The TR-8 is my dream drum machine. SInce I got one I have been immersed in it. The very real high quality 808, 909, 707, 727 and 606 soundset is brilliant but the real killer thing is the effects - you can add such complex and wonderful rhythmic touches into the reverb and delay times and then apply them to individual instruments and steps. Add to the that the scatter function, which can, with practice, also be used to further glitch and reverse things and you have one KILLER machine. I can't think how they can make it any better for me - perhaps a few more kits consisting of non-retro, out-there sounds. Obviously the old 909 sounds beautiful, probably better and more organic, and I could admire it for hours ... but working on new music, I'd opt for the TR-8 anyday ... it's not just replicating sounds it's a whole new instrument in itself.
I think they're just as competent as each other. Both have MIDI, so both are usable in modern setups. The 909's analogue, which is a much of a muchness if you don't have superhuman hearing. The 909 is of course a whole helluva lot more expensive, so that's out of the question if you don't have 3000 pounds spare. And the TR-8 and 8-s offer more sounds in the same unit. The almost muffled audio quality adds a nice and somewhat natural effect to the 909. So I honestly couldn't decide on which one I want. I played it safe and got the TR-09.
they can make it better by implementing LAST STEP per track/instrument, and by adding ratchets/triplets on the notes (there is a FLAM option but it sucks). You can do triplets and other time signature tempos (over 1/16th notes) in any hardware sequencer or DAW by just sending midi CC to tr8, you can do not repeat etc as well, but it would be nice if you could do that on tr8 directly
The TR-909 is my favourite drum machine of all time. It’s just the way it looks and sounds that makes it my favourite. It’s cool that you have these two awesome machines together
Yea but is it $4 grand more smudgier and organic lol. Hell for $1200-$1500 you can get a Jomox Xbase 999 thats a way fatter more organic analog drum machine. I just dont think they're so worth it at inflated prices now that listeners only listen on apple ear buds or phone speakers. Also, Im running a TR-8S through a Pendulum Audio Quartet with early 60s Amperex Bugleboys matched trio / early 60s Telefunken Silver Getter matched trio. Now, pair that vintage tube gear with the vintage 909, monsterous. Pair it with the tr-8 / tr-8s. Also monsterous to the 95th percentile, but more versatile. If I were rich, Id have: DSI Tempest, Xbase 09, Xbase 999, TR-909, for sure.
Minus the TR-8 clap, they do indeed sound pretty similar but there's a subtle difference in character between them. If you listen closely to the TR-909, the kick is something like 3-5ms ahead of the other instruments (like hat, clap etc) which gives the hats and clap an ever-so-slight 'flam' against the kick. It's such a tiny detail, but imo creates an unmistakable rhythmic charm to the groove. Especially with triplets / swing. You can replicate this with any 909 samples in Ableton by nudging the track delay of the kick drum forward by +5ms, or alternatively nudging just the clap back by -5ms.
Interesting! I suppose it's the other way around - delay everything with 3-5ms, except for the kick? Otherwise you have a drum computer that looks ahead in the future :)
This actually is emulated in tr8, if you hold ptn select when powering unit, and make sure pad 7 is lit, timing is wandering ever so slightly and resyncing every bar vs tight grid-locked play. Its almost neglicible, like few samples of drift. Tbh i keep mine locked in for more consistent recording
The 8s/6s actually has this and othercweird „errors“ of the og gear in the va enhine Like the 606 full tom and full hat. On og hardware having hi and closed same step would create a different sound, same with hi and lo toms
This is a bit like tasting wine when knowing which one is supposed to be better beforehand. To my ears there is a difference. But if we would A/B this w/o knowing which machine is which not many people would get it right. And in a mix. Hardly anyone except people with excellent hearing or knowledge of sound.
IDK witch one is suppose to be better. I'm just starting to get into Drum machines. A novice I guess. I'm sure this opinion a yr after the fact is moot but, it's fairly hard to hear any major difference to a novice anyway.
Thats why they invented good headphones m8:p but i feel ya even 3yrs later haha i own a 909 an alpha base a 999 and a rytm-mk1 and mk2. ... at the end of the day put even a small drumbrute on a sherman filterbank or a heatmk2 and add apply a small reverb and delay from a multifx filter.on its snares and toms and... would kill em all...
you had to add more decay on TR-8's kick to make sound more similar to 909. Maybe you can hear the difference when listening to them on their own, but i'm pretty sure you won't notice any difference in a mix after proper equalization and compression. As for me, TR-8 is much more useful because of its reverb/delay effects and opportunity of mixing instruments from different drum machines on one deck
I have to admit, you're right. Listening back to it I should have used more decay. Maybe it's because I was trying to keep the monitors down, to avoid spilling the sound back into my microphone... hmmmm. Maybe I have to rethink this filming setup :-)
The Ultimate Battle would be against the Steda SR-909 or the Din Sync RE-909 replicas. the circuits of both machines are pretty much identical to the TR ;)
I went into another tab and listened back and forth. I think it's just what you prefer. The TR-8 is the modern Roland sound. Brighter, Punchier. Transients cranked a bit more. I think it loses a little bit of that magical vibe analog drum machines have, but saving $4 grand... who gives a fuck. It sounds awesome and with a tiny of bit of mixing... I'm still rocking a Boss DR-550 from the early 90s and a 707 (707 can be had for around 3-500) There's tons of great analog machines for cheap. I think they're just a little more fun to play with and have more of a vibe I don't get from software. I wanna 909 bad but its really unnecessary when the TR-8 and TR-8S offer so much more flexibility. Love this battle! Dr Mix is my hero. Also, if you want analog analog vibe, get a nice vacuum tube pre for your drum machine. I run my DR-550 through my Pendulum Audio Quartet Pre/EQ/Opto-Compressor. Jesus I went off on a tangent, made the coffee too strong. Dunno wtf I'm even talking about :)
That DR550 sounds better than people think. I have other analog and digital drum machines but I always keep that little DR550MK2 around. Sometimes I throw something simple to play over instead of a click and it sounds so good I keep it in the song.
it feels like the TR-909 has some kind of compression on every drum, that TR-8 doesn't, feels tighter to me, when you started making that kick and snare at first it sounded like a cheaper version of 909, that didn't have anything special about it.. but after you made the whole drum kit, it sounded nice all together.. my opinion^^
There is absolutely no reason to pay the going rates for 909's and 808's anymore. The TR-8 sounds great and there's also thousands of high quality samples available. In addition to that, the 909 sound that we hear on old dance records is heavily edited anyway with outboard, mixer saturation, etc.The TR-8 offers so much more value than a 909, and I say this as someone who has deep respect and love for the TR-909.
+VincentsVideoVisions I agree 100% and I disagree 100%. Which is not possible but I still do. The tr8 is great and we use it a LOT. However something in the texture of the sound is not exactly the same. Yes by the end of the mixing process it's hard to tell the difference. But having produced tracks with both instruments I can definitely affirm that the original one has a natural grit and bite that the tr8 doesn't have. Can you produce great tracks with both? Absolutely yes. Is the tr8 more practical, flexible and reliable? No question. Can the tr8 replace the 909 without any loss in sound quality? No. Is it worth the price difference? Hmmmm, I'll say no. If I had cash to throw away would I buy all vintage drum machines ever manufactured? HELL YEAH! :-)
thank god there are people like this, thats how we make cash on ebay by selling "vintage" stuff then make better music with more cheap instruments from nowadays xD sure thing, if you just make music for yourself, yea its an important factor. if you want to make cash out of it... the crowd wont give a dump you brought your 909 or tr08 or whatever there is, with you, or that you have like 30 different drum machines or just a laptop in your studio
The biggest difference on 909 and 808 "clones" is always the Clap - the Claps on these old machines sound soooo roomey/reverby , just amazing ... always trying to recreate it with Plates or similiar , but its not so easy ..
Good. Though you still didn't get the kick right. Longer decay and pitch at least a third down. And then it quite would have hit the nail. Remarkable: Open HH and Cymbal still sound different than the original though close and the overall sound of the 909 to me seems duller, softer while the TR-8 offers also higher frequencies, so it might appear colder.
RU-vid will always be a flawed medium for such a comparison, so everything following that should be taken with a grain of salt. Especially as not all settings seem to line up perfectly; with a bit more work and close listening, I think it would've been even closer. But all in all *I think it's pretty damn close!* There are some differences. Most notably the TR-909 being a bit more "dulled", lacking upper frequencies compared to the TR-8. And to my ears, the TR-909 are more transient-spikey with a relatively quieter sustain, in _part_ because of less top end. Where as the TR-8 has a relatively louder sustain portion of the sound. I believe that if you were to EQ and compress them towards a middleground; TR-909 increase sustain and top end, and TR-8 reduce sustain and top end, they would be indistinguishable. Come to think of it, running the TR-8 through the SKnote Snap plugin which is a LPF-based transient designer, given freely with CM, could achieve the desired effect quite easily. It's a fair point that this shouldn't be necessary for what is billed as a near-perfect emulation, but when you're gonna EQ and compress either anyways, I don't view it as an issue. Based off the sound here, yes I prefer the TR-909, by a small margin. But I wouldn't pay 5 times as much for it, which is the current difference where I live. The TR-8 is so damn close, that I'd rather save the money, and make a little extra effort when recording and treating it. And lets not forget that the TR-8 does more besides sounding like a TR-909.
Agreed / think it is the lime green border and all those white lines / temped to paint it all black - but afraid of making it worst - still love it and I know it's an Aira thing but man Roland ...
Also, if you're far out like me, when you drop lsd, turn off the lights with the AIRA Sys-8 / TR-8S / MX-1 / TB-3. Feels like you're synthesizing music in a space ship. Namaste :P -- (However, I wish they made a whole JD series... JD-XA / JD-Xi are way prettier, and red is my favorite color)
The tr8 sounds brighter but that seems to be the norm with emulations. All sounds were good apart from the clap, which again sounded bright and didn't fit aswell. Roll on rd909.
Finding out there was a pick for vintage drum machines on GarageBand for my iPad was amazing. Sounds like the real things, lots of Roland machines and some others like linndrum. Use it all the time!
I have TR-8 and it is excellent! Not to mention 7x7 sounds plus onboard fx, makes it very powerful tool in studio and live. One can argue that it is not analog blabla. All hardware not need to be analog! I had once fully analog gear, but Im not purist 🙃🙃🙃
The difference is more noticeable than i thought - the newer unit sounds tighter and more enveloped, and the 909 sounds bigger and more saturated. Listen to the clap - the 909 trails off with a bit of reverb and the tr8 is punchy. Odd.
Honestly, to me the Tr8 does sound better. It's stable, a bit compressed meaning it's more ready to go. The tr909 sounds dull by itself if you don't add compression.
well, the classic unit sounds more subtle, smoother. dat kick in the beginning, ah. but overall, all together it sounds more dusty, back in the panorama, than modern incarnation. final mix of tr-8 sounds more stable, gritty, precise. vintage is always an old fart, you never know for how long it collected dust on the shelf and what changes in inner electronics he got. for the money it asks you could buy a bunch of modern hi-class synths, or something huge. anyway, TR-909 is a great tool, and if you already have it, use it!
I wonder what would happen if you ran the TR-8 through a bit of subtle saturation. Is that really the closest you could get with the kick - way more body and saturation on the 909.
Very close. I would have to put my headphones on to tell the difference. I see you have a Maschine. How do you like using software enabled drum machines/sequencers vs a TR-8/s type? I was thinking of picking up a Maschine Jam this month... later Maschine MK3 or used Roland TR-8.. Any suggestions?
I have the Tr 8 and for the normally Music consumer the two Machines, they don’t need to compare because they don’t hear the Difference but I remember the day were I bought Tr 8 I was a little bit disappointed. Very disappointed about the open hi hat and the snare. I don’t understand why Roland can’t Recreate his own Machines for example the hi hats are 6bit samples it can’t be so complicated to get these samples once again. The Snaredrum has not enough power. Only the Bassdrum is very noisy. You have to put the Bassdrum in the middle level of the line fader, higher level and the other instruments are so in the background, but for that price it’s a good Drum machine. And the 808 in Tr 8 the same one of the biggest reasons for the Characteristic 808sound is the cowbell ( I love it). For the people who look for the best 808 clone. There is only one decision, the Miami from Acidlab this clone sounds 100% like the original a amazing work(and of course 100% analog and All Instruments have solo output’s . The only Difference the decay of the Bassdrum it’s longer. That’s the same in the tr8 too. But two legendary Machines in one hardware for 500€ , I think that’s a good deal. Greeting’s from Daniel from Germany.
What I think is: if you are looking for a good authentic sound, wait for the Behringer RD-9 or take the pain and buy a 909. If you're looking for a very very versatile drum computer, get the TR-8S.
You got yourself one mint looking TR-909, it looks brand new, the TR-8 sounds very different, maybe a comparison with a TR-09 would of been better, I heard Roland tweaked the sounds on the TR-09 to be more like the original TR-909.
Lucklily I found a 909 for almost nothing at a flea market this summer - it was a gift from the electronica goddess and I will never sell it.That said I want a tr 09 or the tr8 because..... BUY ALL THE THINGS SON!
I challenge anyone to do a blind listen test and reliably tell the difference. The reality is that comparing any two classic 909's would show subtle differences due to tolerances of components. As a bonus, with the TR-8, you also get a passable emulation of the TR-808 and you can mix and match them in a single kit. I will agree that the look of the TR-8 is a bit garish but it's laid out well -IMO
U only need the very first kick to know the difference. Having said that - if you give more decay and drop the tune a bit on the 8 it probably would be negligeble.
The thing i hate about the tr-8 is that first off the tr-8's clap and snare sound completely off, i can get them to sound more like a real one but with processing which i don't like because i don't have something like that when you bring it somewhere to play live. Also only two individual outs and only 16 patterns that can be directly changed, I would have to get two just to get close to what the original 909 already had...
You start with a bass drum that has a different decay on the TR8 than on the TR9. And halfway all sounds on the TR8 have shorter decays... Comparison ? I make any original TR909 sound worse than the TR8. Exact the opposite way. I would like the 'believers' (the 909 sounds better...) to watch this video : a scientific blind test between stradivarius and new violins where as the outcome was that experts (!) pointed the cheaper violins as Stradivarius. The was NO reliable result that proved that the Strad was better. In that case we talk about acoustic instruments where as tonal differences are waaay bigger than in electronic instruments, let a lone in gear that is made to replicate a specific sound. In a blind test with 909 and whatever replica, you would have the same results. A 909 simply doesn't sound 'better'. All your judgements (i.e. better) are based on subjective perceptions : @
Very close. Can you please do a video with tr 909 famous patterns on a Roland tr8. I really enjoy the video you did on tr909. Now same patterns but on TR8. Thanks
I have owned an 808 and 909 and currently have the TR8. I would like to see a comparison between 2 or 3 808s. In my experience the originals differ from each other as well.
Yeah, 808's all sound a little different. I have both a TR-808 and the TR-8. The TR-8 is quite close, but some sounds are just a little different. Mostly the rimshot and cymbal. The bass drum is pretty much spot on with my real 808 though.
Why do the drums on the DR-8 always sound like a dull thud, compared with the full drums of the 909, 707 etc ... ?? Shouldn't at least be able to match the fullness of the 707, if they're both fully digital? Can't expect it to sound the same as the analog drums on the 909, sure ...
@@Memjutsu i have it and i hate the fact that you have to use kontakt (output management in your daw is a pain) i hate the memory management, you need an amazing computer. Soundwise it's great.
Yes, Individual outs sound better. I always use my TR-808 with the individual outputs in a dedicated mixer. It sounds cleaner and more refined than the mix-output. I think if he would have compared the TR-909 with individual outs to the TR-8 the sound would be closer.
+Merton Kaplan I'm using a somewhat older mixer from Roland, the M-16E. It's an analog 16-channel line-mixer with 3-band EQ with mid-sweep and 4 FX sends per channel. The results with using such mixer and the individual outputs from the TR-808 gives much better sound quality and full control over the 808 sound.
Doesn't matter so much how the tr-8 sounds when using it with a computer. You can use it as a midi controller for your high quality drum samples taken from the real deal, though there will still be differences like with the tuning etc.
I bought a knackered one for this reason, the audio outs were dead so I paid 50 quid parts only and used it purely as a midi controller for my drum racks
This is some time ago, but using a dedicated piece of hardware instead of a controller will take of some CPU load from the computer, and you don't have to wait in frustration for the computer to load and respond. Also there's a difference between Rolands modelling of every little detail and using single layer samples. Loading multi layers on a computer is a dread when not having the latest and most expensive model 😅
I would like the 'believers' to watch this video : a scientific blind test with stradivarius and new violins where as the outcome was that experts (!) pointed the cheaper violins as Stradivarius. The was NO reliable result that prooved that the Strad was better. In that case we talk about acoustic instruments where as tonal differences aer waaay bigger than in electronic instruments, let a lone in gear that is made to replicate a certain sound. In a blind test with 909 and whatever replica, you would have the same results. A 909 simply doesn't sound 'better'. All your judgements (i.e. better) are based on subjective perceptions : ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-E21NATEP9QI.html
mi comentario sera emotivo por que la tr 909 es un instrumento omnipresente en la musica electronica con sus sonidos , pero la tr 08 esta acorde con la innovacion que exite actualmente .
the song is not exactly the same, i have got a tr-8 is really cool because you can have the 7x7pack but when i can buy a original 909 i will do it for sure !
When you added the Snaredrum it fade away the Kick on Tr-8 while the Kick on the 909 was still standing! Also the Clap will never be the real thing on thosedigital machines. I am very hopefull of the RD-909 from Behringer!
Yep, I prefer the TR-808. A bit less 'dance' but a lot more versatile sound that can fit in many styles of music. The 909 sound is the iconic dance music sound, but basically limited to that style.
Have to go with the TR-8 on this one. 909 is a piece of analogue history, but TR-8 is just so much easier to get these days and it has loads of addons. A beat maker's dream machine.
Maybe you didn't adjust the TR-8 properly, I don't know, but to me the original 909 sounds better, that unmistakable hardware 909 sound is obviously hard to replicate, even for Roland's own engineers. The biggest problem is the hi hat. The TR909 hardware hi hat is the classic of all classics, and any emulation has to be EXACT, or else go home.
João Paulo Alves doesn't matter, we already knew it is 8bit. My point is the tones coming from the original hardware (even if they're 2-bit) are the bomb, and obviously Roland's latest effort to replicate them has failed. The most important sound on the entire hardware unit is the hi hat, and apparently it hasn't been successfully replicated yet. NI's software for Maschine has dedicated plugins for clap/kick/hi hat, and those do a good job of providing the staples, but can't recreate the subtle uniqueness in the hardware 909, it's hard to replicate. If you want your track to rock the house, you need the 'exact' hardware 909 hi hat sound, not an emulation. If you don't have the original 909 hardware unit, a 24bit 96kHz sample of it is the next best thing.
