OK - dinking around with the J6 I came up with this little tiny house jam. I like the J6 and see it’s potential for sure.
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Previously I mentioned Roland hit the jackpot and I still think these will sell well.
But after listening to demos the last few weeks I have to conclude they sound very boring and wouldn’t actually recommend them.
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No it doesn’t.
I think you need to try one for yourself, some of the demos aren’t great. I’m loving mine.
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What I really like about the T-8 is that it’s not only small and battery operated but it’s “hand held”.
I can hold it in both hands and my thumbs easily reach all of the buttons and the 16 steps, and it’s small and light enough that can hold it with my left hand and tweak the knobs with my right hand.
You could easily perform with it standing up if you wanted, or hand held while sat on the train or as a passenger in a car.
I think Roland really nailed the form factor.
I probably wouldn’t take the J-6 out with me though, as it doesn’t have the same groovebox appeal as the T-8.
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No, but I’m pretty sure it uses the same MIDI adapters as the Model Cycles/Samples which are only £8
Question, if you knew you were going to connect to another 5-Pin MIDI device, why not get a 3.5mm to MIDI (male) for 1.0m or whatever length you require instead of these adapters?
I guess with an adapter you can use with any length of MIDI cable, depending on your specific needs on a given day, so if you’re at home on your desk you could use a 0.5m cable, but if you’re using it live in a bigger rig you might want a 3m MIDI cable.
Roland do sell a nice MIDI cable which I think is compatible with the new compact series if you’d prefer a cable over an adapter. I have this cable and it’s very nice.
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I made a little “handheld” video 
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It’s the J-6 which I like the least. Which is funny cause in the beginning I really thought that would be coolest. But for me the sound just isn’t there and sounds like something you could get out of basically anything.
I hope that in a near future Sequential releases a few small devices again. Their flagships are awesome, but not everyone has the budget or space for those. (or maybe want both). The AS-1 sounds really great and if they could do something like that again with a few tweaks it would be an instant buy for me.
I received both the T-8 and J-6 yesterday, but it’s the T-8 I keep reaching for!
The J-6 sounds good to my ears, but it has limited control, and I like designing my own sounds, so I think Ill probably use it more as an idea generator for controlling other synths.
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I’ve spent more time with the J6 than the T8. Probably because the 6 is a little more complicated for me to use and get into my set up.
But things got easier when I ditched the onboard sounds for my soft synths and hardware stuff. AND. Opened the Phrase and Chord lists.
It’s a dope little idea generator for sure. It’s like Scaler in a box.
Only gripe is it’s not very immediate. Hard to program stuff on the fly.
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Since Scaler 2 for iOS is on my watch list, and will be much cheaper, I’d appreciate it if you could expand on this comparison a little bit.
I guess I just mean they both generate chords and melodies. One is a soft synth and the other is hardware. Scaler obviously is much deeper and has more features.
Thanks. So far T-8 and J-6 seem frustratingly limited from what I can glean from demos. I’m sure things open up when other sound sources are used but then I have to weigh them against things like Scaler on my iPhone or iPad (though I know very little about Scaler at the moment).
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Scaler’s going to offer way more than the J6 in terms of idea generation. But anything software is going to be more powerful and have more features than hardware. So there’s that…
A little sacrifice if you want to physically touch your music making stuff.
I get the tactile thing, absolutely, it’s why I have all these devices (Elektron and otherwise). But I also have a Faderfox UC4 which might do the trick.
Personally, like @djadonis206, I prefer the tactile feel of hardware, but if you don’t mind using your iPhone or iPad then “Pure Acid” gives you the same as the T-8 but with more drums. It sounds awesome too!
Can someone with the J6 test that you can’t edit or change sequences while the sequencer is running.
I can’t edit steps in real time and when I change the arp/phrase the sequence falls out of time.
Essentially, I can’t create or edit sequences in real time while the sequencer is running.
I have to stop the sequence to make changes.
Seems to be the case
Edit: Seems like you can edit the step as long as it is that step is actually playing.
So if you want to edit Step 4 you need to choose that step and then wait for it to play. Then you can change the note during that bar.