Roland R-8M

Rack unit, three slots dedicated to sound cards (cfm) and a slot for a memory card (RAM), six buttons, sliders, a small screen, a volume knob and a headphone output, all in front.
Rear panel, two stereo mix outputs (Right, left mono), six separate outputs (1-6) and three twelve o'clock taken (in, out, thru).
No effects but can settings on each sound as panning, duration, tone, etc ...
Ability to create your own patches by blending sounds cards and those already existing in the rack.

UTILIZATION

From cursor buttons to scroll the different pages that lead to different functions (like a family tree), it is a bit tedious and the narrowness of the screen does not make things easy.
There are two modes of use, for a quick start and a (thicker) for further handling.
I did not even help the big record for most machines of that era worked like that.

SOUNDS

For sound, there is plenty to do, the interest is to acquire different cards as they are published by styles (Electronics, ethnic, sound effects ...) in order to have "anything to anything" they are still not very expensive.
Sounds (16 bits) are velvet and realistic enough ... Roland.
For my part I mostly use the sounds of the TR808 and ethnic sounds coming cards.

OVERALL OPINION

For over twenty years I have, the sound quality "ROLAND" and quantity related maps, and separate machine outputs are its main assets.
Impossible to separate myself saw the price for resale, I lose more than I would gain only.
Attention acquire cards is very important, with only the factory sounds, it is a bit tight.

a 1U rack roland ultra strong and deep facade:
- Some buttons (6 to break everything, too little elsewhere)
- A nice bright LCD screen period
- And especially 4 card slots SN (additional sounds including the famous SN04 we shall return) + 1 memory card slot

behind: input output noon, stereo and 6 individual outputs mono! that's good, unlike the Roland R8 (which I've had for some time) the internal power supply life-changing. I love this little rack

sounds are included in kits (internal and external kits on cards, famous maps SN) can edit kits and sounds, it included no effect gross lot

Wholesale: outputs are excellent (8 outputs for drums it does) in exchange editing is not great, but are not intuitive enough though and finely> note 7

UTILIZATION

to play the drum quickly ca is fast, midi channel assigned, it trig sounds after selecting the proper kit via midi (master keyboard sequencer)

manual clear, menus are relatively simple simpler than the R8 also what is not a bad thing.

for this effect is not present, there is no effect. basically it is almost plug n play. except that you can not play with Controls exchange facade. It is Verily beast, but a cheap MIDI controller will transform the rack bete scene


My only concern: inability to assign a midi channel by its (limited to 4 channels) and it's a hassle to configure ca. but if you do not need to use multiple midi channels> assured happiness.

the big advantage is the sound editing in the menus you can edit the ADSR and it's quite nice, add to that the pitch (yes we can) and especially the processing is done at the speed of Flash. the R8 had the reputation of being ultra fast and ultra precise> is true

I put 8> it's still very good ... and yet BAR I had a few.

SOUNDS

here is the interesting game. I loved my R8 for its sequencer and SN 04 small card (mandatory us ca worth much this little thing!)

good internal sounds are original (include whoever wants to) seek some other ca ...
However I have 2 cards the brush and SN 04. The brush is the jazz map that honestly make me énormememnt services. move quickly, but honestly it's worth it compared to all the other non-SN 04.

BUT, with SN04, we put a live TR 808 in the engine and frankly the fact GRAAVE ca. of course it does not sound like a real TR, but it's all the same made by roland in a box roland rhythm with samples of TR 808 made by Roland roland! wholesale ca rest of ROLAND!
seriously, I love this little card on the Bass drum that gives me a big shot of drone when I push a little volume, it lacks some good sounds but nothing serious is essential.

OVERALL OPINION

Presques two years, but the R8 I got 3 years, I tortures and she likes it. some will miss the sequencer his little sister and hard pads, but today everyone (or almost) uses sequencers apps or samples (I used a good cirklon of sequentrix because I'm a little old diet).

I also had a lot of samplers which remain active at home (emu akai roland ensoniq) but my R8M it remains in a rack warm for a while because I admit that I sampled excessive. once she serves me less despite its qualities and my samplers I retain less (except my S5000 with 16 outputs, and my EMU Ensoniq ASR my 10 R)

a beautiful rack, whose physical size is not the taste of the day (no more than stuff in desktop format sale today)

a great opportunity to have a ROLAND its quality and dedicated especially for the price, given the odds of TR and for those who do not need the step sequencer, the question arises especially today