Learn these 909 Beats! 7 Iconic Beats Recreated

The legendary Roland TR-909 is heard on countless records.
This video is a tutorial on how to program 7 iconic TR-909 beats step by step:

0:00 Introduction
0:40 Madonna - Vogue
2:10 Phil Collins - Take Me Home
4:45 Soul II Soul - Keep on Moving
6:03 Inner City - Good Life
7:10 Daft Punk - Revolution 909
8:23 Faithless - God is a DJ
9:30 Bjork - Hunter

[RegebroRepairs]

On Hunter what Mark Bell and Björk are doing is that that they use the combinations of accents to have four different levels of accents and create swells. So unaccented, global accent, accented and accented + global accent is used to have four levels of accents in that order to create an effect of a roll that gets louder. So when you are doing the unaccented, accented, unaccented, accented series of four beats that you have a couple of times, then BOTH the second ones should have a global accent, and then you get that swelling roll Hunter has.

Other than that, good job!

[lisaromero]

I am female. I trained as a classical singer, sang opera, and have a doctorate in voice performance. I've been teaching singing for over 30 years. Before Covid I sang and played keys in a rock band for about 5 years. At 62, I am a keyboard player, drummer and I'm writing songs using Bitwig and an MPC one. I'm loving every minute of it - way better for my aging mind than crossword puzzles! Thanks for the video!

[sophia_lazar]

Hi hello. I am a musician / female producer and audio engineer, bassist. (Trained, interned, worked in analog board / outboard tape op studios during the 90s through early 2k’s). We exist. I have the tr8s and the tr-09. I found as much as I love the both of them I have been playing drums in real time on my mpc live with the time control off for a lot of projects these days. Came here for some juice and inspiration to go back into the tr8s and do some programming. I’m from the era, so really nice to see this break down of hunter, etc. thank you.

[dionysiaex]

I'm a female following your channel. Great video!

[stuffnuns]

This is the best drum machine tutorial I’ve seen. You get right to it. No bs. You show and tell every step, and that really helps when one is still struggling to learn the controls by heart. This is so great to have these Classic beats correctly executed, and given to us so complete. Thank you!
The Björk beat was brilliant! I love how she made the 909 morph into Björk’s minion.

[AMOKIAN]

I used to try to make classic beats with my 909 and 808 in the 80s. Great memories.

[aleksibovellan]

Revolution 909 is such classic, always happy to hear that

[jdssurf]

The Hunter, one of the best songs ever, and always wondered how that beat was made.

[TimmyHellhammer]

Excellent walk through! Still to date now in 2024 I still consider myself dawless minus a few small synth apps on 4 separate tablets each having their own channel on a multi board. Step sequence will never be replaced in my method as those drum machines are still in my regular setup.

[dissonantdreams]

Another female 909 fan checking in 😉 tbh I haven’t seen your channel before, but this video came up in my recommended & I’m glad it did!

[klinkske]

Amazing how you can keep yourself from tweaking the snare while hunter patterns play :)

[emilianolasalle]

This is gold. You must do more. With other drum machines and new patterns

[RomanWaves]

amazing ! a great throwback to revolution 909, needed to play it right after - and you hit the spot, good job on hearing and finding the right swing amount !

[dmitripopov]

Faithless forever! Rest in peace, Maxy.

[someonewhobitthedust]

I don't even have a TR-909 but found this demonstration super helpful for making beats/grooves in abelton. Thanks!

[HipixOFFICIAL]

What a beautiful looking 909. That thing has held up well.

[URAYULI]

i exist poggers woman girl human female

[Magnus_Loov]

"Vogue!" Hehe, I remember it was one of the first grooves I put into Octamed, l an 8 track tracker on the Amiga back in the early 90:s.
Before I got to own any real Synth or drum machines.
Got the 909-sounds from other songs made in Octamed...
It really had that fantastic groove and together with Technotronics it really put the 909 into use for the more commercial dance music. Kinda started the "euro dance" sound of the 90:s. And the dance sound in general. These iconic hihat and snare patterns!
Yes, blackbox kind of did it too with "ride on time", but it was a mixture of other drum sounds with mostly just 909 snares and maybe hihats.

[Gipsy_Fonk]

Fabulous! As 80s/90s kid I have a soft spot for these grooves. Vogue, Keep on Moving, Good life are my absolute favourites.
Thanks for clear instructions, any quick-witted wanna-be producer can make use of it on any drum machine.
Greetings form Poland, Dude!

[kaseythekannibal]

I'm pretty sure I exist although after hearing your stats I guess I can't be certain. Thanks for the excellent video either way.