Roland TR-909

TR-909
TR-909 Front Panel
Manufacturer	Roland
Dates	1984-1985
Price	US$1,195 UK£999 JP¥189,000
Technical specifications
Polyphony	12 voices
Timbrality	none
Synthesis type	Analog Subtractive and Digital Sample-based Subtractive
Aftertouch expression	No
Velocity expression	Yes
Storage memory	96 Patterns, 8 Songs
Effects	Individual level, tuning, attack, decay, and tone controls for some sounds
Input/output
Keyboard	16 Pattern Keys
External control	MIDI In/Out & DIN Sync In

The Roland TR-909 Rhythm Composer is a partially analog, partially sample-based, drum machine introduced by the Japanese Roland Corporation in 1984. The brainchild of Tadao Kikumoto, the engineer behind the Roland TB-303, it features a 16-step step sequencer and a drum kit that aimed for realism and cost-effectiveness. It is fully programmable, and like its predecessor, the TR-808, it can store entire songs with multiple sections, as opposed to simply storing patterns. It was the first MIDI-equipped drum machine. Around 10,000 units were produced.

The 909 was launched three years after its 808 forebear, changing the game slightly by offering a part-analogue, part-sample-based sound generation hybrid. As with the 808, the 909 sounded a long way from the more realistic alternatives from Linn and Oberheim that had all but secured the upper ends of the drum machine market. As with the TB-303, the realism of the TR-909 was limited by technical constraints, and this showed when the machines were released at relatively low prices before its rise in popularity, coinciding with the beginnings of techno and acid. More expensive, sample-based drum computers were better at faithfully reproducing real drum sounds, while the TR-909 sounded synthetic.

One of the first Roland instruments to be equipped with MIDI, the TR909 combined analogue sound generation of its drum sounds with digital samples for its cymbal and hi-hat sounds. With a powerful sequencer that let you chain 96 patterns into songs of up to 896 measures, numerous controls that let you tailor the sounds, and extras such as shuffle and flam, it undoubtedly sounded more realistic than its predecessors, and was moderately successful, even though the advent of purely sample-based drum modules would soon cause its demise. But, like the TR808 before it, nobody could have predicted the reverence in which the TR909 would eventually come to be held.