It took me a while to pick up the TR8S. I already have the TR8 and felt it would be greedy to duplicate that purchase. And then because I already have the MC707 seemingly with more features than the TR8S. So I held off until a bargain came about. Then snapped!
I realised I have been dead wrong.
Certainly the older TR8 is able to do vintage drum machines just as well. If you want a TR909 replica to run through a foot pedal you’re good to go. Quick, simple, dedicated. But the TR8S is not just a drum machine, rather a whole ecosystem for rhythmic (and some melodic) composition. I’ll explain that more in a moment.
The TR8S doesn’t have all the melodic features of the MC707 (such as chords) – but a tight fit between interface and sound design means you will create more music, faster than wading through the MC707’s quicksand of settings. The micro-composer has a difficult learning curve and some major inadequacies – such as trying to design ZenCore sounds through twiddling four knobs and then not being able to store these outside of a single project.
The TR8S is the Goldilocks of the Roland bear machines.
It’s foremost a drum machine, descended from the TR808. The included sounds from the 808/909/707 et al are tweak-able (not just sampled). There are algorithmic drum sounds, mostly FM, that have a wide adjustable range of pitch and texture. And then your own samples which can be pitched (but not tweaked). Each instrument can be modulated by step or motion over the pattern, which among other things can be used to create simple looping melodies.
That compares well to the old TR machines in combination with the TB303, MC202 et al. – simple mono phrase machines that work well in dance music because they are so percussive. You’ll get a melodic groove faster than you would on these old machines, and definitely faster than the MC707. Perhaps faster than a DAW, I’m not sure. But I’m about to find out.
The FM sounds start in imitation of traditional drums, become Kraftwerkian with small adjustments, and exotic with larger ones. If you understand how FM works you’ll soon make your own simple musical instruments. Not nearly as many as the MC707 – but with a distinctive sound – and let’s be clear – a musical instrument should have a sound. That’s why we have more than one.
On that note I will keep the MC707. My goal is still to combine my sample library with synthesis, which would otherwise require a large Fantom. The MC707 has a better engine than Jupiter-X but has no keys and very few knobs. The SH-4d has the knobs but a shallower engine. All of these boxes present different dilemmas that have compositional value.
And they all talk to the MX-1 Mixer. I really only bought that to have a digital mix into my DAW on the cheap. Then I found you could input USB sound from other Roland boxes. Now I have the TR8S and MC707 linked to the mixer, all in synch and doing that DJ Groovy thing that you see in the old AIRA videos. It’s Christmas all year round.
If you have yet to decide on the MC707 or TR8S – stop and think carefully about affordance. If you wonder why I keep using all this Roland stuff then please read here.