Linn 9000

The Linn 9000 is a drum machine, which was introduced by Linn Electronics in 1984 and designed by Roger Linn as the successor to the successful LinnDrum. Like the LinnDrum, it has 8-bit drum samples, an on-board mixing panel etc. plus MIDI sequencing and sampling possibilities. However, chronic software problems led to stalling sales and led to the company's demise.

Peter Gabriel purchased a Linn 9000 ahead of making the So album, for which work began in early 1985. It became a key instrument for Peter during the making of the album like the previous two Linn's, using it to write songs with a rhythm-first approach. Typically, he did reference tracks using the Linn, a Prophet-5, an Emulator and a Fairlight CMI - all recorded with a a modified Studer 24-track machine (the "B" machine). The musicians would then rehearse and play along to these basic tracks, and their parts were recorded with the Studer "A" machine. Considering the album took a year, only very few Linn parts made the final mix: the Linn 9000 can be heard on "Big Time" and "That Voice Again", blended with drumming from Stewart Copeland and Manu Katche (respectively).

The Linn 9000 was also utilised for the So tour, replacing the LinnDrum. Peter programmed most of the rhythms into the Linn, for songs like "Shock The Monkey" and others which relied on drum machines. Drummer Manu Katche would play to Peter's Linn patterns live, but he found the patterns rhythmically complex to play against - such as "Shock The Monkey" among others. He'd encourage Peter to remove the Linn for some songs during the So tour rehearsals. "Red Rain", for instance, had the Linn pattern on during the Conspiracy Of Hope tour in June 1986, but this was no longer needed for the subsequent So tour.

In the late 1980s, Peter would upgrade to the Akai MPC-60 which Roger Linn also designed, heavily drawing from the Linn 9000's features.

Quotes
"'The only new things [on the album] were the Emulator II and the Linn 9000, though I didn't have time to get into the Linn properly before I started recording. Part of the catch with these things is that you do need time to get to know them. If the equipment arrives after you've started recording, you have to take it out of the studio to get to grips with it, which I didn't feel like doing in this instance.'"