808 and 909, side by side

FEB 21 2009

808 and 909, side by side

The TR-808 of 1980 and the TR-909 of 1983 together. Both were commercial disappointments that Roland stopped making within a few years, and both were then bought secondhand and cheap, largely by Black musicians in Chicago, Detroit and New York. The sound of house is Roland's marketing department having been wrong.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

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