In the early 80's there was a serious competition between the Linn Electronics and Roland brands. At that time the legendary TR-808 drum machine climbed onto a high pedestal and Roger Linn released Linn 9000 (1984) at incredibly high price. However, the software flaws led to a reputation for unreliability, and therefore soon the company of 50 employees, suffered a fiasco, and was forced to cease operating. But later anyway, despite all the obstacles, Linn 9000 managed to get attention.

It has a built-in 32-track MIDI sequencer with sampling, a mixer section, panning and a small LCD. Its library features 18 types of percussion assigned to velocity sensitive pads by default. There are available: bass, snare, hi-hat, tom, conga, cymbals, crash, cowbell, clap, kabasa and tambourine. Next to the pads there’s the "Hi-Hat Decay" slider which offers variations of open and closed hi-hat. For each sample there are individual adjustment of the volume, panning, and a dedicated jack thanks to which each sound is processed separately.

Linn 9000 was revived in 1986. A number of well-known musicians showed interest in live drums imitation. It was used in compositions of Alan Silvestri, Chicago, Earth, Wind & Fire, Jean Michel Jarre, Michael Jackson, Modern Talking, Nine Inch Nails, Queen, Sandra and many others.