Roland
R-8
Human Rhythm Composer
The R-8 was the standard studio drum machine of the early '90s (and to a degree, is still used today). The editing possibilities are incredible, the sounds are very good, and can be expanded with many PCM cards that make this unit truly flexible. The "Ethnic" and "Dance" cards in particular are sought after. The sounds in ROM are also very high-quality, and focus mostly on rock and Latin genres. No electronic sounds or special FX on board - you have to buy the cards or the R-8MkII, which had a larger ROM that included those sounds.
Let's listen to the on-board demonstration song, song 0 "JUNGLE":
As you can hear, this great demo-song focuses on the amazing editing possibilities of the machine and pad-assigning features. You hear sounds that sound like exotic birds, gun shots, marimbas and bells, but they are all part of the basic ROM sounds. They are edited and modified to achieve those effects - great job, Roland programmers.
And here below you can listen to the factory patterns - I recorded four measures for each pattern. I cut the .mp3 samples very accurately in Sound Forge so they loop perfectly, in case you want to use them with your sequencer :-)
R-8 Preset Patterns (all patterns were recorded at 120BPM for sampling convenience.) (Press "PATTERN" and then "4" to access the factory preset patterns):
Stream all preset patterns below:
| Preset name with .mp3 sample | My comments |
| 00 8BEAT1 | Standard, classic rock rhythm. |
| 01 8BEAT2 | Similar to the above, with a darker drum set. |
| 02 8BEAT3 | Tight rhythm, tight set. |
| 03 8BEAT4 | Great pattern; powerful, with gated snare. |
| 04 16BEAT1 | Classic 16th rhythm. |
| 05 16BEAT2 | Similar to the above, with a nice open hat and a warmer drum set. |
| 06 16BEAT3 | Awesome, groovy. This would work well for many genres (with -/+ BPMs) |
| 07 DISCO1 | Classic late '70s club rhythm, complete with open hats and claps. |
| 08 DISCO2 | A variation on Disco1. This disco meets P-Funk. |
| 09 SLOWROCK | A somewhat weak pattern, let down by the rim shot. |
| 10 SHUFFLE1 | Classic blues/rock blues pattern. Very useful. |
| 11 SHUFFLE2 | The blues pattern. |
| 12 FUNKY1 | Definitely funky and swingy. |
| 13 FUNKY2 | See above, this time with ride cymbal. |
| 14 FUNKY3 | Very aggressive rhythm, this will work well in many genres (funk, rap, industrial...) |
| 15 OLDIES1 | Very cool rhythm. Notice how great the resolution of this machine is, and the "Human Rhythm factor" in this pattern. |
| 16 OLDIES2 | Although a little slow (for my decision to sample everything at 120), this is nice. Reminds of the classic Motown rhythms. |
| 17 OLDIES3 | A "twist" rhythm. Useful for Ska, also. |
| 18 METAL1 | Highly produced hard-rock pattern. Typical of the time this machine was produced. |
| 19 METAL2 | Ride cymbal variation of the above. |
| 20 SWING1 | Awesome cool, relaxed jazz rhythm. This sounds very real, with the exact pan-pot positioning in the stereo field, from the drummer's perspective. |
| 21 SWING2 | Classic jazz rhythm. Think the '40s, on the hi-hat only. You can notice the great recording of these samples (use some headphones for best effect), with a nice room ambience - it sounds so real. |
| 22 BOSANOVA | This rhythm is a typical bossanova, but employs a bass drum that is too "hard", in my opinion. |
| 23 MAMBO | Fantastic latin rhythm! You could fool a lot of people in believing it's the real thing - congas, bell, maracas and all. |
| 24 MERENGUE | Similar to the above but with a different flavor. Again, this rhythm should be faster (Merengue usually is), but I recorded it a 120BPM. |
| 25 RHUMBA | Wow, this is great and reminds me of Martin Denny's albums! |
| 26 BEGUINE | Classic '50s rhythm. |
| 27 SAMBA | Divine rhythm! Note in particular how well the cabasa is programmed! Realistic, huh? And the floor toms give it a great "Rio De Janeiro streets" feel. |
| 28 SALSA | This sounds more like a Samba, not Salsa... |
| 29 TANGO | Nice military feel, a bit repetitive. |
| 30 REGGAE | Very good reggae pattern. |
| 31 COUNT | Useful as intro, or metronome. |
And now for your sampling pleasures,
here are the original drum samples sampled at 44.1kHz, normalized and trimmed
in Sound Forge. Assign
them to your favorite hardware or software sampler, and you'll have a virtual
R-8 (with basic ROM sounds) at your disposal.
R-8 Drum Samples (44.1MHz, stereo, .wav files in a .zip folder)
front panel left display
drum pads back
panel
| Features at a glance | |
| Year of release: | 199_ |
| Polyphony: | __ |
| Display: | yes, LCD, black characters on green background. Non-lit. LCD contrast on the back of unit. |
| Preset Patterns: | 32 patterns in ROM; a total of 99 available. |
| Pads: | yes, 16 |
| Pads respond to velocity: | yes |
| Pads respond to aftertouch | no |
| Sound generation method: | PCM |
| MIDI: | in, out, thru |
| Sound expansion capabilities: | 1 slot for ROM card; 1 slot for RAM card. |
| Outputs: | 8 separate outputs; phones |
| Effects: | no |
| Controls: | 2 sliders; buttons; on-board drum pads |
| Pedal controls: | Value (EV-5, 10); Start/Stop foot switch |
| Tape Sync: | yes: in, out |
| Dimensions: | |
| Weight: | |
Roland R-8 initialization:
To initialize the Roland R-8 to factory settings:
Hold both "CURSOR/PAGE" and "PARAMETER/SELECT" while powering up (the display will show "SYSTEM INITIALIZE --> --> Press ENTER.); press ENTER twice.
Links
| SITE | Type of resource | DESCRIPTION |