The original MPC-60... The Linn 9000 came from Roger Linn, responsible for the most popular sampler/sequencer/drum machine workstations in the world. And the Linn 9000 was one of his best designs. It debuted in 1984 and sported several innovations that would still be sophisticated by today's standards.

It has a built-in 32-track MIDI sequencer with sampling capability, 18 sounds with velocity sensitive drum pads, a mixer section, programmable hi-hat decay, panning, and a nice big LCD screen. Extra options include SMPTE, sampling and a floppy disk drive. Truly amazing for 1984. However, at this - the peak of Linn Electronics product line, Linn closed down and no more than 1,100 of these machines were produced. Anyone with a Linn 9000 not only has a great sounding sequencer/drum machine workstation, but also a piece of synthesizer music history. Simple in design but powerful in practice!

Although the Linn is long since discontinued and pretty rare, Forat Electronics has specialized in servicing them, along with other Linn gear since the mid-eighties. They have since re-invented the Linn 9000 themselves and released the Forat 9000 (pictured above). In the F-9000, all old software bugs of the old Linn 9000 are fixed, there's four times the original sequencer memory, full SMPTE read/write sync, MIDI Clock, Song Pointer Position, sample editing, battery-backed memory, and much more! If you like authentic vintage gear, the Linn 9000 is an excellent alternative to an MPC-style drum sampler. But if you want to be more practical, you can check out the Forat 9000, it's available, affordable, and its specs are up to date.

7 VISITOR COMMENTS

80srules

November 28, 2011 @ 6:30 am

Used by Modern Talking a lot.

nick sharpe

July 30, 2011 @ 1:56 pm

I went thru 3 of these things until, at the urging of a computer geek friend, I slapped a muffin fan on top of the vents and it never crashed again.. It was the shizzle in '85 - loved the big chrome buttons instead of a mouse on a creaky mac or PC. Placed many a tune with that thing, starting with an episode of "Fame", where I got hired for the session because it was all in the box (songwriters were never on the sessions at the Record Plant). "East of Eden", co-written with Carrie Hamilton (RIP). Archives atbop35 music web design

marlon

July 2, 2011 @ 12:39 pm

Phenomenal when slaved to a sequencer . Sounds thicker,warm,punchier, etc...than any drum machine that I've used,period. Find it,buy it,love it!

cristouk

March 16, 2011 @ 10:41 am

I once remixed and album that had been sequenced with a Linn 9000 and it was a complete nightmare. The Linn that had been used had long since gone and nothing - nothing would read the time code generated by it. I tried everything, including trying to jam-sync to fresh time code. In the end I threw the original time code away, printed fresh code and manually synced all 12 songs on the album - took nearly a week and a half to do just that - not something I'd want to do again!

VisceralVoids

September 1, 2010 @ 12:10 pm

According to Future Music's "80s Gear" special, Tears For Fears' mainman Roland Orzabal has used one of these.

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