firstly... the PADS are AWESOME. no - they aren't all fluffy and MPCish.. but they give it a HUMAN FEEL. it is very apparent why they call this a HUMAN RHYTHM COMPOSER - it has an intimate non-mechanical feel to it, unlike anything else.

the sounds.. COULD YOU REALLY ASK FOR ANYTHING BETTER? in terms of digital samples... these are the BEST i've heard.. and the ability to edit them and their parameters is AWESOME.

programability.. well of course the Sequencer rocks as i said before. Anyone who cannot figure it out, probably has not had much experience in Drum machine step/tap/grid programming. its awesome. LOTS of options too.. I just think its very personable. the Feel patches ROCK!! (can anyone say I.D.M. ??) and how about that Velocity Sensitivity? eh?

why they stopped making these to go on and make crap like the dr5 and dr202 i will never understand. i'll probably never use another drum machine in my life (unless i get the kick to sample live drums)... this thing is hands down THE BEST. i know several people that wanted an MPC for drums.... but found the R8Mk2 and aren't looking back for one second. the Mk1 ain't bad either if you have the Dance card..

oh yea - how about that bass guitar?? and you can bet the farm that this is used on a good percentage of todays hip-hop r&b.

a bajillion stars

it almost seems like when they made this machine, they never even imagined that anyone would use the machine primarily as a sound generator. and i'll tell you right now, coming from the dr-660 and now the 770, unless you're going to use the internal sequencer in this machine, DON'T BUY IT!

instead of modifying the way PADS affect the SOUNDS that they're assigned to, you modify the SOUNDS themselves. this means that if you have another PAD in that KIT (or any of the other *5* possible kits) that uses that same SOUND, it will sound exactly the same. terrible.

AND! if that wasn't enough, midi note numbers are assigned to the SOUNDS themselves, and not to the PADS within KITS! WHAT?!

anyway, the machine is great except for very a very very very poor OS. i reccomend it if you plan on using the internal sequencer. (10 outs, yikes!)

Huge pitch range for editing, incredibly Hi-Fi sound, great cymbals and kiks and the best nuance feels for making patterns randomize their timing and hit strength continuously...nothing else does what the R8 can do...love it as I'm a drummer of 20 years and this machine has helped me get heaps of programming jobs where a keyboard player (with no idea about rhythm and detail) would usaually get called in...got to have all the cards...the ethnic percussion stuff is incredible too as you can here the room they were recorded in!!

My Jupiter 8 power slammed it from on high and it has no screen anymore and LCD wasted but still works fine! Gotta memorize button presses to get around the menus now. Been tracking a new screen for the last 3 years...found one! The R8MK2 screen fits right in and managed to get a front cover from Japan too!!!

Ahh...special