IR-909 brings the Roland vibe to the iPhone

IR-909 brings the Roland vibe to the iPhone

5 September, 2008 | 4.00AM

• Written by: francispreve
• Filed under: Music News: apple, roland

Independent software developer, the cryptically named Rovenskij, recently released an official version of his IR-909 software beatbox for the iPhone.

IR-909 is a unique specimen in that it’s a rather faithful recreation of the Roland TR series of drum machines, right down to its linear display of each drum’s pattern.

What’s more, the IR-909 also includes a selection of Roland drum kits that can be further customized by the user.

User interface

At first, second, and third glances, IR-909 bears a strong resemblance to Roland’s legendary drum machines of the early 1980s.

Here’s how it works.

Tapping one of the eight drum abbreviations selects the active drum to be programmed or edited.

From there, the bottom row of buttons toggles drum events on or off over the course of a one-measure pattern.

Tapping a button once activates the drum for that event.

Tapping it twice accents that event, making it louder.

Three times and it’s inactive again (i.e. a “rest” to musician types).

In practice, the process is extremely intuitive.

Each drum has three additional buttons for soloing, muting and “More.”

Soloing and muting are self-explanatory, whereas the More button calls up a sub-menu (displayed below) that allows further modification of the sound.

The attack and length parameters allow you to customize the envelope and duration of each sound, which can be quite useful for taking these drums into more minimal territory.

The pitch parameters allow for retuning, but go a step further by including randomization options, which at low amounts adds a certain “liveness” and at extreme amounts can be used for really techy effects.

The only significant caveat here is that adjusting the parameters isn’t well documented and to be frank, the buttons are a tad tiny for even normal hands, requiring a deliberate and light touch to be truly effective.

This isn’t a shortcoming of IR-909, as you can see that the bottom row of drum buttons is as large as can be within the iPhone UI, but it is something to consider – especially if you’ve got king-size digits.

Drum Kits

Adding to the wholesome Roland goodness of IR-909 is the inclusion of four drum kits derived from their classic drum machines of years past.

The TR-606, TR-707, TR-808, and TR-909 are all present and accounted for – and they do sound pretty much just like the originals.

This is especially relevant in today’s musical climate since the tom and conga sounds from the 606 and 808 currently dominate the Beatport charts in almost every genre.

In fact, “dominate” might be something of an understatement, as it’s easily argued that those simple analog percussion elements will, in time, be associated with the sound of 2008.

Kärv and Techhouse - the two additional, non-Roland kits - are equally relevant to the current club sound and sound remarkably polished and modern.

Closing thoughts

All in all, IR-909 is a wonderful little drum machine for the iPhone.

While it doesn’t have quite the flexibility or range of iDrum (which we reviewed last month), it has the distinction of being the only drum machine software dedicated to capturing the Roland sound.

And for $4.99 at the iTunes store – or free if you have a jailbroken iPhone running OS 1.1.4 – it’s a groovy addition to the arsenals of iPhone-enabled producers.

• (0) Comments
• (1704) Views