Forat’s post-Linn work was documented by 1993, when new F-9000 units and conversions were advertised from $2,500. It was built for the producer who wanted sampled percussion, sequencing and memory gathered into one serious studio instrument.
The machine in the record
Jeff Lorber / the Forat connection.
Jeff Lorber recalls relying on the Forat brothers to keep his Linn 9000 machines alive; that user-side relationship forms part of the story from which the F-9000 emerged. He does not explicitly name an F-9000 in his studio, and the public panel leaves that distinction intact.
Read The Unknown Heroes of Drum Machines ↗More records in the archive
The machine keeps turning up.
Oliver Leiber
Oliver Leiber’s account captures the professional user network that made the Forat F-9000 meaningful: a successor built for artists who knew the original Linn 9000’s promise and failures.
Read The Unknown Heroes of Drum Machines ↗After Linn, a studio with its own identity
Forat carried part of the Linn story forward after acquiring Linn inventory in 1986, but the F-9000 is more than a renamed machine. It is a substantial early-1990s workstation for studios that wanted sampling, sequencing and percussion controls to live in one place.
A machine for building the whole track
The software manual lays out the F-9000’s working language—sampling, memory, sequencing and connections. It reads as the manual of a production centre: a device designed to hold a project’s rhythmic material, revise it and send it back into the rest of the studio.
The price of a specialised instrument
A 1993 product column advertised new units and conversions from $2,500. That figure places the F-9000 at the dedicated end of the market, for users who could justify a large, expandable machine as part of a long-term recording setup.Source (1)
The people who kept it moving
Later accounts of Forat conversions and preservation reveal a committed community around the F-9000. Its appeal was the particular meeting of Linn inheritance and newer studio expectations—a machine that asks the user to learn its world and rewards the effort with a deep working environment.
In the market
- 16–29 August 1993: USD 2500 — New complete unit starting price in period product column. Starting price; precise included options unspecified; conversion pricing dependent on installed firmware/software Source ↗
On record
- Jeff Lorber. Jeff Lorber’s account supplies the user-side context from which the Forat F-9000 emerged: a working player dependent on the Forat brothers to keep the Linn 9000 platform alive. Source ↗
- Oliver Leiber. Oliver Leiber’s account captures the professional user network that made the Forat F-9000 meaningful: a successor built for artists who knew the original Linn 9000’s promise and failures. Source ↗
Sources
The visual archive
Further visual evidence.
Sources for images shown earlier (1)
Additional visual sources (2)
Original publications and related image sources.
- New Toys: Forat Electronic’s F-9000 ↗
16–29 August 1993 · Barry Rudolph / Music Connection, p.15 · Printed p.15 - Glen Ballard’s Forat-modified Linn 9000 and MPC2000 ↗
March 2003 · Mr Bonzai / Sound On Sound · In Love With Linn box; linked 280×210 GIF