Talk:Roland TR-909

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1

Hi-Hat Samples

Hi. In reference to this part of the Stylistic changes paragraph "It was the first Roland drum machine to use samples (prerecorded sounds), for its cymbal and hi-hat sounds; other sounds are generated with analog synthesis", i understood the Roland TR range was purely analogue and didn't use any samples at all until the TR707 in 1984 Can anyone else please confim this? Ijustwannabeawinner (talk) 08:42, 13 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

No, the 909 uses samples, but only for its cymbal and hihat sounds. You can verify this by following the sources linked in the article. Popcornduff (talk) 08:53, 13 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Popcornduff, thanks for that, on the second ref: Keyboard presents the evolution of electronic dance music. Backbeat Books. ISBN 978-1-61713-446-3 it goes on to say that in 1983 when the machine was produced, the Crash Cymbal, the Ride Cymbal and Hi-hat were sampled. So in the main Article the Cymbals could be augmented to include both the Crash and Ride cymbals.Ijustwannabeawinner (talk) 10:45, 23 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The previous text used "cymbals" to refer to both the crash and ride cymbal sounds, but as a hi-hat is technically also a kind of cymbal, this was probably confusing. I've amended the article to explicitly state that the hi-hat, cymbal and ride sounds are all samples. That should be clearest. Popcornduff (talk) 15:12, 23 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Excellent, that is a lot clearer now, i have thanked you also for this cleanup Ijustwannabeawinner (talk) 12:43, 25 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Surprised Roland engineers

The claim that Roland engineers were surprised by the use of the 909 as a sequencer and clock source is unsupported by the cited source and I've removed it. It's an odd claim to make anyway; the whole purpose of MIDI out is to do exactly that, so it should surprise nobody that it was being used as such. Orange Suede Sofa (talk) 01:28, 23 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

That was added by me years ago. I must have mixed up the citation at the time, as I don't add things without citations. It's probably in one of the other sources used on the page, so maybe I'll take a look later. Popcornfud (talk) 01:32, 23 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! It's still a rather strange claim. I was curious, so I checked my 909 manual and right on page 34 it says that you can use the 909 as a master device. If there's a RS that says that Roland were surprised by people using the device as documented, then so be it, but still... it's odd. Orange Suede Sofa (talk) 01:38, 23 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

After digging, I think I probably got it from this source (which has a lot of other good stuff we could probably integrate): [1]

See the three paragraphs beginning with "There was also the matter of the 909’s connectivity."

I don't remember at all, but on rereading, this seems to be what I was trying to paraphrase in the article years ago. But I don't think I did a great job, and it's possible I didn't even interpret it correctly. I think it's ambiguous what the Roland engineers are talking about when they say “As embarrassing as this is to say it took us quite a while to realise this fact." See what you think. Popcornfud (talk) 01:45, 23 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

That's interesting; thank you. I do agree that the statement from the engineers is too ambiguous to make a solid claim here. I'm trying to find if that quote was taken from an existing interview somewhere so we can see the context, but I'm failing so far. Orange Suede Sofa (talk) 02:15, 23 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Here's a way that we could properly use that paragraph, though— maybe something like "Roland's observations about how the TR-909 was used by musicians inspired the development of the MC-303". That is notable and interesting, given that the MC-303 is widely considered to be the first groovebox. Orange Suede Sofa (talk) 02:24, 23 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, there's a lot of stuff in that article that we can integrate, I think. I'll have a look at that later... Popcornfud (talk) 11:20, 23 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]