| I had a Novation Drumstation (v2), but sold it many years ago as soon as I got a real TR-909. The Drumstation sounds "thin and round" compared to the punchiness and crispness of the real thing. If you are traveling (doing live PA's) a used Drumstation would not be a bad purchase. It's lightweight & inexpensive. Run it through some other gear/FX and you'll get some sounds that are close enough to a 909 (plus you get 808 sounds with it as well).
But if you are working in the studio and you want the sound of a TR-909, buy a TR-909. The slight variations that you get out of it (being that it's an analog machine - except for the cymbals) make it sound much more alive than any of its counterparts. I don't regret the purchase and will NEVER sell my 909. It's also a hell of a lot more enjoyable to sequence on an instrument (in my opinion) than it is on a computer.
But.....for progressive house, you don't really need a 909. I do house and techno, influenced by a lot of early Chicago & Detroit electronic dance music, so the 909 is pretty much a staple for my style. Most progressive house producers use samples for their drums. You could purchase an older MPC sampler/sequencer (MPC-2000XL or if you can afford one, an MPC-60 or MPC-3000...) and load whatever samples you'd like into it. The older MPCs had punchy sounding converters, so if that's the kind of sound you're going for, grab one. I'm not a big fan of the sound of the Machine Drum, but it's quite popular with a lot of contemporary producers. It has a more "digital", "snappy" sound, which is not necessarily bad if you dig that.
BTW - Stay FAR away from any current Roland gear. Their converters sound thin and their synths are not what they used to be. The last really good synths Roland made were the JD800/990 series (the JP-8000/JP-8080 wasn't that bad either - especially for your genre of music).
The best suggestion I can offer is to try out the machine you'd like firsthand before purchasing anything. Everybody's tastes are different.
Good luck in your quest!
P.S. - If you do buy a nice vintage drum machine, you won't have to worry about losing money. If you decide you don't like it, just to sell it for what you paid for it (or even more). Can't say the same for more modern machines. I bought my Drumstation for over $600 USD new and sold it for under $200... |