Sell the TR-8 for an 8S and keep the MD. That’s what I did anyway. The Machinedrum is quite a different beast to the TRs and while the 8S upgrade is huge, it doesn’t attempt to compete with the sophisticated synthesis, extreme p-locking, multiple LFOs, resampling, etc etc that makes the MD so powerful.
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Cracking stuff FinalForm. My work is finishing early. I have a choice. Buy a TR8S or I also am in love with the Roland SPD-SX Drums. I like hands on stuff… I have an Octatrack that hasn’t been loaded with samples… but the TR8S would be exquisite. Arghhh decisions, decisions… any ideas guys?
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I would upgrade to the TR-8S and keep the MD if you can… I got the 8S to replace my Rytm, but now trying to justify keeping both as they are great at different things.
Now that I’m not trying to force the Rytm sound like an 808/606 all the time, I have more tracks free for dual VCO and melodic stuff!
Of course I agree with your points. I just thought a handful of the requests were insanely realistic though (and they specifically asked for then ignored all requests). The TR8 does still hold its own in the market though. There aren’t many others that are so performance friendly. ahhh welll…
In case anyone wanted to download my TR-8S kits I have moved them to DropBox.
Here’s the new link:
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Microtonic kit, sweet !
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Phil Collins fucking rules. I’d point any haters towards Brand X… a spot he shared with Mike Clark. Phenomenal drummer
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Also, curious how people feel after selling their Digitakts and Digitones to buy the 8s. I have both and after spending time with them I wouldn’t sell either… completely different instruments.
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same im getting a dt and the 8s both serve different purposes for my setup
@jox asked this question in the thread months ago, but to no real answer…
With the TR-8S reportedly having “improved acb” sounds vs the TR-8, would this also include improved 606 acb sounds of the 7x7 expansion?
I can’t seem to find any word on this, let alone audio comparisons of the 606 on the TR-8 vs TR-8S. If anyone has info, or audio, I’d love to hear it.
Also, does the TR-8S feature a “combo hat” sound when both OH and CH are triggered at the same time on the 606 acb model? I’ve heard that on the older TR-8, this is not the case.
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You can hear the TR-8 606 kit fairly well here (including the hi-hat link mode thing that was specific to the 606 kit):
I can test the TR-8S kit tomorrow but I don’t have a TR-8 to compare it with anymore.
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Yea, I’m familiar with the 7x7 606 sounds, just not the 8S 606 and how they may differ. Thanks!
Gotcha. Yeah, it’s difficult to find hard info about what has changed exactly but I would guess they haven’t altered the 606 model as I thought the updated ACB models were originally done for the boutique 808/909s. Maybe they did though.
Can check the hat behaviour in terms of layering OH/CH/accent etc tomorrow.
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You can designate any choke groups as you wish on any kit with the TR8-S. You can also set up grouped tracks (akin to layering analogue sound and sample with AR)
So more than one way to achieve the 606 combo hat sound.
This is the case on the Tr8. When the two overlap they are unique.
thanks for clearing that up, I read this misinformation on GS, but didn’t go to the next page where it was refuted! 
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I meant to say that - you can hear the simultaneous CH/OH sound on that Roland video I posted.
I fired up the 8S yesterday with the intention of recording some samples of the 606 hats but got sidetracked into making beats.
LMK if you still want to hear what it sounds like. There is a lot of variation available though, with the overlapping, the tune / decay controls, weak/regular beats and the accent control (though I think the effect of the accent is pretty much just volume). (You can also change the accent velocity per-step without it being considered motion control, so it works whether or not you have motion turned on.)
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That’s the default hats, nothing changed from the standard kit. A mix of normal / weak beats with & without the overlap, no accents on the first bar, accents introduced on the second bar. And then the pattern I switch to (you can hear that TR-8S volume dip issue as it loads the new kit) is again all ACB 606 sounds, but with a bit of reverb/delay/panning/transient fx/can’t remember what else. But it’s all straight from the 8S into Logic over USB, I think I put half a dB gain on it? No compression or anything.
Link to the AIFF (96k/24):
(Should have made that a WAV, sorry.)
HTH
Edit: FWIW, while doing this I remembered that there are a few sounds that have 1 / 2 versions, eg the 808 and 909 BDs. Default 808 kit uses “808 BD 2” so perhaps those are the sounds with updated models? I’m speculating. But there are no 1 / 2 versions of any of the 606 sounds.
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