I was driving down the road to see that the overpass by my house will be under construction
tonight, 9/9/09. This will be the only time in my life that this date will occur, as it will
likely be the only time in yours as well, so let's go in the way-back machine 25 years to:
The Roland Transistor Rhythm 909 Drum Machine!
What's so great about this machine? Well, it's the first hybrid analogue/digital drum machine made.
It was 1984, so it has MIDI, unlike it's oft namedropped sibling, the TR808(see my 8/08/08 blog.)
Its kick, snare, and percussion are all straight up analogue, but the noisy as all get-out hi-hats are
digital samples.
When the 909 hit the marketplace in '84, it was absolutely clobbered by the Linndrum,
which featured a full sample set, but was not nearly as programmable and lacked "character."
The 909 went on, a few years later, to be absolutely essential in the formation of the
"Acid House" sound.
For more information about this revolution-in-a-box, see the enclosed documentary:
Happy 9/09/09!
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