I had the R5, the cut down version of the R8 for years. Absolutely loved it, and even to this day I think the cymbal samples are better sounding than modern samples. I sometimes mix a VST drum kit with R8 cymbal samples, and it sounds great! A couple of the kick, snare and tom samples are still usable too, although many are terribly dated, of course!
@@peterfuzz3887 I seem to remember that it did, I think you use the data slider to control it. The R5 was great... except no soundcards/new samples and only 4 outputs. The little screen is actually cleverly used, so not a major drawback IMO
Yes, I was a master user of this and a professional producer for rap labels in the 80's and 90's.. I used the R-8 and Roland Workstation.. I KILLED bear makers who used Akai MPC and SP 1200.. this machine made me different in sound!! I love it
in the electronic tribes of my generation knows it is the best in all senses, but not that affordable at that time. I had the "dark green" (first version) and the "black one" (mkII), and I confess that I use their samples even nowadays. Maschine from Native Instruments is the only software I think is likely R-8. I can control everything I used to do in the hardware of R-8, plus some more controls. and yes, R-8 by Roland IS A CLASSIC!
Nice overview. R-8 certainly had it's own sound. Each sound had two samples (high & low) and cross-faded between them based on velocity curves, which along with variances in pitch, gave it a more 'real' sound. I still use a TD-7 in my rack, which uses the same architecture.
Thanks for the feedback, Paul. Agreed. The cross-faded samples per instrument with v-curves and pitch variations did quite a bit to separate the R-8 from the pack at the time. I was unaware that the TD-7 was the same implementation as the R-series, which just goes to show how game-changing the R-8 precedent was for its time. Appreciate the additional info.
Agreed; the value slider can act as a creative realtime controller when programming. There's an amazing amount of depth to the R-8 that put it ahead of its time.
The R-8 is a worthy input device for recording rhythms into a PC based or stand-alone sequencer. It can also be locked-in-sync via MIDI to modern software, like Logic Pro (which is my preference). If one does not need the drum machine functionality of the R-8, the R-8M is the same sound set without the ability to make patterns and songs --- perfect for computer-based sequencing.
I've bought this machine recently, when you trigger it externally it plays nicely in time, with my setup the clock has the tendency to lag behind when you sync it to an external source. You can get very cool effects with the slider (as demonstrated in David Morley's video on YT) There's people that do mods to install different sound kits in the machine so if you get an MK1 you could get this mod done instead of chasing the difficult to find dance and electronic sound cards. Cool machine sounds great
Slightly misleading: The R-8 is *not* able to "add a Groove to performances". The only real-time target parameters are (4:07) Velocity, Pitch, Decay, Nuance. The "Groove" is a source, not a target! It is actually a synced LFO (with fully editable steps) that is used to influence the target parameters. This seems to be often misunderstood.
You explained that well and I did not in the video. I believe the following link from the manual has a visual that adds to your explanation. www.manualslib.com/manual/691656/Roland-R-8.html?page=109#manual Appreciate the clarification.
@@vintageMIDI Yes, that's the one! I'll make a video about this one day, as the Human Rhythm functionality has always fascinated me. It's an interesting product of its time's limitations. Nowadays with round-robin samples and filters it would probably not be needed anymore. Roland's TR-8s has a similar feature, but the LFO shape cannot be edited (several shapes to choose from).
If you do a video on the R-8, please post a link to it here in the comments for everyone; I'd like to see it. I enjoyed your RD-8, TD-3 and JV880/5080 videos.
thank you for the video Espen. Maybe I am missing something very simple that is right in front of my eyes, but honestly I am a bit lost and could not find the answer in the manual so please bare with me as I'm an absolute beginner. In all of my other PCM drum machines, the samples can be navigated through and are ordered by instruments BD, SD, HH etc. so far so good with the R-8. now here's the rub. In all of my other drum machines the samples are also organized and can be navigated as whole kits that are pre mapped to the pads. What am I missing here? For example, if I want a kit from the 808 samples that are on the unit do I need to manually assign each sample to a pad? and then have only 5 combinations that can be saved? I'm pretty sure I'm missing something out here. I hope that the answer is simple and that browsing the samples as kits is easy, and that it is possible to navigate between those kits in one klick. Especially if I get the WAVEREX Rom expansion card for even more samples and going to load my own samples. Sorry if I am bothering you with something that is basic, I am sitting with the manual and still can't figure this out. Thanks a lot for reading, have a great day ❤
For all the rage around the synths and beat machines of the 80ies, this masterpiece is often overseen and totally underrated. Perhaps it was released too late and could not win the battle against beats programmed on computers? At least not in the perception of many musicians and even gadget geeks of that time. Luckily, I purchased mine along with the most sought ROM cards in the early 2000s - at a ridiculously low price, when nobody wanted it. I just hope this beauty will stay alive for some more years.
I didn't know Friends theme used the R8 although I haven't heard it in a long time. I am seriously considering getting an R8 after watching other videos and comparing similar sounds in my other Roland sound modules. Another advantage with hardware is the sounds are all stored on a series of rom chips.
@@vintageMIDI I have just bought an R-8 and was lucky to not only find one in almost pristine condition but it also has a hard plastic case to store it plus 4 PCM cards and a memory card.
In 1991 i bought this R8, an man i spend hours with this machine, the Electronic romcard, oh boy, more hours, it’s sound digital dated but boy i had fun with it 😎
Nice video about such a cool instrument. So can a user store individual drum sounds onto those RAM cards, or they are only for MIDI settings and things like that?
Glad you liked the overview video. The RAM card can only store setups and patterns/songs; no individual drum sounds can be loaded or saved. The only way to have access to additional instruments to assign to the pads is by inserting 1 of 11 Roland ROM data cards. Would have been cool if user created samples could have been loaded, but for the time period that was more Akai's thing with the MPC60/S950. Roland did have their own S-series samplers at the time, but none that I know of with trigger pads in the style of a drum machine.
Does your R8 lags? mine was not really tight, sometimes too loose for recording it in some projects... R8M is much better in this regard, but damn it's not as easy and сool to edit sounds. It's tight as hell but the fun with programming sounds with slider was gone...
No lag on this R-8; perhaps it matters where it is in the MIDI chain? Feel free to post how your setup is interconnected and maybe the community can sniff out solution. The R-8m is definitely a beast to program from the front panel. Once you get into a flow, it DOES get easier. It really is a module that needs a fair bit of attention. A slider on the R-8m would certainly have solved many UI issues. Thanks for contributing to the conversation!
@@vintageMIDI even when set as master, i hear some notes lag, but when its midi slaved, its totally unusable. My unit can't handle really busy patterns, the transients sound overdriven and not good when multiple sounds are stacked. still i think R8 is amazing machine, very relevant to this day
Years ago there used to be devices that would thin MIDI data to keep modules from getting overloaded with too much (irrelevant) data. JL Cooper and Anatek made such gear. While I have no issues with my Roland R-8, I do have a Yamaha TG500 that is prone to overload/locking as it receives too much MIDI data on a daisy chain. Perhaps a MIDI patchbay or splitter would help remedy some of the issue you have. If you do find a solid solution, I'd be interested in your discoveries.
There's a video on YT from a guy that explains how to mod it with a built in 110-240V power supply Even worth the effort if you still have an original working external power brick
You wouldn't happen to have a Roland D-110 that you can pair up with this, do you? I'm wondering if it's possible to make some sweet sweet synthwave by pairing the two. The D-110 is another piece of equipment that could benefit easy to follow videos like the ones you provide on your channel.
I do not have s D-110 in my collection. But after watching AudioPilz's overview I am considering chasing one down. ua-cam.com/video/0cobwZK_LoY/v-deo.html
I had the R5, the cut down version of the R8 for years. Absolutely loved it, and even to this day I think the cymbal samples are better sounding than modern samples. I sometimes mix a VST drum kit with R8 cymbal samples, and it sounds great! A couple of the kick, snare and tom samples are still usable too, although many are terribly dated, of course!
does the R5 feature the same pitch/decay control function also ?
@@peterfuzz3887 I seem to remember that it did, I think you use the data slider to control it. The R5 was great... except no soundcards/new samples and only 4 outputs. The little screen is actually cleverly used, so not a major drawback IMO
Yes, I was a master user of this and a professional producer for rap labels in the 80's and 90's.. I used the R-8 and Roland Workstation.. I KILLED bear makers who used Akai MPC and SP 1200.. this machine made me different in sound!! I love it
*** beat makers .. lol
I can see the R-8 being a logical & creative choice for rap production, setting it apart from the MPC and SP beat makers.
How to use this
Show us some of your music you produced on this machine.
Do you have a link?
Your videos are so well put together almost reminds me of the Bad Gear channel. I hope to see more videos in the future!
in the electronic tribes of my generation knows it is the best in all senses, but not that affordable at that time.
I had the "dark green" (first version) and the "black one" (mkII), and I confess that I use their samples even nowadays.
Maschine from Native Instruments is the only software I think is likely R-8. I can control everything I used to do in the hardware of R-8, plus some more controls. and yes, R-8 by Roland IS A CLASSIC!
I've heard Maschine is a fantastic instrument. Software today can create amazing percussion sounds and rhythms.
Thank you for uploading such a good information
Nice overview. R-8 certainly had it's own sound. Each sound had two samples (high & low) and cross-faded between them based on velocity curves, which along with variances in pitch, gave it a more 'real' sound. I still use a TD-7 in my rack, which uses the same architecture.
Thanks for the feedback, Paul.
Agreed. The cross-faded samples per instrument with v-curves and pitch variations did quite a bit to separate the R-8 from the pack at the time.
I was unaware that the TD-7 was the same implementation as the R-series, which just goes to show how game-changing the R-8 precedent was for its time. Appreciate the additional info.
The End of an Era Drum Machine
You said it, brother. Miss those days.
Love this machine, especially the weird sounds one can achieve using the value slider to modify the pitch - instant Autechre vibes!
Agreed; the value slider can act as a creative realtime controller when programming. There's an amazing amount of depth to the R-8 that put it ahead of its time.
Thoughtful Clips how do you use it with new computers and technology
The R-8 is a worthy input device for recording rhythms into a PC based or stand-alone sequencer. It can also be locked-in-sync via MIDI to modern software, like Logic Pro (which is my preference). If one does not need the drum machine functionality of the R-8, the R-8M is the same sound set without the ability to make patterns and songs --- perfect for computer-based sequencing.
I've bought this machine recently, when you trigger it externally it plays nicely in time, with my setup the clock has the tendency to lag behind when you sync it to an external source. You can get very cool effects with the slider (as demonstrated in David Morley's video on YT) There's people that do mods to install different sound kits in the machine so if you get an MK1 you could get this mod done instead of chasing the difficult to find dance and electronic sound cards. Cool machine sounds great
Camiel Hermans do you have an example of anywhere that does the external kit mods?
Punchy, warm and easy to sit in a mix.
Slightly misleading: The R-8 is *not* able to "add a Groove to performances". The only real-time target parameters are (4:07) Velocity, Pitch, Decay, Nuance. The "Groove" is a source, not a target! It is actually a synced LFO (with fully editable steps) that is used to influence the target parameters. This seems to be often misunderstood.
You explained that well and I did not in the video.
I believe the following link from the manual has a visual that adds to your explanation.
www.manualslib.com/manual/691656/Roland-R-8.html?page=109#manual
Appreciate the clarification.
@@vintageMIDI Yes, that's the one! I'll make a video about this one day, as the Human Rhythm functionality has always fascinated me. It's an interesting product of its time's limitations. Nowadays with round-robin samples and filters it would probably not be needed anymore. Roland's TR-8s has a similar feature, but the LFO shape cannot be edited (several shapes to choose from).
If you do a video on the R-8, please post a link to it here in the comments for everyone; I'd like to see it. I enjoyed your RD-8, TD-3 and JV880/5080 videos.
i would love to see more r8 videos from you
Thanks for the feedback, Cary; more R-8 is on the way.
thank you for the video Espen.
Maybe I am missing something very simple that is right in front of my eyes, but honestly I am a bit lost and could not find the answer in the manual so please bare with me as I'm an absolute beginner.
In all of my other PCM drum machines, the samples can be navigated through and are ordered by instruments BD, SD, HH etc. so far so good with the R-8.
now here's the rub.
In all of my other drum machines the samples are also organized and can be navigated as whole kits that are pre mapped to the pads.
What am I missing here? For example, if I want a kit from the 808 samples that are on the unit do I need to manually assign each sample to a pad? and then have only 5 combinations that can be saved?
I'm pretty sure I'm missing something out here.
I hope that the answer is simple and that browsing the samples as kits is easy, and that it is possible to navigate between those kits in one klick. Especially if I get the WAVEREX Rom expansion card for even more samples and going to load my own samples.
Sorry if I am bothering you with something that is basic, I am sitting with the manual and still can't figure this out.
Thanks a lot for reading, have a great day ❤
For all the rage around the synths and beat machines of the 80ies, this masterpiece is often overseen and totally underrated. Perhaps it was released too late and could not win the battle against beats programmed on computers? At least not in the perception of many musicians and even gadget geeks of that time. Luckily, I purchased mine along with the most sought ROM cards in the early 2000s - at a ridiculously low price, when nobody wanted it. I just hope this beauty will stay alive for some more years.
agreed, 100%
Cool do you still have it? Hope you didn't sell it for cheap at some point
@@blakelowrey9620 Sure, I still own it. My synths and samplers are my heritage and so *me*, I won't ever sell any of them.
You never forget hearing "Jungle" for the first time
Yes! Really wacky demo and can't be mistaken for a demo on any other drum machine.
I didn't know Friends theme used the R8 although I haven't heard it in
a long time. I am seriously considering getting an R8 after watching
other videos and comparing similar sounds in my other Roland sound
modules. Another advantage with hardware is the sounds are all stored
on a series of rom chips.
You can't go wrong with the R8 if you like the retro workflow; it does one thing and it does it well. Prices are still somewhat reasonable.
@@vintageMIDI I have just bought an R-8 and was lucky to not only
find one in almost pristine condition but it also has a hard plastic case
to store it plus 4 PCM cards and a memory card.
does the R5 feature the same pitch/decay control function also ?
Recently broke mine back out. Git both electronic and dance card plus sound efx
Those are powerful cards and becoming harder to find as TR and CR drum machine prices skyrocket; this is a much more affordable solution
In 1991 i bought this R8, an man i spend hours with this machine, the Electronic romcard, oh boy, more hours, it’s sound digital dated but boy i had fun with it 😎
the early 90s was great for gear, especially from Roland and Korg
Nice video about such a cool instrument. So can a user store individual drum sounds onto those RAM cards, or they are only for MIDI settings and things like that?
Glad you liked the overview video. The RAM card can only store setups and patterns/songs; no individual drum sounds can be loaded or saved. The only way to have access to additional instruments to assign to the pads is by inserting 1 of 11 Roland ROM data cards. Would have been cool if user created samples could have been loaded, but for the time period that was more Akai's thing with the MPC60/S950. Roland did have their own S-series samplers at the time, but none that I know of with trigger pads in the style of a drum machine.
Does your R8 lags? mine was not really tight, sometimes too loose for recording it in some projects...
R8M is much better in this regard, but damn it's not as easy and сool to edit sounds. It's tight as hell but the fun with programming sounds with slider was gone...
No lag on this R-8; perhaps it matters where it is in the MIDI chain?
Feel free to post how your setup is interconnected and maybe the community can sniff out solution.
The R-8m is definitely a beast to program from the front panel. Once you get into a flow, it DOES get easier. It really is a module that needs a fair bit of attention. A slider on the R-8m would certainly have solved many UI issues.
Thanks for contributing to the conversation!
@@vintageMIDI even when set as master, i hear some notes lag, but when its midi slaved, its totally unusable. My unit can't handle really busy patterns, the transients sound overdriven and not good when multiple sounds are stacked. still i think R8 is amazing machine, very relevant to this day
Years ago there used to be devices that would thin MIDI data to keep modules from getting overloaded with too much (irrelevant) data.
JL Cooper and Anatek made such gear.
While I have no issues with my Roland R-8, I do have a Yamaha TG500 that is prone to overload/locking as it receives too much MIDI data on a daisy chain.
Perhaps a MIDI patchbay or splitter would help remedy some of the issue you have.
If you do find a solid solution, I'd be interested in your discoveries.
There's a video on YT from a guy that explains how to mod it with a built in 110-240V power supply
Even worth the effort if you still have an original working external power brick
That sounds like a fantastic solution to those hard-to-find external, proprietary power bricks. I'll have to see if I can the video you reference.
I owned the R8 back in the day. Nice box, but couldn't beat Alesis for sound quality.
The HR16 and SR16 are certainly capable machines.
You wouldn't happen to have a Roland D-110 that you can pair up with this, do you? I'm wondering if it's possible to make some sweet sweet synthwave by pairing the two.
The D-110 is another piece of equipment that could benefit easy to follow videos like the ones you provide on your channel.
I do not have s D-110 in my collection.
But after watching AudioPilz's overview I am considering chasing one down.
ua-cam.com/video/0cobwZK_LoY/v-deo.html
Only talk but no demos to show how it feel human of the R-8? Baaahhh...
future video with no talk but only demos; that's the ticket