They fit nicely into this Volca bag! Along with the 1010 synths!
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Itās crazy how fun it is to jam on the t-8. Iāve had every Volca and the mc101 and every groovebox. Amazing things to be had in any instrument, Iāve enjoyed parts of all of them.
But for being so limited, the t-8 is just so damn fun and fast. And once paired up with the j-6 itās another level. I think these are home runs.
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a lot of people donāt want menu
thatās a threshold or line, just like jumping from hardware to softwareā¦
Got email from Andertons T-8 not expected there until end of July, bit of a bummer as it said stock when I ordered, so I said just send the other 2 and cancel the T-8, I think there will be some on ebay before then.
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Ok so had some hours with the E-4 and I really like it a lot. For the price and form factor it really packs a bit more than I had realized. The looper is really great for creating strange textures and cacophonies to play with. Will be using it in my live set and to feed/mangle in the OT. Definitely a decent buy if youāre looking for vocal fx on the cheap. Not sure how much Iām missing with the TC Helion as it seems more powerful, but for my purposes Iām happy with the purchase.
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I shocked myself and ordered all three as well. They just look fun and they sound good.
Thanks a lot for the small review!
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My preorder for the T-8 and J-6 from Bax Music just shipped!
I just checked and they actually have more in stock so if your wanting one Iād order quickly now. Theyāre priced lower than everywhere else too 
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got my order in.BTW had a quick play with J-6 and E-4, both very nice, great sound quality, and simple dedicated devices with very little needing to think, just right.
I think for kids wanting to get into music making these would be perfect, they are very fun, like toys.
The J-6 is quite flexible for a variety of chord/arp/lead/bass uses, had some nice drones and whatnot happening almost instantly.
The E-4 for a non vocalist like myself is real fun, the looper with overdub gets weird fast if you want to, fodder galore.
But, I think as well as being fun little things to play on their own, they also have a bit of use in a āseriousā setting.
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I didnāt order the E-4 (yet). Not sure about that one. Have you tried looping a synth via the audio input yet?
I expect my T-8 and J-6 will arrive on Monday, but my wife is buying them for my birthday mid-June so I wonāt be able to play with them until then! Itās gonna be a long wait
Not yet, but I think via the mic input (maybe with attenuation) it will be possible. My battery only had about 20 minutes on it, so it is on charge now, Iāll try it later though.
Youāll have fun with them!
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Yes it works, you need to E-4 turn mic sens right down, and lower the level of the J-6 etc to less than half way so that peak light is off or barely catching the peaks.
It syncs fine too, I only tried the analog sync, I think it can do upto 24 seconds which is pretty good.
Quite why Roland did not add a line input is baffling, it is a great little looper/mangler.
And if Roland donāt do a mixer in this format they are nuts 
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Oh man an Aira compact mx-1 would shoot to the top of my list as most wanted gear. I used the big one constantly, itās fantastic! And Iām loving all three of these machines so far and canāt wait for more!
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I thought this was an interesting take on the J-6 that I didnāt see much mention of in other reviews. The other reviews focus on the chord synthesizer aspects, BoBeats complains that it just has 64 presets and little sound shaping possibilities, etc.
But the true value of this thing seems to be as a chord/melody/arp midi controller that can generate new song ideas and progressions quickly, using whichever sound source you want. Just plug in a USB cable between the J-6 and your DAW of choice and jam away using any sound you want. I thought it was an interesting concept that enables lots of ideas without any music theory needed. Not sure itād be enough to persuade me to buy one myself since I have an MPC and it already has pretty amazing scales, chords and arp modes built in, as does Reason with its midi player racks, but I could see this being useful for many people.
The E-4 intrigues me a lot more. It may be just what I need to dare adding some vocals to my songs. 
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Honestly, that is my exact use case for getting one of these as tiny midi chord generator for my DN.
Have you tried it yet?
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Iāve used the j6 as a controller for a few things now and itās so convenient and handy!
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nice, glad you are liking it so far.
T-8 arrived a few days ago. Exactly what I wanted - a tiny battery powered 303 module that also happens to have X0X drums, to run through my Digitakt inputs in a live setting. Distortion, FX, and 303 all sound typical Roland quality.
Sequencing drums internally is fine and fairly straightforward, though a bit annoying given Rolandās menu structure and the crappy display for making any sound design changes live. Often not sure if Iām in a menu, step recording, or mute mode.
Lack of faders is a bummer, as is lack of independent track lengths for the drums (but what can one expect at this price point).
The 303 sequencer is alright for happy accident sequencing, e.g. ālive record random notes and see what happens.ā The random generator is nice but Iād never use that live. Both are better than a classic 303 sequencer, but Iām spoiled by other modern sequencers.
Due to the above Iāve taken to sequencing it with my Oxi One and itās a perfect match:
- 1 multitrack dedicated to the drums, where I can see all the drum sequencers on a single grid and can set independent track lengths for each instrument.
- 1 mono track to melodic step sequence the acid bassline visually, make midi loops and randomize octave, accents, gate/slide on the fly.
- I lose the step loop and fill functions on the T-8ās internal sequencer, but Oxiās arp feature on the drums can kind of fake step loop
- Being able to play arps over an existing acid sequence and transpose octaves is pretty fun and creative and takes the T-8 out of typical acid territory
- Layering external sequences over internal patterns simultaneously actually leads to happy accidents and often sounds good (both drums and bass)
The T-8 takes 2 midi channel inputs - 1 midi channel for rhythm, where kick, snare etc each take a different note, and a separate midi channel for bass.
On the rhythm channel, the note values corresponding to each drum voice are a little odd, like C, D, F, G# instead of C, C#, D, D#, and theyāre in a weird order, too, but after some trial and error got it set up and working flawlessly.
Pros
- Sounds great (typical Roland)
- Step loop, probability per step, and fill feature keep things interesting and jammable
- Crazy light, crazy small, battery powered. The perfect module
- Price point
- Some of the shortcuts are pretty useful live
Cons
- Limited sound design options, would 100% purchase an expansion pack if Roland made one
- Iām not sure if it saves settings per pattern, e.g. distortion, fx send amounts, etc. I think it does, but need to check
- No independent track lengths per drum voice
- Typical crappy Roland menu systems and obscure button combos requiring some RTFM
- Alarm clock display
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I may (arguably) have posted my question in the wrong place, so forgive the cross-linked post: