Roland TR-8: A Guide for Live and Studio Use – Layout and Overview

Part 2

The Roland TR-8 Rhythm Performer is a masterfully constructed instrument. It is engineered to be intuitive and ergonomic, immediate and tactile, versatile, and deeply programmable. Bearing these points in mind, it makes more sense that the TR-8 lacks an informative menu/display panel – opting for a simple seven-segment based LED tempo display.

But don’t let that fool you – TR-8 is a very deep machine, with all of it’s options and functionality accessible via button combinations and a sequencer section that operates in a myriad of modes to put all of your options at your fingertips.

At first, it may seem daunting and decisively un-intuitive, but spending a little time with the machine reveals a certain esoteric logic to it’s operation. This logic is what allows TR-8 players to navigate the machine on multiple levels at an extraordinarily fast pace unattainable by the conventional “menu-diving” model adopted by a great deal of electronic instruments on the market today.

It is at once the TR-8’s greatest strength and highest barrier to entry – the decision to opt for more sliders, buttons, and knobs in lieu of a detailed display. But master TR-8’s unique workflow and you unlock one of the most powerful drum sequencers in the world.

The Five Faces of the Beast

Roland’s user guide divides the front panel of the TR-8 into several small sections with very specific functionality. While it is not wrong, it is much simpler to navigate the instrument by breaking it down into larger segments according to general function. That said, the TR-8 is laid out into five sections:

• The Mode Panel selects and controls the modes in which the other panels operate.
• The Auxiliary Panel selects and controls on-board effects, accenting and external inputs.
• The Instrument Panel selects and controls the individual sounds available.
• The Timing Panel controls the tempo and swing amount applied to the sequencer.
• The Sequencer Panel primarily controls the internal sequencer. In other modes, this panel behaves as an information display and user input/selection panel.

Taking a closer look at each of these panels, we can see what exactly they offer the performer at any given time.

The Mode Panel

This panel gives the performer access to the basic modes in which the TR-8 can operate. Essentially, this panel alters the behavior of the sequencer panel, and to a lesser degree, the other panels as well. The Mode Pane controls the information displayed by the lights on the sequencer panel, the function the sequencer buttons serve, and in conjunction with other buttons and controls, the secondary functions other controls can perform.

An intimate understanding of this panel and how it affects the behavior of the instrument is essential to developing fluency in the operation of the machine. It would be beneficial to internalize the use of this panel if you wish to progress quickly on this instrument.

The Auxiliary Panel

This panel allows immediate access to your internal effects (reverb / delay) as well as control over the external input (volume / sidechain compression) and accenting. A useful feature here is the ability to apply each of these effects on a step-by-step basis — with the exception of the SCATTER effect.

The Instrument Panel

This is where you will spend much of your time tweaking. The instrument panel gives the performer immediate control over every available sound in a sequence. It’s one-function-per-control implementation means there are no complicated button combinations to remember and no menu diving to be done. Simple and straightforward, the Instrument Panel is one of the easiest panels on the TR-8 to wrap your head around.

Each sound has a tuning control, a decay control, and a volume slider. The kick and snare are each afforded additional controls – compression, attack (for the kick) and snap (for the snare). These additional controls on the kick and snare allow the performer to further tailor these key elements to fit the genre in which they are working. Experiment with all of these controls, as they are one of the keys to unlocking the expressive capacity of the instrument.

*HINT: Get acquainted with the decay controls. This will add or subtract energy from your groove – particularly the hats!

The Timing Panel

The simplest panel on the machine, this panel consists of a limited number of controls related to tempo and swing. There are a handful of secondary functions here, accessible in tandem with the navigation panel, but much of the time you will be using the primary functions.

The Sequencer Panel

This panel primarily controls the TR-8’s powerful internal sequencer on a per-step basis. The A and B buttons provide two pages of sixteen steps, which can stand as two separate sequences, or be combined into a single sequence of twice the length.

These steps can also be organized into five distinct rhythmic subdivisions via the SCALE button. The hashes above the buttons provide a visual representation of the different subdivisions available – each hash on a line indicates one beat, with the length of the hash indicating which buttons are subdivisions of each beat.

Finally, the LAST STEP button allows the user to define how many steps the sequencer will play before looping back to 1.

*HINT: LAST STEP in conjunction with SCALE open countless options for rhythmic experimentation.

Additionally, this panel serves as a display and user input for several other modes available via the navigation panel.

Backside Ins and Outs

The I/O on the TR-8 can be found on the back side of the machine. It is divided into three straightforward segments:

The Power section is exactly what it sounds like. Here, you will find a DC adapter plug, an ON/OFF switch, and a USB-B plug. Note that the USB port does not supply power. Instead, it functions as a digital direct output for each individual instrument, just as the the classic 808 and 909 did — albeit via standard 1/4″ jacks. It additionally transmits MIDI data, which is also quite useful.

The MIDI section consists of a MIDI IN and MIDI OUT DIN jack. A really neat trick this machine does is changing the OUT into a THRU port — indispensable for implementing this machine into an electronic ecosystem.

Finally, the Audio section consists of a stereo pair of outputs, a pair of auxiliary outputs, a stereo pair of external inputs, and a headphone jack.

Conclusion

A bit longer than the average post, but that’s a brief overview of the different segments and their primary functions. In the next entry of this series, we will explore the different modes of operation available to the user. This post, in conjunction with the forthcoming post in this series, will provide one with a solid foundation on which to quickly become acquainted with this wondrous drum machine.

Until next post,
AudioMunk

In case you missed it, here is Part 1 of this series – Introduction