Roland R-8
Encyclopedia
The Roland R-8 is an electronic drum machine
that was introduced in 1988 by Roland Corporation
. It has features such as velocity and pressure sensitive trigger pads, slots for expanding the sounds with removable ROM cards, and the ability to create loops of beats. It also has 8 individual outputs, 32 voice polyphony and 4-part multitimbral MIDI.
Existing cards:
It has been called "One of the very best drum machines ever" by Vintage Synth Explorer.
Drum machine
A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument designed to imitate the sound of drums or other percussion instruments. They are used in a variety of musical genres, not just purely electronic music...
that was introduced in 1988 by Roland Corporation
Roland Corporation
is a Japanese manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, electronic equipment and software. It was founded by Ikutaro Kakehashi in Osaka on April 18, 1972, with ¥33 million in capital. In 2005 Roland's headquarters relocated to Hamamatsu in Shizuoka Prefecture. Today it has factories in Japan,...
. It has features such as velocity and pressure sensitive trigger pads, slots for expanding the sounds with removable ROM cards, and the ability to create loops of beats. It also has 8 individual outputs, 32 voice polyphony and 4-part multitimbral MIDI.
PCM Sound cards
The Original Roland R-8 drum machine had one RAM card slot for patterns and songs and one slot for PCM ROM sound cards to be plugged in order to add a wide range of sounds to the internal sound banks. The R8M rack version allows up to three PCM ROM cards and one RAM card to be plugged in and accessed simultaneously.Existing cards:
- Roland SN-R8-01 - Contemporary Percussion
- Roland SN-R8-02 - Jazz Brush
- Roland SN-R8-03 - Sound Effects
- Roland SN-R8-04 - Electronic (Resembles a TR-808Roland TR-808The Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer was one of the first programmable drum machines . Introduced by the Roland Corporation in early 1980, it was originally manufactured for use as a tool for studio musicians to create demos. Like earlier Roland drum machines, it does not sound very much like a real...
) - Roland SN-R8-05 - Jazz
- Roland SN-R8-06 - Ethnic Percussion
- Roland SN-R8-07 - Mallet
- Roland SN-R8-08 - Dry
- Roland SN-R8-09 - Power Drums U.S.A.
- Roland SN-R8-10 - Dance (Resembles a TR-909Roland TR-909The Roland TR-909 Rhythm Composer is a partially analog, partially sample-based drum machine built by the Japanese Roland Corporation in 1983. The brainchild of Tadao Kikumoto, the engineer behind the Roland TB-303, it features a 16-step step sequencer and a drum kit that aimed for realism and...
) - Roland SN-R8-11 - Metallic Percussion
It has been called "One of the very best drum machines ever" by Vintage Synth Explorer.