It's a good machine. The sequencer alone would be sufficient to make it worth the money. It can transmit midi notes so you can use it to sequence any gear (Nowadays people propably use computer for that, but I'm old school). The basic sounds without the cards are bit boring but use an analog filter and some effects like delay and it comes alive.
Rating: 3 out of 5
posted Tuesday-Jan-13-099 at 14:39
Steve
a part-time user
from USA
writes:
I bought mine used a while ago (discovered this forum recently). For people putting together simple reptitive patterns, this may be overkill. It's unbeatable for making incredibly realistic and detailed drum patterns, though. I used mine a lot for live performance and set up lenghty and detialed patterns to run for full songs (and loved being able to choose any pattern using a MIDI footboard...)
Rating: 5 out of 5
posted Tuesday-Sep-13-055 at 19:05
JT
a part-time user
from Belgium
writes:
Nice box. Very good and useable basic sounds. Easy enough to get started and put a few patterns / songs together.
The 70 or so sounds are excellent. I also got 6 sounds cards thrown in - about 30 sounds on each, including the excellent Ethnic and Jazz Brush, and the classic 808 and 909 cards.
Then you can tamper and tinker with everything until you go deaf. Like anything this complex, you'll have to spend a lot of time with the manual experimenting.
4/5 because there's a better drum machine available. The R8 is short of sounds and short of memory by comparison. If you get a R8-II, you get 200 sounds and double the memory. Well worth the extra you pay.
Rating: 4 out of 5
posted Monday-Mar-21-055 at 12:12
Stefan Price
a hobbyist user
from U.K.
writes:
I bought the R-8 in the summer of 1990, I still think it beats everything today. It is kept out in a garage in below zero temperatures year after year, but when I switch it on, it still works like a goodun! Brilliant!
Rating: 5 out of 5
posted Sunday-Jan-30-055 at 10:36
Gerry Parsons
a hobbyist user
from Canada
writes:
Is there anyway to have the 'roll'(fill) feature on the Roland R-8 controlled by a foot pedal? This would be a great convenience for live performance.
Rating: 0 out of 5
posted Wednesday-Aug-25-044 at 08:42
listings
