IR-909 Does Roland Proud

Posted by Eric March on May 17, 2008 at 10:33 pm

If any of you ever listened to dance, house or techno in the 80s and had any kind of musical acumen, you’d know there were two or three staples any self-respecting band had in their kit: A Roland TB-303 acid synth, and a Roland TR-808 or TR-909 drum machine. These little boxes are legend and have influenced and permeated electronic music for over two decades. They were small, they were simple to use, and they had their own step sequencer, which is probably the feature that made them so popular.

Now, you can enjoy the magic of the classic 909 on your iPhone and iPod Touch thanks to Einar Andersson (a.k.a. roventskij), author of iPhoneSynth (which is currently available on the ModMyiFone repo). IR-909 is a Roland-inspired drum machine that includes a 16-step sequencer, four pattern storage, and the eight basic drum sounds: Kick, snare, clap, open and closed hats, and high, mid, and low toms. (The crash is missing, so perhaps he ran out of room.) You can alter the tempo and amount of shuffle, for those that want to inject their beats with a bit o’ that funky swing.

IR-909 is still in its early stages, and a new version is currently in the works that will add individual settings for each of the instruments, so stay tuned for that. In the mean time, you can grab IR-909 directly from roventskij’s page for a manual install, as it is not currently available through Installer. I imagine MMi will pick this up soon though.