Demo | Roland R-8 Factory Reset & Instrument Assignments 

Thanks for the instant reply i own a Roland R 5 and i would like to know if the same exact sound set is built in the R8 as well, yes there is no direct reference to the names of the sounds for copyright issues but i think the R5 "electronic" patches are sampled from a Simmons sds brain, kick/snare and toms hi/med/low.

They're hugely deep drum machines, I'm sure most people get then for the Autechre connection but barely get past the Downward Spiral-esque detuned snares!! Feel never seems to work on mine, unless it's *really* subtle. A walkthrough with it working would be great. Other than that: external midi out (they're great for sequencing other kit but I've not seen anyone demo it on yt), pitch/parameter modulation on sounds (precursor to Elektron's parameter locking stuff), and then macros. I think a lot of people see "macro" and think it's a sequencer in a sequencer, get to the manual and promptly give up... there don't seem to any videos demoing what they actually are on the R8..!

Those are great suggestions for another R-8 video (or series). I do think the 'feel' choices are often subtle, as I've had to make bold adjustments to really make them obvious. I think that is kind of the beauty of that option. But yes a demo of 'feel' and macro functions and the MIDI stuff will be in an upcoming video. Glad to know you're enjoying your R-8, Ben. Stay tuned and thanks for you support.

The R-8 and R-5 do have different sound sets. Both great, really. I do agree that the electronic toms/kick/snare on the R5 do sound like classic Simmons drums and probably are samples of those mid-80s Simmons SDS kits. They are really cool and I do wish they were on the R-8.

No problem 👍

Christian, I am happy to hear that this video helped you out; the R-8 is a remarkable (if not complex) and underrated classic. Enjoy!

While I don't see a specific mention of Simmons in R-5 and R-8 manuals, it appears that there is an 'electronic kick, snare and toms' on the R-5. Can't say if they are sampled from Simmons or not. The R-8 has no such listing for electronic drums. The SN-R8-04 Electronic Card and SN-R8-10 Dance card may be as close as it comes for adding something resembling electronic drums to the original R-8. The R-8mkII includes 808, 909 and CR78 sounds, but nothing that indicates Simmons specifically.

Excellent question David. I don't know if someone makes the chip to pop in the R8. I had owned several R8 machines at one point and I keep the unit having the latest OS of 2.11. REVERB searches have yielded no results to date that point to a OS 2.11 vendor.

@@vintageMIDI I have 2 R8's. one 2.11 and one 2.02. The 2.02 unit has the Space Invaders screen. The 2.11 doesn't. There are multiple places on ebay you can get the 2.02 chip and they all say the 2.02 chip is the last chip they put out.

Sounds from ROM cards are assigned to pads. You can then save the set up, complete with MIDI note mapping for those assignments.