive synthetic guiro sound in the drum machine loop, which is clearly from the CR-78... Hence the conclusion it is a CR-78.

Peter used the CR-78 once again during the PG4 sessions in 1981-1982. Except that by then he preferred the Linn drum computer which offered full programmability and samples of real drum sounds. Nonetheless, he used the CR-78 again in parts of the 14-minute experimental piece "Undercurrents", recorded in June 1981 for an art exhibition and released officially in 2022 as part of a Graham Dean boxset.