Consistent with post-rave-insecurity.
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FACTS
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Yes, getting good results too.
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When in doubt:
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I do think that many producers tend to overthink how much a “signature” sound matters to 95% of listeners, at least regarding more experimental electronic music.
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I’ll take the counterpoint. The overwhelming bulk of human beings on planet Earth do not know what a hi-hat is. If they can even name the weird kinda cymbalish device that opens and closes like a clam when the drummer steps on it they probably aren’t going to be able to say anything else about it. So if my listeners are the type of people who spend all day four feet up the ass of a drum machine then sure, they might might know what they want and it might even be a 909 hat.
I grew up in the 80s and I absolutely LOVE all those Roland sounds and use whatever from the 909 (hats even!) frequently. But I also don’t care. I rarely feel like I need any specific hi-hat sound, I just need something that will fill that space frequency-wise and do the rhythmic job of a hi-hat. It could literally be anything. If it sounds cool doing the job then it’s in. In this current set I’m building up I have a bassline with a sizzly little top end. I took same sound and did literally nothing to it besides filter the whole bottom off and now it’s an excellent hat as well. I don’t think I’d like this stuff as much if I couldn’t just give myself that freedom all the time.
Fun story! I posted the same song I posted in the Syntakt Standalone thread on r/elektron. I received two comments. The first was the usual kind of “wha hey nice one!” and the second one, verbatim: “Every time I hear Model Cycles hats I want to puke”. Good thing I’m not making music for miserable reddit dwellers!
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A year ago I didn’t know what a 909 was. I would have guessed it was the successor to the 808, which I had vaguely heard of.
I now have a TR-6S, and I am tempted to send it to you so you will have a 909 hat. But I like it too much.
If you like them, get them and use them until you feel like using something else. Sod the listener.
My initial synth purchases were guided too much by my musical preferences; my nostalgia period is 1977-1985, but I was buying new music and seeing new artists live well into the current century (though not, for the most part, synth-dominant music). Now that I have relaxed a bit and listened to what people are actually doing with their devices, I’m discovering a bunch of new things to try that are quite different from what I initially thought I’d be doing.
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I saw Mark Verbos playing live at Superbooth using a verbos modular system and a 909. Yes, I think the guys at Roland who desiged this maschine knew, that kids want techno 
and it is still THAT techno drum maschine … the kick, the clap, the hats, the rides. It has power to move people.
I feel you. Often I think there is something missing in my music, maybe a good old open 909 hat and a ride. So I put some samples into the track. Sounding “ace” now … but then like 10000 other tracks befor using the same old formular. Even if you shape it with some fx and filter … it still sounds like the 909 hat. It has something special.
And I think its the sound I would describe as raw and a littly dirty. I guess this is due the circuit in the 909, maybe the DA conversion. Slightly saturated. The sound of the Jomox Alphabase reminds me on THAT sound. It has a similar raw feeling to my ears. Also my Akai MPC2000XL I had 10 years ago had a similar kind of sound vibe.
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Can you name a track this please? Thanks.
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I would like to add, even 909 open hat samples can sound different from one to another. There are 4 different samples within standard NI Battery. And they all sound a little different and a little cleaner (more topend) then the 909 open hat that are coming with the Analog Rytm. Also one thing I noticed: making a very short 909 closed hihat with a sampler is very hard. Sounds more snappier using a TR8 for example. Not shure why that is.
At the end of the day a grand piano will always sound like a grand piano. Its the artist who plays that grand piano who can make it sound special.
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Some sounds are trademarks of certain types of house and techno.
Similar to how certain breakbeats are trademarks of Drum and Bass and Jungle
That doesn’t mean you have to use those sounds. Definitely not. And a lot of people don’t. But when you do, they just work.
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The 909 OHH (along with the 303) is the absolute WORST cliché in techno. Move on and synthesize something new.
IMHO.
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You old git.
I did read an article a long time ago that said we tend to latch on to the music we enjoy in our 20s. Its like it gets mentally stamped in our brains as the defacto bee’s knees.
I think theres some truth to it, and it sort of explains why I struggle to enjoy new genres that sound radically different than the music of yore.
Have you tried 707 hats? 505 hats are also nice.
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I’m sure there’s something to that. I’m a good 10+ years older than many on here and probably latched onto the 808/606 layered-fizzy-reject-square-wave-osc-chips sound for that reason.
But another might be that I came into production via sampling and have a low tolerance for grainy drum samples. I do get that it was revolutionary in its day to have sample ROM in an affordable drum machine at all, and was considered a huge step forward. But it still sounds like nails on a chalkboard to me.
Oh yes. All the XOX hats.
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How history might have been different had Roland realized they could have kept going with middle digit 1
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You missed something there.
That place is wicked! 
Also: 909 hats with varying velocity just sound great. I don’t see the problem.
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Replace “909 Hats” with “606 Hats” and you’d start to make some sense 
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Old is the new “new”
i try to scroll sounds without looking what they are. I get used to the fact that a billion albums have been made with a band that sounded REAL similar for multiple albums and people have no problem buying tons of their albums.
I think people who don’t use presets: GOOD FOR YOU! Every “big” “hollywood” (hella paid) producer has used presets and will continue to use presets, to make $$$ hits until we’re all dead. so why worry about where or what the sound is coming from if you like and want to use it?
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I find old PCM drum machine samples are ace when in a sampler and you get access to envelopes and pitch control. I’m particularly fond of the stock hats on the Korg DDD-1 and the Casio RZ1. They are less familiar to most ears but still plenty jackin’!
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