I know I have been vocal about my dislike for the ACB boutiques in the past. However, having bought both TR-09 and TR-08 today, and after messing with them personally, I am finding the TR-08 is actually pretty decent. As in, retrospectly I admit needlessly hatin on it.
What made the box for me was the hidden parameters, configuring pitches/decays and gainstage settings that I personally like changed the timbre considerably for the better IMO. The hihats are what they are (a tad less lively than what I’d like) and the snare gets sibilant easily, but this box does seem to capture the essence of working with the OG as many have already stated.
Not sure if the TR-09 is going back though, I’ve yet to reach similar niceness of hidden menu config with that one.
I still think that ACB doesn’t really nail the sound a 100%, but when taken at face value (small, cheap and cheerful) the TR-08 is a fun box for sure.
BTW: Both the TR-08 and the TR-09 have NEGATIVE SHUFFLE! How cool is that, and they don’t even seem to make any noise about it? That alone makes these boutiques unique wrt the og’s (TR-808 didn’t have any form of shuffle?)