When Tadao Kikumoto where designing the TR-909 for Roland, he could never had imagined that his skills in engineering would be standard and after 30 years after it's release, still rule the dance floors. It's quite amazing actually.

While the TR-808 and TR-606 also have their product ids burned down in history books, compared with the TR-909 they are stuff for the gourmet, while the TR-909 is for the masses.

Even if you are massively bored with the sound of the 909 there is no escape from that the kick, snare and hats together with modern processing create new variations, bringing the sound from 1983 way to the current sound of the dance floors.

As some Know-It-All-Person told me 6+ years ago: trance, my friend, is going to die out. We all know what happened with trance. It fused with pop and is now ruling the charts harder than ever.

I think we safely can predict that the 909 will be at the centre of dance music for a long long time.