According to
Innerclock Systems, makers of
precision tempo-sync solutions, all Roland TR-909s suffer from rhythmic jitter:
"The TR-909 uses a single CPU that runs the whole circus and, like all computers it’s a serial process – it has many tasks to do. If the sequencer step trigger timing has no higher interrupt priority than any other task within the machine then, when the CPU has to deal with some other task everything else takes a back seat. That’s why she is a sloppy beast. Always was. Always will be..."
The Rev 4 update does not address the problem:
"Regarding the TR-909 Rev 4 Update – this was a Roland factory-addressed fault/software bug in the Rev 1/2 System EPROM:-
http://www.diprec.com/tr909/tr909.htm
The Rev 4 Update will correct long term cumulative sync drift when externally synced to Midi Clock from any source.
Rev 1 units will not sync to Midi Clock. Ever. Don’t bother trying.
Din-Sync and FSK external tempo-sync stability is unchanged with the Rev 4 Update.
This update does not address the more serious problem of sloppy timing within the machine itself. That would require a total software re-write and some hardware design changes which will never happen."
Read the full post on the
Innerclock Systems blog.
Curious how the timing is on the new TR-8. If the TR-8 can precisely cover the TR-909, is it a better solution than the original?
Of course the question is whether you notice the jitter. There are plenty of 909 users out there.
