This video, via massivebeatzz, offers his take on the Roland TR-909 inspired drum machine, the Jomox XBase 09.
When it comes to emulating the original 909, this is what Sound On Sound magazine had to say about the XBase 09:
XBase 09 is serious about emulating the Roland TR-909. Like the 909, it is an analog drum machine, and it sounds just like the 909, and more!
It offers the same types of analog controls that the TR-808 and TR-909 did such as tuning, level, decay, snap, etc. However it provides more of these controls for more sounds than the originals ever did and has MIDI implementation and Patch memory making the XBase 09 a much more versatile machine than those originals.
Ugh.., painful.
Although the review is well intentioned it is extremely superficial and does not in any way constitute an “anatomy” of anything even given a generous interpretation of the word.
I think this is where things fall down for me. The reviewer is throwing out terms that are not fully understood by the reviewer. At just 7 seconds in, the text reads: “as low as 25kHz Bass”. What does that even mean? It means that humans can’t hear it as it is above the range of what is accepted as the average limit of human hearing.
At 33 seconds, it is stated that Jomox used “the same or very similar circuit board”. This is ludicrous. I’m sure that what was meant to be said was that it is uses the same or very similar circuit design. It is this sort of sloppiness that gets tiresome in the review.
At 04:37 [and throughout the video], we hear that there are 6-bit samples in the Xbase 09. Again, more incorrect information that I knew was wrong before even consulting the easy to find and downloadable owner’s manual on the Jomox site.
Now, why does this matter? It is because the internet and tutorial videos are the primary source of information for everyone and especially those that are just starting out. This kind of incorrect information becomes accepted as accurate by people that don’t know any better and it is repeated so often that there is more incorrect information out there than good information.
I know how much effort it takes to do these reviews, and his are well produced and the audio is good, however I object to the string of incorrect information. This is more of a walkthrough and end-user’s perspective video. It certainly isn’t an “anatomy” and doesn’t get much below the surface of the product. Perhaps this is for the best as it is in the recitation of specifications where things get lost.
Poor guy; I almost feel badly that this video became the target of my ire.
Totally agree with you on this one !
I feel exactly the same way when someone ‘loads bullets into a clip’ and then manages to get their ‘fully automatic Glock’ through the xray scanner at the airport, because ‘it’s made of plastic and is undetectable’.
I can’t believe an analog drum machine like that has 127 value stepped parameter controls like that. Is that o it could be controlled via midi? That’s kinda lame, for a high en nice sounding box like that.