Roger Linn is a musical instrument designer, mainly of electronic drum machines, and has recently branched out into guitar effects pedals. His products have become underground hits, being used on many famous recordings. He is also an accomplished guitarist and producer.

Roger Linn first made his name by designing the world's first programmable, sampled-sound drum machine in 1979, the LM-1 Drum Computer, manufactured by his own company, Linn Electronics, located in Tarzana, California. The LM-1 was the first drum machine to use actual samples, recorded from session drummer James Gadson. The LM-1's subsequent successors, the LinnDrum and Linn 9000, became synonymous with 1980s music, early dance and hip hop music.

Examples of the LM-1 in use can be found on many of Prince's songs, such as “Ballad of Dorothy Parker” and "When Doves Cry." The production team of Stock Aitken & Waterman even give the drum machine a tongue-in-cheek credit on some of their hits; in the list of musicians is often found "Drums - A Linn" Linn Electronics went out of business in 1986, at which point Linn was recruited by Akai to work on the MPC60 and the MPC3000 MIDI Production Center. Most Linn products began to utilise the relatively new technology of MIDI, allowing the drum machines to be beat-synched and communicate with other electronic musical instruments, such as keyboards, and even some early computers. As of 2002, Roger Linn has founded a new company, Roger Linn Design.

RLD's only series of products so far are the AdrenaLinn series of guitar effects pedals, now updated to a third version. The AdrenaLinn is a digital multi-effects unit with a drum machine and amp modeller all in one, co-designed by Roger Linn and Dave Smith (credited with helping to conceive MIDI). Most notably, unlike other guitar pedals, it allows the effects section to be synched up to a particular beat, either the AdrenaLinn's own drumbeat, or an external beat via MIDI.

The drum section can also be affected by the filter section, allowing dance-style beats. Other unusual aspects of the pedal are its guitar arpeggiator and guitar synth sounds. The AdrenaLinn technology was also the basis of Roger Linn's partnership with M-Audio to create their Black Box guitar recording device.

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