“It’s almost the 9th of September, and that can only mean one thing, the Ninth of the ninth. The Nine Oh Nine, the 909! The Roland #TR-909 the most classic dance based drum machine since the 808, but more techno-ey. Made even more famous by the antics of a certain mr Jeff Mills.

Anyway, we couldn’t let #909 day pass without a nod in the general direction of Roland’s classic. Your jam challenge this week is to be inspired by the 909 drum kit, maybe it’s the wonderfully iconic Ride cymbal, or the snare that has rolled more build ups than a retired builder. Or maybe it’s all about the Kick, the famous 909 Kick, Or that Snare with the ‘snappy’ adjustment. Or maybe you love the 909 hihats, closed or open.

Whichever part or parts you love about the 909, I want you to take inspiration from the genres it helped sprout, the sounds themselves, or highlighting a specific part of the kit. If you have a sampler, or a Roland machine, you should be fine to grab a 909 kit from somewhere (edit: thanks john alchemy for the link to a kit download in the comments) or one or two of the individual elements.

If you don’t then you can use any old kick or kit you have lying around, but instead take your inspiration from the genres or artists that sprang up around it. You don’t just have to focus on the 909 kit, feel free to add more instruments or sounds.”

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