Roland 909

The Roland TR-909 is an outstanding analog drum machine dating back to 1983 when it was released in the market by the giants in analog synthesizers, Roland Corporation. This piece of machine is very popular today particular for dance, notably used by Orbital. Moby, Future Sound of London, 808 State Air, Uberzone, The Prodigy, Eat Static among many other famous bands and people. Roland TR-909 is jam-packed with Roland’s DIN sync and MIDI control features, external memory cartridges, individual outputs, and a vital shuffle & flam for the great grooves it produces.

History has it that this partially analog, partially sample-based drum machine, the Roland TR-909 was released in the market when analog synthesizers were starting to be replaced by digital drum instruments that featured more realistic-sounding samples. Its predecessor, Roland TR-808, was facing a huge challenge from drum machines that did not sound very artificial in a simple mix. Roland corporation however combined innovative technologies and analog sounds in response to the market demand, and sampled very great sounds (Hi-Hats), resulting in the best for both worlds sound collections.

In came the MIDI control feature, making the TR-909 a very flexible machine as it can be synced with all machines using Roland’s sync standard e.g. the TB-303, or better still, it can be synced to keyboards and sequencers that use MIDI. Typical sounds of the TR-909 include snare, kick, open and close hi hats, hand clap, low, mid, and hi toms, crash cymbals, and ride. The best feature of the TR-909 is arguably the sounds with each of the sounds being a true classic.

Anyone who has ever heard a dance track or electronica in the last 20 or so years can instantly recognize the classic sounds of the Roland TR-909. The sounds have actually become such standards that it has become very rare to find any drum machine today that doesn’t include these sounds. Both analog and sampled sounds are tweakable to get a wide gamut of effects. The ‘tweakability’ is one of the unique and characteristic features of the TR 909.

Decay and tone can easily be controlled on the fly for nearly all sounds, making them duller or brighter and shorter or longer. The feature further helps make the sounds very flexible, hence can be used to add thrill to a very static rhythm.

Another notable feature of the Roland TR-909 is the individual outs whereby each sound has its own volume control and its own separate jack on the rear. As such, one can be able to use various sound effects to create an even larger range of sounds to work with. For the most basic set up, the sounds can easily be plugged in a mixer individually and then each of the sounds panned separately and treated to a unique level of reverb to create a sound that seems either close or very far away from a given mix. Alternatively, one can put a different effect on each particular sound that comes from the 909.