sounds great, thank you!
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Man I am in love with the TR-8S. They improved everything from the TR-8 and itās so much fun. Was using my Rytm MKI & II only for standard drum duties and really considering swapping it for a Octatrack for more complex sample usage. The very comprehensive compressor and distortion options on the kicks let really bang. I have the feeling even more than the Rytm. I know itās very different, but I am a sucker for TRāsounds anyway. Feeling a bit strange if I let the rytm go. But I have enough for special drum-design (Modular, dfam, digitone ). Sometimes you just need some standard grooves going fast and fun and the TR-8s really excels in that. Have to say Roland really heard their customers. Well done !
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+1.
They added a lot of stuff that Iām getting a lot of use out of, like track trigging, all the instrument FX/EQ, proper sidechaining on the inputs, trigger output track, etc. And samples of course! No, it wonāt get as crazy as an Elektron machine but it sounds great and gets you where youāre going fast. Really enjoying it.
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+1
but an editor would be nice. sort the uploaded sample to categorys is pain in the ass ā¦
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Agree.
going to look in the new year if thereās anything thatās possible
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Hey guys, is there a way to do ādirect jumpā pattern switches like you can on some of the Elektron machines?
What I mean is can you switch patterns and have it immediately switch to the next pattern without waiting to the end of the current running pattern?
I am aware of the fill features. But, those are only for variations of a given pattern.
Thanks!
No, I donāt think so. Unless itās undocumented.
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this is a useless consumer noise comment but I tried one of these out a couple days ago and have to say itās quite fun, sounds great, and nice to have all the knobs and faders on the thing. Iām kind of considering selling my rytm and picking one of these up to keep my workflow for simple drum duties quick, have enough special sauce in the octatrack and digitone and modular to keep me busy.
that said, I would definitely miss microtiming (ratcheting and flams are no substitute whatsoever, despite being mentioned often in context of this), direct jump, and trig conditions (ease of having one <= 16 step page to work on for your whole pattern, when you use x:y conditions). otherwise, the p-locking implementation on this is just ok - I could get used to it, and itās less important for bread and butter TR drum vibes anyway. the instrument and kit editing menu diving kind of sucks compared to Elektron UI design, tbh.
or maybe I should just map my UC4 to control pitch, amp decay, and track vol on 8 voices of the rytm, SDS drop a bunch more goldbaby samples into the thing, and ignore all the synth engine possibilities that distract me. ĀÆ_(ć)_/ĀÆ
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I wish roland would release tr8s file format docs.
theyāre not that hard to work out tbh, theyāre all XML and pretty self explanatory
Really ? Didnāt look at them yet. If so Iāll make a simple qt app to manage samples. Categorize them is a bit tedious.
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cool - iāll be doing some stuff in the new year
Wellā¦ just what i thoughtā¦ t8k files are binary format so weāre back to the pita of an hex editor for this one.
Can anyone comment on the input latency when multi-tracking over USB?
Iām looking for hard ms numbers here. 44.1khz
Thanks!
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Lower latency over USB than my Steinberg UR22 Mk2. My UR22 is about 5ms at 48khz and TR-8S is about 2ms at 48khz. Overbridge is a very off -2 ms no matter what settings I use (records early not late !?) Sorry I canāt give values at 44.zkhz
I would say TR-8S is probably of the easiest devices Iāve ever owned to record multitrack into DAW.
I have a pretty unique setup right now using TR-8S as a sound card, but also running all my elektrons and other hardware into TR-8S. I can record everything over USB or straight into my Steinberg UR22 if I want to record a quick iphone viddie. Fun stuff and very simple.
Love the TR-8S sound, still unsure about the sequencer haha
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I have both TR-8S and RYTM right now and a side by side comparison is VERY interesting.
TR-8S sounds better in some regards - it has this sort of crystal clear glassy high end and a VERY powerful punchy low end on the ACB kicks and toms. The converters must be very good. Comparing this to my RYTM mk1 it sounds a little muffled and still has lots of low thud, but the mids and highs sound almost weak and hollow by comparison. If I play drums on OT its even more apparent.
Where they no longer even come close is RYTM has SUCH a better sequencer. I find the TR-8S sequencer very basic when Iāve used elektrons for so many years. The P-locking is there and its very easy to use, but itās super limited in what you can plock. I also prefer how elektrons work with different step lengths per track. TR-8S you can control last step out of 16 steps, but you canāt say āI want this track to be 32 steps, and this track 8 and this one 16ā ā atleast not that Iāve discovered anyways. To get past 16 you have to use variations, but this is like pattern chaining on elektrons so not at all the same thing. Iāve also become hopeless addicted to conditional trigs on the elektrons ! Prior to their addition, I would make very long 4 bar patterns to capture subtle variations within a shorter loop, but not I find Iām using very short 8, 7, 9 , 16 step loops and using cond trigs to add the variation. This doesnāt exist at all on the TR-8S and again you have to use the pattern variations to get those subtle differences.
The other thing I miss on TR-8S over RYTM are the funky synth engines that can produce some very unpredictable results (IE: the fm style snare and BD). Also the ability to bring the LFO into almost FM territory is great.
TR-8S does have the wicked per track insert effect and a dedicated control knob for this + itās plockable ā¦ thats dope. I do however miss the overdrive send per track on RYTM and that bitrate reduction on samples is dope. TR-8S has this, but you lose the insert effect.
Sorry for such a long post, but ya Iāve been thinking about this a lot lately. I donāt like to have very many pieces of gear in my studio or out there for live (my live rig is a flight case with the mk1 dark trinity permanently mounted in it). I also prefer not to have multiple devices that serve the same purpose so Iāve been really comparing these two at great length and scrutiny ! For me eventually one must go ā¦ it feels like RYTM is still my heartās fav, but OOOOHHH the sound quality on TR-8S ā¦ mmmmmmmm
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THANK YOU!
This is actually very encouraging. Thanks to A4ās external inputs, I could probably get by with just TR-8S as my sound card input, using A4 over OB with my Monologue coming into the A4 external input.
My main hope was that it was less latency than Overbridge.
Well then scratch what I just said! This is real groovy, I didnāt realize the TR-8S external inputs fed into USB. Ultra groovy!
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Not only does it have inputs, but they run through the master FX (compressor I use mostly) and there is a master limiter on the TR-8S. This isnāt mentioned anywhere it was an added surprise. I can run RYTM, OT, A4 into the TR-8S super hot and it doesnāt clip. This might finally be my solution for live gigs where I am mixing into/out of DJ sets. Previously I always felt my mk1 dark babies were too quiet so I bring a FMR Audio RNC and a SA Kingmaker Fuzz used in saturation and boost mode to act as a mastering chain and get me up to commercial level into the DJ mixer. TR-8S might get to commercial level on itās own mmmmmmmm
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I ended up getting a tr8s and kept it for about 4 months before selling it.
loved the ACB sounds (agree about the high end) and faders and knobs, I appreciated the fill and variation chaining and ability to edit variations before playing them, but I missed far too much the rytmās plocks and conditrigs and UI feel and how easily you can fuck with the fx and panning and so on. and I hated those gigantic plastic step buttons, and I hated diving through that 90s Emu rack unit menu to modify anything beyond pitch amplitude and decay basically. I also felt that the button combinations were less rationally thought out than on Elektron devices, where there are usually some underlying principles behind them and often small text on the panel to guide you. not so on the 8S. also, copying patterns around was pretty convoluted to me by comparison.
I found myself spending more time menu diving on it than I did on the Rytm, oddly, because with the elektron interfaces you build up a subliminal mental map of how the different views relate to the encoders, but with the TR8S I just couldnāt see myself ever getting more efficient at scrolling through options to scroll through parameters to scroll through values. itās archaic shit that should have no place today.
I decided in the end that Iād rather just EQ my rytm to split the sound difference and stick with the sequencer that brings out my creativity the most. having a good relationship with your sequencer is probably most important in drum programming, and here I gel best with the Elektron way.
btw, you definitely can set tracks to different lengths. I canāt remember how to do it but maybe something like hold track button + press step number. ĀÆ_(ć)_/ĀÆ
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