It’s still very much a drum machine. A very good one at that.
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Browsing through the manual, I see it is possible to motion sequence the cutoff of the filter if a filter FX is selected for an instrument, but there is no bandpass filter available. Also, you can chain the 8 variation of a pattern to get 8 bars, but I’m not sure if you can motion sequence over the chained variations; I’m pretty positive you can though.
It’s limited, but its ability to fine-tune the sample starting point, and import samples via SD card puts its abilities way ahead of the RYTM MKI imo. I can definitely work with what’s there for chopping up samples a bit unlike the RYTM MKI.
The isolator FX on the master allows the low, mid, and high to be assigned to the CTRL knob (unlike the version available as an instrument FX) so you might be able to get a bandpass like effect automating that, but it would have to be applied to all sounds at once. I’m pretty sure you can automate the master FX; I’ll have to double-check that when I get home.
Thanks heaps for testing this out --will use DJS-1000 for the SD card sampling ability via adapter (USD$999 street price) and supplement that with TR-8S for playback
Cheers David
Just a PSA for those who may have just bought it - you have to update the firmware in order to use the Storage Mode.
Just to reiterate what’s above - this thing sounds very, VERY good.
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The TR-8S is fun, but making music isn’t easy. Coming up with interesting and thoughtful stuff is difficult. But…
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Some tech with motion rec…
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I’ve had a Rytm since they were released and I love writing stuff on it, but I don’t like ‘playing’ it. TR-8s seems much more improv-friendly. I’ve also been giving the Digitakt a go, but again don’t enjoy ‘playing’ it (I’m not into the CTRL-ALL mess-everything-up vibe, which seems to be about the one ‘live’ trick it has up its sleeve). TR-8s and MPC 1000 are really looking like a nicer combination to me than Rytm & Digitakt, but I’ll wait till I can try a TR-8s out in a store before I make any moves.
The fader bug is a little off-putting, but it seems like it could be fixed. I tried throwing 4+ track level CCs at the Digitakt from a Launch Control XL and though it never messes up the timing, it takes a good 1.5s to ramp all the track levels from 127 to 0. But this is what track mutes are for.
That is a relevant distinction to make I think, the TR-8s is really all about immediacy and live jamming, the Rytm is capable of more intricate programmable control, with some live performance features but not as immediate to use or set up.
Absolutely loving my new TR-8S! This thing is a monster. The built in effects are really usable. Especially loving the Tape Delay!
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Another attempt with the Tb-03
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Not that it’s special, but I’m pretty excited and content with this setup. I do own a DT so I still qualify for this forum, right 
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Nice one. About those arps - of all the ways you can work with samples chromatically in this device, which method did you use? And was it painful? I hear a lot about the TR-8S being tricky with chromatic tweaks of samples, but I also hear a lot of scales and stuff, so it makes me wonder, how hard can it be?
It’s possible I haven’t looked hard enough but I’ve yet to find the specification of the DC voltage and current draw (amps) for the TR-8S. Would someone mind looking at their wall-wart and confirming, please? I’m miles from a music shop with one in stock.
I’ve got the highly-configurable Omnicharge 20 battery pack so I’m hoping it might be a candidate for an off-grid / portable setup.
Thanks in advance.
Google for “Roland PSD-230”.
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Nice
I like your desk. It’s kind messy but tidy at the same time.
Here’s mine, must have ocd as everything needs to be straight. I guess was the only way to fit it in though
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And it’s really strict about that. 5V won’t work. I got mine with a power supply that had a UK plug and I thought I’d try an universal PSU instead.