Oberheim DMX

The Oberheim DMX is a programmable drum machine with samples, released in November 1981. Sting and Stewart Copeland owned one each.

Sting's Oberheim DMX
Sting owned an Oberheim DMX drum machine as part of the "Oberheim System" package.

According to Jeff Seitz, the Oberheim DMX used on "Every Breath You Take" was Sting's own, rather than Stewart's as initially thought (although he later used one on the Synchronicity tour). It was apparently the only song on the whole record to be sequenced on drum machine first: a basic drum pattern, which Stewart gradually replaced with real drums. Only the DMX bass drum was kept on the final record.

Stewart especially recalled Sting being attached to the DMX hi-hat sound, but the former insisted on playing the hi-hat part himself. In the Stewart Copeland: Drumming With The Police And Beyond, he elaborated that hi-hat was one source of arguments with Sting during recording: he'd do a hi-hat part and then Sting would replace it with one off the Oberheim and this went sort of back and forth until Stewart got his way.

As further proof, Sting is heard saying "Dennis" in the count-in to "Every Breath You Take" on the multitrack, referring to the DMX; normally a moniker Sting gave to whatever drum machines he had (e.g. the CR-78), normally used for demos. In the case of "Every Breath You Take", the Oberheim DMX part was a guide or click track for the band to play to during recording.

Sting also took a complete Oberheim system with him (including the DMX) to write songs during filming of Dune in mid-1983. The Oberheim DMX was later replaced by the Linn Electronics LinnDrum when Sting started using the Synclavier.

References
 * Jeff Seitz
 * Every Breath You Take multitrack
 * Sting & Jools Holland interview ("Dennis" nickname info)
 * Stewart Copeland Music Radar interview
 * Stewart Copeland: Drumming In The Police And Beyond (Hudson Music, 2021)
 * 1983 photo

Stewart Copeland's Oberheim DMX
The Oberheim DMX was Stewart Copeland's preferred drum machine during the early-to-mid 1980s. The Rumblefish soundtrack was one of the first of his projects to feature the DMX drum machine; the one used on the record belonged to Tres Virgos studio. It's unclear if he had his own Oberheim DMX by that point, but diary entries suggest he at least bought or ordered one as early as 9 October 1982 as part of the "Oberheim system" (which also included the OB-8 and DSX sequencer).

Stewart later programmed drum rhythms to accompany sequences Sting had written for the Synchronicity tour, and keep in time with those during performances by the DMX acting as a click for Stewart. On tour, the DMX was synchronised to Sting's DSX sequencer for "Synchronicity I", "Walking In Your Footsteps", "King Of Pain" and "Wrapped Around Your Finger". Stewart gave the drum machine the moniker of "Mr. Oberheim" for some time. For all Oberheim equipment on the tour (the DMX included), data cassettes were used to reprogram them for each song.

The Oberheim DMX was also used for much of the Rhythmatist album and probably the first series of The Equalizer - it was synced to the Fairlight CMI with a Friendchip SRC (an SMPTE Reading Clock).

The Oberheim DMX was replaced with the newer Linn 9000 around 1986. It was later sold off to a music broker who sold it to someone else...

Quotes on the Oberheim DMX
"'I've been using the Oberheim DMX up till now, and that in my opinion has the best sound, the best bass drum and the best snare sound. The cymbals on all of them are crap, you need to overdub live cymbals for that. But the triggering and so on, where you put down a trigger track on channel 1 and then you can overdub anything you want just by syncing it back in, are great. In the old days you would have to record your drum box first, then put everything else on top of it. Now you record just 4 beats in a bar and a sync pulse track. Once you've got the bass and the rest of the arrangement, you can put your drum fills around it instead of having to do all those first.' (Home Studio Recording, December 1983)"