I bought an R-8 last summer, some of those sounds still sound realistic even by today's standards. I also love the contrasting grey casing and black buttons on these older Roland units. The late 80s and 90s was definately the golden age of music production and this sort of gear still sounds good in modern productions. I also have an Alesis SR-16.
I know A gentleman who did major damage with the R8. He had that Raw Pete Rock type sound that was to die for. Drum beats jumped out the speakers like Scorpion's "GET OVER HERE"
ich hatte eine R8, für meine Band für das Schlagzeug mit Schocksensoren ausgestattet. War damals der Hit. Jetzt habe ich mir vor ein paar Jahren wieder eine Gebrauchte gekauft. ;))
+DJRexParis would it be possible to do a video tutorial and walk thru of programming the R8, chaining sequences together, and adding efx? Also using the step sequencer
I just watched your video clip on the R-8, which it appears you know how to create your own patterns. I recently purchased a used R-8 and having a hard time trying to figure out how to use the machine, particularly creating my own patters. The drums keypad sounds (at power-up) are acceptable, but I can't figure out how to create my own patters, just figured out how to play back preset patterns that programmed from the factory etc. I would like to know how to get started to create my own patterns to jam along with, but can't figure it out. In fact, I cant figure out how to even get the metronome started to try to create a pattern, I think in my opinion that the manual (though fairly straight forward) it is missing the essential basics for creating patterns etc. Any help would greatly be appreciated!
I had already commented on your posting as I was not aware that I could have connected with you here. Anyway, if you look at your video tutorial at the comments below that, you will see my comment seeking help.....Cheers!
i think the best for you is to look in the us market, should be same voltage as haiti right? and the cheapest transport costs! from europe to haiti you pay nearly the same price for delivery as for the r8 and then need a voltage converter and adapter.
Hi Nathan, welcome to my channel.I think the Internet is the place, the Powersupply is special, i never saw other supplies for the R8 than the once from Roland. Maybe someone here has one from a broken R8 to sell!? Good luck!
The supply is called a "Roland ACH-120". It's unfortunately a special split supply unit providing not only +10VDC at 500ma, but also -10VDC at 150ma. If you can find a mating plug, you could always take two 500ma 10VDC supplies, wire them in series, giving you a positive/negative and use the center tap as ground.
Hello! I received an email from you about helping me out with my Roland R8. I am having a hard time linking patterns together to create an entire song. I able to create 2 different patterns and would like to know how to link together, and would like to know how to make each pattern (as an example) play 12 bars (more or less) and then doing the same with another pattern and link the two together to create an entire song. It is probably very easy, but I am missing something or overlooking something that is right in front of me, per the instructional manual. Thanks for getting back to me on this. Any help, would greatly be appreciated!
Quido Song writing starts on Page 111: cdn.roland.com/assets/media/pdf/R-8MKII_OM.pdf In brief you want to hit the "song" button just below the "value" slider at top left. Hit "2" for write. If the pattern you are trying to repeat for 12 bars is the first pattern, you will need to insert a repeat "||:" symbol BEFORE the pattern by hitting "select" one time. Then advance by hitting enter, and choose the pattern number you wanted repeated. After that, hit enter again, and hit "select" twice to get to the ":|| X?" (close repeat) symbol and tell it how many times you want to repeat with the +1 -1 keys. Keep hitting enter and adding patterns. Don't forget that before any pattern(s) you want repeated you must first put in a "||:" symbol before that pattern(s). If you want the whole thing to repeat, since you can have a few nested repeats, just insert a repeat in front of everything, and a close repeat at the end of every pattern. Tell it how many times to repeat. Bang. (the manual actually makes it sound like telling it the number of repeats is optional, but it unfortunately doesn't seem to be. so no endless looping a song)
+N ic (K) I forgot to tell you that I have the R8 and not the R8 MKII. The two drum machines must differ somewhat. As for the song write portion in my manual, that starts on page 125/126 and not page 111 and I am not sure what symbol you are talking about either, as I do not see that with my machine???? Do you have any video tutorials of how to create a song, step by step with created patterns???? That is what I need to know how to do, just step by step instructions???? I can create patterns, but creating a song with those created patterns, is what I am having a hard time understanding on how to do...I have actually created 5 patterns, which are stored on user patterns 40, 41, 42, 43 and 44 and these are the patters I would like to link together, to complete a song I am trying to write. I am so close, but yet so far from understanding how to do this???? Please advise???
Quido page 125 in that pdf IS page 111 of the manual. I have the R8 as well. The MKII just had different sound sets i believe. Anyway, I haven't even powered my machine on in a *while*. ... but look at page 113 in the manual for reference and essentially the simplistic version of the process is Press SONG Press 2 Write (on lcd) Pick the pattern you want to use (on lcd) Press ENTER that advances to next pattern and you choose another pattern and repeat until you are done. Then play the song. That symbol is a repeat symbol that you will eventually see on the LCD display once you are in Song mode. You can skip that for now and just string a few patterns together without any repeats. Look at my original comment to figure it out, thats why i wrote it. :D cheers man.
No it's not broken, look for "Shift" + Metronome set be aware of all the shift options and also be aware that no other piece of gear works quite like this one, you are going to have to learn it from the beginning past experience with Drum machines won't help with the R8
@Wladimir Figueroa as far as i know roland uk were the last who had it for sale, at all others it dissapeared 10 years ago, the r8 is now more than 30 years old. so if uk has no stock, the best will be to buy it used from people who have a faulty R8, but i never came across a damaged R8. good luck!
+rozz3r Thanks rozz3r! You are right -->Go to Pattern mode, choose a pattern, Shift+Clear, enter the number of bars then press ENTER. You can go up to 99 Bars!!!!!!
to do this you need to erase a track even if it already empty. Then move the underscore onscreen with the -> right arrow Down near the bottom in the small buttons area) untill it is under the bars number. appy music making. I ope this helps.
Hi to Argentina! The Sounds in the Video are R8 only, all the cards as far as i remember had 26 samples but i used non of it in the video.Some cards were great, but most of the card i would not miss too much today (with the exception of 3 of them).All the best!
