Roland TR-8S

Microtribe · July 23, 2020, 9:34pm

Ive had both. Got rid of the AR, still have the TR8-S.
Well in terms of playing it, yes. TR8-S is way more immediate. Faders, knob per function, you dont need to select a page to tweak a parameter as you do on elektron stuff.

Setting up your kit takes a bit of time. But once its done, all good. Editing a variation while another one is playing is way cool. AR cant do that.

Sure, the AR wins on synthesis and weird sound design. TR8-S wins for speed of patterm writing and playability though. At least for me.

The sound quality if the TR8S is insane. With the AR, you are very dependant on the screen to know where you are. With the TR8-S… what you see is what you get.

elenacortes · July 24, 2020, 6:02pm

Thanks all of you for your vision and experience.
@dcullina : yes I think that faders are a great advantage.
@Synthastic, yes the Tr8s seems to be really easy to be learned. Seems that tweaking and programming sound is more complexe due to UI an little screen, that’s a problem in live situation. Programming and tweaking sound is the DNA of AR.
@finalform, I thought that there was not a real difference when starting from blank pattern. I saw a lot of videos and on both you have to select the track and record the trigs, on both too, they can be recorded on the fly. Thanks for confirmation. You’re right too about the main difference in the performance : some actions have to be programmed when preparing the kits in AR, those same actions can be improvise thanks to the faders and unmute/mute button on Tr8s. That’s an important fact. When playing with AR, complexe evolution must be thought previously. More confortable. I’m pretty fluent with AR, and able to quickly program Scenes or Perf, but it needs not to be too much busy during performance because it can involve lot of tweaking and increase the probability of mistakes.
@Microtribe, the sound quality and the dynamic seems at the rendez-vous. I think it’s the same for the ability of it’s sound to be easily out of the mix. What I see is what I get is an important factor in the fog of action during live performance.
Futhermore, the main ability is the possibility to write variation while pattern is playing. It’s a fantastic weapon that Elektron can’t do. The fills in AR cannot plainly replace that. Maybe a game changer
Well all your entries far from simplify my vision maintain the doubt. The problem is to choose the right set-up for techno drum machine and work with it to be ready playing improvisation.

Thank you for having take time to answer.

Schnork · July 28, 2020, 1:26pm

Do mutes on the TR8s immediately cut off audio or do they mute the trigger, leaving sample/acb engine/fx tail to play out?

vegeta897 · July 28, 2020, 5:56pm

Mute mode mutes the trigger, not the audio.
A quick whip down of the fader will mute the audio.

Schnork · July 28, 2020, 8:14pm

Perfect! That‘s what I had hoped for. Thx

Schnork · August 1, 2020, 7:15am

One more question about the variations. It´s impressive, that we get 8 variations (that can be chained) per pattern, 16 patterns per bank and 16 banks (per project I guess?), but what about saving those chains of variations? Is it possible? When I change to another pattern, it will always loop 16 steps and I´d have to chain variations manually?

I´m thinking about something along the lines of Elektronss pages. I usually work with 64 steps master length on OT, 64 steps on AK so having the TR8s automatically recall chained variations would be great.

it´s not really clear from the manual.

Microtribe · August 1, 2020, 7:42am

If you have the variations chained, then save the pattern, when recalled, the variation chain will also be recalled.

Schnork · August 1, 2020, 8:03am

Perfect, thx.

Kinda bugs me, that they linked the motion recording to the ctrl knob, so gotta choose that wisely.
Would have made sense to record the ctrl knob, change parameter assignment, do another motion recoding etc. but you can‘t have it all and it seems the TR8S does a lot really well…

Microtribe · August 1, 2020, 8:29am

Totally agree that the motion recording is a bit meh, I dont really use it. But I’ve had electribes, and they have their annoyances too. I sometimes yen for one, but honestly, I dont think I would want another elektron. Ive got an octatrack, a digitone. That covers pretty much everything. For just straight up drums that sound amazing with bugger all effort, this machine rules. The layout is great, everything is easy to get a hand on, I like that you dont ever have to look at the screen when playing.

digiwut · August 11, 2020, 7:15am

finalform · August 11, 2020, 7:27am

FM synth instruments… Did not see that coming.

Microtribe · August 11, 2020, 7:55am

Hellyeah!

jottwehh · August 11, 2020, 7:58am

So it’s basically an M:C + M:S in one box now?!

Microtribe · August 11, 2020, 8:02am

The extended reload functions just made it proper jammable… if that’s even a word.
Well i know what I’m doing tonight… uploading new firmware hubba hubba

acidhouseforall · August 11, 2020, 9:04am

Just downloaded in installed… fantastic update, great sounds.

Damn, many of these sounds are what I want in the M:C… Time to work on a machine upadte Elektron !

Uzinusa · August 11, 2020, 9:07am

Awesome news for a Tuesday! TR-8S rocks even more with this update. Thanks for posting.

vegeta897 · August 11, 2020, 9:17am

Holy shit, what?

I thought at most Roland would put out a small hotfix or two before support was eventually dropped. But wow. This is super awesome.

gerkinear · August 11, 2020, 9:27am

Ey, this is great news!

acidhouseforall · August 11, 2020, 9:46am

Too bad that now the [ctrl select + ctrl knob] changes the value WHILE the param is selected, that makes the shortcut unusable. Need a fix.

vegeta897 · August 11, 2020, 9:57am

Step sequencing the morph parameter on these FM tones is really cool. You can make really unique organic patterns with this. The depth of this machine has really reached a new level.