Yeah I use it to play different chords to get ideas, it’s great.
1 Like
T-8 sounds good in this TE video.
https://www.youtube.com/live/bo_yDC3DK4M?si=gbbSrUVP2Z5ZIytE
2 Likes
I am so in love with the AIRA series these days. This feels to me like Roland’s love letter to electronic music. They punch way above their weight and I find myself listening to old records now and thinking about how I would replicate things with some combination of these little boxes. Their simplicity also means that I feel I have the bandwidth to use multiple machines at once, and mixing and matching is where a lot of magic happens.
While the S-1, P-6, and T-8 are the clear standouts, I think the J-6 is sort of a sleeper. Yesterday, I was running some of the suss 2 chords (chord set 34) through the cassette sim on the P-6 and it’s instant Boards of Canada, especially with some drums from the P-6 and T-8 going through the cassette sim as well.
I’ve found myself using one or two of these boxes at night to unwind. Perfect for that.
11 Likes
I feel the same about my S1 and P6 combo. I wish I had them in my backpack when I was a kid. The amount of time I’ve put in them is ridiculous considering the price.
5 Likes
I started with those and added the T-8 and J-6 later and am so glad I did. The T-8 is a monster after you tweak the settings to your liking. It’s become one of my favorites and probably my favorite box to run on its own.
The J-6 is one where I can see how people could think it sucks at first, but it’s got some really good tricks up its sleeve. My next step with it is to start using it as a midi controller for all my other synths, running different combinations of arpeggios and chord sets and phrases. It’s really cool with the P-6 as well, as I noted above (both using the P-6 as an effects box and using the J-6 to turn single shot piano samples and stuff into a cool sounding instrument).
3 Likes
Anything you can say about how to tweak it?
The P-6 is the best thing I’ve bought in years and feels natural to get around. The T-8 sounds fine but so far hasn’t been a box where I personalize the sounds.
@percussionboy
I’m on a packed Tokyo train at the moment, so not in front of mine. The overdrive, sidechain, and sends are the main ones unless you want to swap out some of the sounds.
I like the heavier sounds you can get, like in this video. When I got mine it felt kind of tame without the overdrive. In fact, I’m a bit bummed the S-1 doesn’t have a built in overdrive as well.
6 Likes
Thanks! I’ll play with that.
1 Like
Also the gain setting for each of the individual instruments. The bass drum can get into really distorted, acidcore-like territory if you push the gain right up.
My fun experiment last night was maximum reverb send on the bass drum, maximum gain on the bass drum, 0 reverb send on every other instrument, maximum delay send on the 303.
Then playing with reverb and delay levels, and with accents, to make some very interesting sounds.
2 Likes
The delay and reverb are both great on the T-8. I’ve done some similar experiments. You can get some really cool stuff with the infinite delay too, quickly bringing some hats in and out and just let the delay on them keep feeding back. There is a delay to reverb send you can adjust in the menu too.
I also forgot to mention the snap parameter for the snare. That one is worth tweaking to taste as well. While on the surface it appears like a super simple box, there’s actually loads going on in there.
7 Likes
I hope yourself or someone else can help. I’ve just bought Pure Acid for this purpose, to come up with ideas on the app and then send and record it to the T-8. I’ve had no luck getting this to work though. My iPad has a lightning connector and I have a lightening to USB adapter. It’s not the official Apple one but it does work when connecting the iPad to my Keystep mk2. I can press a key on the Keystep and the bass sounds in the app.
When I connect Pure Acid to the USB on the T-8 I can see the T-8 becomes available in the MIDI out section of the settings and I can select it. But pressing play or pressing a key in the app fails to make the T-8 respond. MIDI channels are mapped correctly. I then tried Bluetooth MIDI with my CME Widi Jack. Pure Acid recognises and connects to the Widi Jack but again the T-8 doesn’t respond to anything. I’m out of ideas. Cheers for any help!
Yes.
Thats how I use the J-6. As a hardware “midi-chord-pack”, to program the sequencers in other synths. Or at least give some chords as a starting point. (Used it plenty with the Arturia Polybrute)
I see the J-6 it more as a tool than a synth.
1 Like
thinking of it in this way, just wondering are there ‘strum’-like features?
Made a bit of progress. I pulled out a CME WIDI Thru 6 box. Connected Pure Acid via bluetooth to the box and then a wired MIDI connection from the box to the T-8. Pressing play in PA now sounds the T-8 bass and drums.
I’ve tried recording, and it does record but it’s a bit hit and miss. Slides and accents aren’t always in the right the place and some things just sound wrong. It’s an improvement at least.
Start/stop from PA still doesn’t work which it makes it tricky when recording into the T-8. Should PA send a start/stop message? Cheers.
Hey fella…
It seems you cracked it but from memory I was using usb c straight into my phone, I just set the tempos to match, lay some drums on the T8 and press play on Pure Acid at the right time, I prefer it like that because it’s easier to press stop and play to rotate the groove than fiddling in PA (pure acid for anyone reading).
I hope you are enjoying it anyways.
Also, after, when I have some dripping acid bangers I use 2 channels into AUM, pan the bass hard and drums opposite and then use the pan as a balance to allow, say a little hi hat into the bass channel also for fx or treatment.
It’s been a while but that’s how I remember it! 
Take care
1 Like
Thanks for getting back to me. I’ve resorted to manually matching the BPM on both devices then pressing play on both at the same time. It’s a shame PA doesn’t appear to send start/stop over MIDI. I tried setting the T-8 as master and it does start PA after pressing play on the T-8 but I couldn’t figure out how to get the MIDI back in to the T-8 to record it. I know MIDI is a simple concept but it never fails to fry my brain 
Quick update. The pattern from PA plays into the T-8 fine but after recording it sounds terrible. Everything is all over the place and barely resembles the track that I was trying to capture.
Kind of given this up as a bad job really. Arrrggg.
1 Like
Oh man, sounds like you are having a frustrating time…
Are you using Pure Acid standalone?
I don’t recall running into any issues using the method I mentioned above.
I just remember getting a beat first, then press play on PA and get the timing right, then when I had something I liked a just live recorded the incoming midi into the T8, capturing it and then stopping PA before it loops round the sequence to avoid double midi recording….
Well I hope your experience doesn’t preclude you from enjoying either Pure Acid or the T8 as they are both great fun!
Bang that acid 
Yes standalone. Just connected to the T-8. Playing into the T-8 it sounds great and identical to what I hear in PA. It’s just when recording that it falls to pieces. Maybe you need the timing of a ninja and I just don’t have it. I even tried slowing the tempo of both down to 40bpm but that didn’t improve things. A bit of a shame as I don’t like making music in software. I bought it after seeing it’s generative features and thinking how well that could work with the T-8. I’d love to see these features in hardware but I don’t think I’d like the price £££££!
I actually never listen to the output of pure acid, I just take the midi, so not sure how you are monitoring both but maybe that’s the issue if you are feeding audio back into the T8 due to latency.
I only have my eargoggles plugged into the T8. No usb audio feedback from phone or anything.
I also remember just listening to PA play midi to the bass synth only and when I hear a loop I like then I press play on the (tempo matched) T8 so I can chose the first down beat and capture the squelches.
I’m no where near my T8 otherwise I’d use your dilemma as an excuse to fire it up and go acidic for a bit…
Sorry I can’t help further champ!
1 Like
Yes I’m doing the same, just taking the MIDI from PA to the T-8. I mute the volume on PA. There’s no audio from PA going into the T-8 as I’m not using USB.
I have things synced now at least and that makes things a lot, lot easier. Pressing play on the T-8 triggers the pattern to play on Pure Acid. I can now press record on the T-8, then press play and PA starts along with recording. I have to take the BPM down to 40 to get an accurate recording. I stop as soon as the T-8 reaches the 16th step. It would be great if you could stop either PA or the T-8 from looping a pattern. It would make it much easier to record.
I’ve found the T-8 doesn’t accurately record slides, accents or ties from PA. Slides especially. They’re all over the place, so I have to remove them from the T-8 and put them on the correct steps. After that all is pretty good. It doesn’t record ties at all.
For anyone else struggling with this and not using USB this is how I have things connected. Pure Acid on the iPad setup and connected via bluetooth to a CME MIDI Thru5 box with bluetooth. On the T-8 I have MIDI out going to MIDI in on the Thru5, then bluetooth to PA [start/stop+clock for PA], MIDI out on the Thru5 to MIDI in on the T-8 [receives MIDI from PA]. Sync on the T-8 is set to internal.
Not sure if this photo helps really.
Cheers for your help.
2 Likes