Electronic musical instrement of the day - Roland TR 909

[Martin Red]

The TR-909 is an awesome analog drum machine! THE standard House and Techno beatbox. Sounds include kick, snare, hand clap, open and closed hi hats, low mid and hi toms, rim shot, ride and crash cymbals. Sounds are tweakable - attack, tone, tuning, decay, snap and accent. This machine does not sound like true acoustic drums, and we don't want it to. It has a unique and very loveable analog sound that's all its own!


Technical Info
Polyphony 12 voices
Sounds Kick, Snare, Low/Mid/Hi Toms, Rimshot, Hand clap, Cymbal, Open hihat, Closed hihat, Accents
Controls Individual level, tuning, attack, decay, and tone controls for some sounds
Patterns 96
Songs 8
Arpeg/Seq Sequencer
Keyboard none
Control Midi In/Out & DIN Sync In
Date 1984
Current$$ $1,000

http://www.vintagesynth.org/roland/909.shtml

[djyoavb]

the best of them all! had to sell mine but soon will be the day i'll get another one! [img]graemlins/OLA.gif[/img]

[Jamie 3:26]

My favorite drum machine of all time......I used to spin hours in Guitar Center playing with this machine.

[djyoavb]

mind u that it was one of the first drum machine to use pre-sampled sounds. all the cymbals r sampled and the rest is synth.

[djyoavb]

next one- Linn please [img]smile.gif[/img] that's no.3 in my peronal drum machine chart.

[Mocambo]

[img]hail.gif[/img]

[JorgeG]

Thank you Martin Red for another great instrument of the day.... [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

I was looking this morning for an old article on compression as they did it back then for Bastiboi's posting in Producers corner http://deephousepage.com/ubb/ultimat...204;p=1#000006 so when I saw your posting I quickly remembered that I had seen this article...just this morning.







[ July 06, 2004, 01:32 PM: Message edited by: JorgeG ]

[djyoavb]

Heil Roland [img]hail.gif[/img]

[eric justin]

My 909 Story

I used to own a 909. Back in 94 I walked in to this used music shop and asked the clerk if he had a few items, a 909 being one of them. He replyed by saying that he got a 909 in that mourning. Trying not to actious I asked "Looks like a pretty old peice of gear, do you think it still works?" Of corse it was in mint condition. I then asked, what do you think you will be able to sell somthing like this for? He replyed by saying $250 I gave him $50 and told him I'll be back monday.
I owned that 909 for about a year before selling it to get out of a bad roomate situation. I sold it for $500, I could just kick myself for that one.

[Brian]

anyone know of a repair specialist who's really good with 909's? (and 808's for that matter)

[Martin Red]

thanks everyone, great info

also bumping for Brian's above question

[Martin Red]

Originally posted by djyoavb:
next one- Linn please [img]smile.gif[/img] that's no.3 in my peronal drum machine chart.

http://deephousepage.com/cgi-bin/ult...;f=19;t=013785

[img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

[El Mayimbe]

[img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/respekt.gif[/img]

[Chip_E]

I like to believe that I was the first to use the 909 with "Like This".
I also used it on "Godfather of House", "If You Only Knew", Femme Fion's "Jack The House", Fingers Inc. "A Path", The It "Donnie", and Frankie Knuckles' first record, "You Can't Hide".

Then came Adonis begging to buy it. I sampled all the drums into my AKAI S900 (it was never the same) and sold the machine to Adonis.
A couple weeks later we started hearing this thing called "Acid House".

Around 1993, Adonis, Farley and I came together as "The Godfathers" and produced about 20 songs over 3 months. We brought in some of the best vocal artists including Rickey Dillard and Mike Benson. We even brought in Marshall Jefferson to co-produce a track. My old 909 was on all of these songs, and they remain unreleased.

Last time I used a 909 was around 1994 in London when "The Godfathers" wrote and produced Robert Owens' "Was I here before".

Last I heard, someone broke into Adonis' studio and stole the 909.

-e.

[Chicago Skyway Music]

Originally posted by Chip_E:
I like to believe that I was the first to use the 909 with "Like This".
I also used it on "Godfather of House", "If You Only Knew", Femme Fion's "Jack The House", Fingers Inc. "A Path", The It "Donnie", and Frankie Knuckles' first record, "You Can't Hide".

Then came Adonis begging to buy it. I sampled all the drums into my AKAI S900 (it was never the same) and sold the machine to Adonis.
A couple weeks later we started hearing this thing called "Acid House".

Around 1993, Adonis, Farley and I came together as "The Godfathers" and produced about 20 songs over 3 months. We brought in some of the best vocal artists including Rickey Dillard and Mike Benson. We even brought in Marshall Jefferson to co-produce a track. My old 909 was on all of these songs, and they remain unreleased.

Last time I used a 909 was around 1994 in London when "The Godfathers" wrote and produced Robert Owens' "Was I here before".

Last I heard, someone broke into Adonis' studio and stole the 909.

-e.

That sucks. :(

Sean Hernandez

[JMJ]

Originally posted by Chip_E:
I like to believe that I was the first to use the 909 with "Like This".
I also used it on "Godfather of House", "If You Only Knew", Femme Fion's "Jack The House", Fingers Inc. "A Path", The It "Donnie", and Frankie Knuckles' first record, "You Can't Hide".

Then came Adonis begging to buy it. I sampled all the drums into my AKAI S900 (it was never the same) and sold the machine to Adonis.
A couple weeks later we started hearing this thing called "Acid House".

Around 1993, Adonis, Farley and I came together as "The Godfathers" and produced about 20 songs over 3 months. We brought in some of the best vocal artists including Rickey Dillard and Mike Benson. We even brought in Marshall Jefferson to co-produce a track. My old 909 was on all of these songs, and they remain unreleased.

Last time I used a 909 was around 1994 in London when "The Godfathers" wrote and produced Robert Owens' "Was I here before".

Last I heard, someone broke into Adonis' studio and stole the 909.

-e.

Didn't Steve use the 909 on Music Is the Key?? I actually hipped Farley to it at the Glenwood parties back in 84 and 85 when I used to play it live. It wasn't real popular when it first came out, that's for sure......JMJ ;)

[JMJ]

[ July 11, 2004, 01:58 PM: Message edited by: JMJ ]

[JMJ]

oops

[Chip_E]

Steve was into the Korg drum machines.
"Music is the Key" used the Korg DDM110 and DDM220.
While Farley knew about the 909, he had a love affair with his Linn. Then there's Jesse, who was all about the 808 until he started collaborating with Farley...and it turned into a Linn party.

Also note, all DJ International recordings, with possibly 3 exceptions, used my 909 until about 1988, and I was usually called in to do the programming.

[JMJ]

Originally posted by Chip_E:
Steve was into the Korg drum machines.
"Music is the Key" used the Korg DDM110 and DDM220.
While Farley knew about the 909, he had a love affair with his Linn. Then there's Jesse, who was all about the 808 until he started collaborating with Farley...and it turned into a Linn party.

Also note, all DJ International recordings, with possibly 3 exceptions, used my 909 until about 1988, and I was usually called in to do the programming.

Yeah, I knew he was using the 220 for his percussion, but I could've sworn the 909 was used on Music Is the Key, particularly on that Dub mix on the flipside. I guess I could be mistaken, but.......JMJ ;)

[julian_kelly]

Did Mantronix use an 808 or 909 on his productions? Especially the Music Madness LP

whats the difference in the two?

[djyoavb]

Originally posted by julian_kelly:
Did Mantronix use an 808 or 909 on his productions? Especially the Music Madness LP

whats the difference in the two?

i think he used both. the difference is in the sounds- 909 more fat, 808-more snapy, sequencers r different abit (memmory capacity etc too), 808- all synth, 909- sampled cymbals... 808 black 909 white :D

[marki]

Originally posted by Chip_E:

Also note, all DJ International recordings, with possibly 3 exceptions, used my 909 until about 1988, and I was usually called in to do the programming.

This is what I love about the DHP, I love those tracks you are talking about and it's great to find out all the little stories about the creation of House! [img]hail.gif[/img]

[majortom]

Originally posted by Chip_E:
Last I heard, someone broke into Adonis' studio and stole the 909.

:( And it's a pretty safe bet that thief had no idea of the historical importance of that 909 [img]graemlins/jpshakehead.gif[/img] Probably sold it cheap for a quick fix :(

[/////\\\\\\\////////]

great post. does anyone know if any of the early hip hop producers used the 909. can't think of any examples of the top of my head.