Zoë Blade's notebook

TR-909

TR-909 tech specs

The TR-909 was a mostly-analogue drum machine made by Roland in the mid 1980s.

It retained much of the TR-808's subtle timbre tweakability, along with its individual outputs, making it ideal in the studio. In addition to having more weighty sounds, the TR-909 also added separate accents for each sound, flams, and shuffle/swing.

Best of all, it used MIDI. For people who wanted to program their drums via a controller keyboard and a home computer based sequencer, this rendered the onboard sequencer's improvements a moot issue — they would use it only for its sounds, which were sensitive to the full MIDI range of velocities and timing, making it as versatile as whichever MIDI sequencer was controlling it.

When it was released, people were disappointed that it didn't exclusively use digital samples, which would have sounded more realistic. It was later venerated as a stylised classic, along with the TR-808. It's been extensively sampled and cloned, and even if you haven't heard of it, its sounds will very likely already be familiar to you.

Quotes

Actually [our whole album] was sequenced on a Roland 909 drum machine. Not many people know, but it's got a rather nifty little onboard sequencer. It's accurate to sixteenth notes only, which is weird 'cos you can't really get a human feel. We just used one of those and an Akai S900. It was the most simple sampling and sequencing system in the world, but it proved really effective.

— DJ Jemski, Three Wize Men[2]

Derrick sold Chicago DJ Frankie Knuckles a TR-909 drum machine. This was back when the Power Plant was open in Chicago, but before any of the Chicago DJs were making records... One thing just led to another, and Chip E used the 909 to make his own record, and from then on all these DJs in Chicago borrowed that 909 to come out with their own records.

— Juan Atkins, 1988[3]

Everybody was using Kevin's 909, and you can imagine how that was. It was just never available. When you did get a chance to use it, the next day somebody was calling up for it. Derrick just recently lucked up on one, and I hope to find one for myself when I get back to Detroit.

— Juan Atkins, 1988[3]

When Roland discontinued the 808 and 909 to come out with the 707 and 505, they tried to come out with a more true drum sound, but the whole beauty of Roland was that they had drum sounds which were different from everybody else's.

— Juan Atkins, 1988[3]

The basis of a lot of my music is my Roland TR-909 drum machine. I've told myself time and time again that I'd get rid of it, but I can't because it's so brilliant.

— Simon Harris, 1989[4]

Anybody can get TR-909 samples now, but the feel of the 909, the groove that's on it, you can only get that by programming the actual drum machine. The same with the 808: it's got an atmosphere and a groove all its own. I'd say it's worth spending the money to get the original machines.

— Gordon Matthewman, Blow, 1992[5]

Once you sample the sounds, it's not the same as the real thing. The 909's got such warmth when you're playing the sounds. One of my friends, Mark, has a 909 with a blown resistor, and all the hi-hats and snares have a new sound to them. It sounds quite good, there's some totally original sounds there. I talked him out of fixing it.

— Shades of Rhythm, 1994[6]

We have three 909s, and one of them has quite a special bass drum sound. The 909 sound is at the root of many of our rhythms, although we only use the sounds, not the sequencer. The MPC2000 triggers it.

— Rick Smith, Underworld, 2000[7]

The 909 would be my master control. It has 16 patterns and some banks, but what I would end up doing is having a bank of 16 one-bar loops that would contain drum information and timing information for all the other instruments, one trigger point or a couple more on the 808 for basslines. And then usually I would actually take a MIDI cable out of that going into an old Akai S950 sampler, which would also allow me to use a drum like a tom as a MIDI trigger for a sample like a voice or something else. So what also came out of that is those tracks have a very nice feeling on a timing level, which I think comes from the timing of the 909 drum machine. I'd be sitting at the 909, triggering sequencers, adding melodic triggers then adding hi-hats, maybe from some other drum machines.

— Richie Hawtin, 2019[8]

Notable users

References

  1. "Soho Soundhouse" Soho Soundhouse (Vendor), Electronics & Music Maker, Jul 1985, p. 35
  2. "Three Wize Men" Tim Ponting, Music Technology, Jun 1988, pp. 40—43
  3. "Future Shock" Simon Trask, Music Technology, Dec 1988, pp. 38—43
  4. "Mr Bass Man" Vie Marshall, Micro Music, Aug 1989, pp. 67—69
  5. "Wind Of Change" Simon Trask, Music Technology, Feb 1992, pp. 64—68
  6. "East of Eden" Rob Green, The Mix, Dec 1994, pp. 116—120
  7. "Underworld: The Making of Everything, Everything" Paul Tingen, Sound On Sound, Dec 2000
  8. "Signal Path: Richie Hawtin on His Origins as F.U.S.E. and How He Made Techno in the Early '90s" Maya-Roisin Slater, Fact, May 2019
  9. "The State of Technology" Simon Trask, Music Technology, Nov 1989, pp. 54—60
  10. "Live And Direct" Simon Trask, Music Technology, Mar 1990, pp. 58—64
  11. "Teenage Kicks" Phil Ward, Music Technology, Oct 1993, pp. 18—19
  12. "Strange Changes" Simon Trask, Music Technology, Dec 1991, pp. 30—36
  13. "Beat Dis" Mike Collins, Sound On Sound, Jun 1991, pp. 24—30
  14. "[Unknown]" 1988
  15. "What's That Noise?" Tim Goodyer, Music Technology, Aug 1990, pp. 30—34
  16. "The HEX Guide To Multimedia" Simon Trask, Music Technology, Oct 1993, pp. 36—38
  17. "DJ Vicious Lee (Def IV) — The Unkut Interview" Robbie, Unkut.com, Jun 2008
  18. "Kracked Plastik" Roger Brown, The Mix, Dec 1994, pp. 110—114
  19. "DJ Jazzy Jeff" Simon Trask, Phaze 1, Nov 1988, p. 12
  20. "Emotional Foundations" Simon Trask, Music Technology, Mar 1989, pp. 54—57
  21. "Advance Guard" Simon Trask, Future Music, Jan 1995, pp. 46—48
  22. "What instruments were used on Leftfield's Leftism?" Entropy, Gear Space, Nov 2007
  23. "Techno Rhythim" Simon Trask, Music Technology, Nov 1990, pp. 38—42
  24. "Future Talk" Simon Trask, Music Technology, Jan 1994, pp. 16—18
  25. "Machine Head" Simon Trask, Music Technology, Jul 1991, pp. 56—62
  26. "Interview: Originals... Kurtis Mantronik" 909 Originals, Aug 2020
  27. Everything Is Wrong Moby, 1995
  28. "Recording Moby's 'Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?'" Tom Flint, Sound On Sound, Feb 2000
  29. "The Magic Circle" Phil Ward, Music Technology, Jun 1993, pp. 56—60
  30. "[Unknown]" Dave Robinson, Future Music, Aug 1993
  31. "Music of Spheres" Nigel Humberstone, Sound On Sound, Apr 1994
  32. "'Chime' by Orbital" Mat Smith, Electronic Sound, Apr 2017
  33. "The Lone Raver" Tim Goodyer, Music Technology, May 1992, pp. 68—72
  34. Wind It Up (Rewound) The Prodigy, 1993
  35. "Prodigious Talent" David Robinson, Future Music, Feb 1993, pp. 31—34
  36. "Liam Howlett: The Prodigy & Firestarter" Paul Nagle, Sound On Sound, Sep 1996
  37. "Playing With Fire!" Robin Green, The Mix, Mar 1997
  38. "The Techno Wave" Simon Trask, Music Technology, Sep 1988, pp. 70—73
  39. "Schoolly D Talks PSK" Brewerytown Beats, Dec 2015
  40. "Warp Factor 8" Simon Trask, Music Technology, Nov 1993, pp. 32—33
  41. "Electric gypsy" Tim Barr, The Mix, Mar 1995, pp. 88—92
  42. "Underworld Interview" Roland

Reviews

Retrospectives

Deep dives

Downloads

Documentation

Samples

Drum machines: R-8 | RD-6 | TR-606 | TR-808 | TR-909

Hardware MIDI sequencers: ASQ10 | CZ-101 | Studio 440 | TR-909 | W-30

Roland: DCB | JV-1080 | Juno-6 | Juno-106 | MC-4 | MC-8 | MPU-101 | R-8 | SH-101 | SN-R8 series | SN-U110 series | SO-PCM1 series | SR-JV80 series | System-100 | System-100M | TB-303 | TR-606 | TR-808 | TR-909 | U-110 | VP-330 | W-30