Roland 909 Day

[salwa]

5 new synths and other products

[Blue Monster 65]

Up to 30 new products, I've read. Could be interesting ... I hope ...

There have been rumors of Boutique-size reissues of the 909 and 808 floating around forever, even with the TR-8 out there. I think that would be cool, though kind of redundant. I'd really like to see them release a TR-8-style pre-loaded with a boatload of their class drum machines, longer pattern programming, more pattern storage, and song mode.

[ninja6485]

I do think roland are going to try to cash in on making another 808,909, and 303 emulation at some point, but the question is: when? They might want to wait until the TR8 has been out there a while before introducing another attempt at the drum machines, or at least until it's discontinued. As it stands, anyone who would otherwise only want only one of the classic drum machines is up sold into buying all of them as one package. I predict they will ride that out a little more, and when that's no longer a strong income generator, repackage the technology (perhaps with some updates) into discrete packages with cool boutique sized 808 and 909 designs.


What would be cool is a boutique system 100, with each of the original components that you could buy and connect just like the real thing. The boutiques already sort of function as expanders. Or of course, a genuinely new product with the technology, and not a remake... How about a genuinely new drum machine?

[Hybrid88]

Interesting, that's a whole load of new products. Also intriguing is that they haven't given up on the video gear by the looks of it

[cornutt]

Interesting, that's a whole load of new products. Also intriguing is that they haven't given up on the video gear by the looks of it

Us synth heads don't usually see it, but they've kept that stuff up all along. A few months ago, I had to price a video production switcher for a work project, and what met the specs at the lowest price was a Roland model.

[ninja6485]

Interesting, that's a whole load of new products.

It certainly is.... Anyone know when Roland is expected to unleash their load on the public?

[Aaron2]

Interesting, that's a whole load of new products.

It certainly is.... Anyone know when Roland is expected to unleash their load on the public?

[Aaron2]

I do think roland are going to try to cash in on making another 808,909, and 303 emulation at some point, but the question is: when? They might want to wait until the TR8 has been out there a while before introducing another attempt at the drum machines, or at least until it's discontinued. As it stands, anyone who would otherwise only want only one of the classic drum machines is up sold into buying all of them as one package. I predict they will ride that out a little more, and when that's no longer a strong income generator, repackage the technology (perhaps with some updates) into discrete packages with cool boutique sized 808 and 909 designs.

"When" is an interesting question on the x0x reissues. In my view, if they're just going to release the same "circuit modeling" designs in a new physical package, what's the point? People already have all of those sounds in their TR-8 box. Why would they drop another $300 or 400 each just to have something that LOOKS like an 808 or 909, but has the same sound-making technology as the TR-8? Wasn't that what the Boutique line did? Personally, I don't get the appeal. Go analog or go home, I say!

[griffin avid]

I dunno, whenever anyone releases anything, there is always a decent amount of requests for every alternative format/offering. They make a 49, someone wants a 37,61,88. They make a desktop, someone wants a rack. They make a toy and someone wants a serious version - make an end all/be all and someone wants portable with batteries and built it speakers. Make something wholly on it's own and there's a sudden need for USB and total PC integration.

Fully programmable analog front AND saves 8 million patches...big spacious control surface, but knob per function.
DON'T ABANDON A PRODUCT LINE OR TECHNOLOGY, but can't give us many children and offspring products. Don't recycle, but you had the right idea and should have kept going. Debut a ground breaking technology/system/technique, but only make 1 product that uses it.

There's enough users/consumers that pretty much whatever format you choose, somebody thinks it's a blessing and a curse. A boutique drum machine? Why not, that's missing. Do you need that scatter and effects section? Maybe not, just give me the sounds in a small box. AND since all their sections are being made in smaller boxes, you can mix and match on your own. IF they made a bunch of boutique drum boxes first, we'd all be asking for the larger-sized TR series. I feel that way about some KORG stuff, where the little synth gizmos are cool, but I wish there was a similar full-sized offering.

Overall, if feels like a blitz and I wonder why NAMM isn't a better place to drop 30 products at once. But I'm excited.
If the boutique line is going to add more classics, I'm very interested.

[griffin avid]

I got an email that looks like the normal one with the Boss product catalog.
But apparently I didn't look into it close enough...
There's this page http://tfr.roland.com/us/

and it says September 9th and it's tied to an expo type event.
it's 09 (month September) and the 9th- as a drum machine reference. 909

[jaypodesta]

Is it interesting or just wishful thinking that Jun-ichi is sat in front of a System 700?

[ninja6485]

I do think roland are going to try to cash in on making another 808,909, and 303 emulation at some point, but the question is: when? They might want to wait until the TR8 has been out there a while before introducing another attempt at the drum machines, or at least until it's discontinued. As it stands, anyone who would otherwise only want only one of the classic drum machines is up sold into buying all of them as one package. I predict they will ride that out a little more, and when that's no longer a strong income generator, repackage the technology (perhaps with some updates) into discrete packages with cool boutique sized 808 and 909 designs.

"When" is an interesting question on the x0x reissues. In my view, if they're just going to release the same "circuit modeling" designs in a new physical package, what's the point? People already have all of those sounds in their TR-8 box. Why would they drop another $300 or 400 each just to have something that LOOKS like an 808 or 909, but has the same sound-making technology as the TR-8? Wasn't that what the Boutique line did? Personally, I don't get the appeal. Go analog or go home, I say!

I predict they might repackage the TR8 technology, perhaps with slight changes; into discrete, stylized instruments (TR-08, TR-09, TR-07, etc), simply to get the most number of products out of the least $$$ spent in development.

They've been selling emulations of the damn things for over 20 years, so they're familiar with the continual demand for those products. A mini va TR-808 that looks the part, has the boutique quality sound, and comes in at $200-300 will appeal to a lot of people, and catch the people who were only interested in one drum machine emulation, but maybe didn't want to buy in to the TR8 at a higher price and get all 3 or 4 emulations. I do think they will let the TR8 run its course.

It would be smart to release a boutique TR-09/7/8/6 like product as an alternative to buying a used TR8, once the second hand market starts to dominate as a live option for people who want the TR8 (as opposed to getting one new).

Since they have all of the technology and development already, it's simply a matter of repackaging something they already have into a fresh product to generate new revenue once the technology stops delivering the goods in its current form.

Now of course, this prediction represents only one scenario where roland might want to combine things they already have into ways they could generate new profit. They may be thinking across the board, and repurpose the technology in other areas, or have generated satifactory amounts of money from the tech and already have something new lined up that could make them more money.

[pour_furets]

I kinda think they would want to do a Boutique TB-03 before a TR-08/9/7/6. People seem pretty happy with the TR-8--I certainly adore mine--but the prevailing opinion appears to be that the TB-3 is less than it could have been. Relegating the decay and envelope depth controls to the gimmicky touchpad was a mistake, one that could be fixed by putting the TB-3 sound engine in a Boutique-style case.

[wiss]

Unless they are re-releasing analog versions of the CR-78 or system 700 I'm really not interested in reboot of
old products in "va" form.

[Hybrid88]

Interesting, that's a whole load of new products.

It certainly is.... Anyone know when Roland is expected to unleash their load on the public?

haha think they've been doing that for quite a while