Building upon the success of the TR-8, the Roland AIRA TR-8S Rhythm Performer combines the legendary sound, form, and function of the vintage TR-808, 606, 909, 707, and 727 rhythm machines with cutting-edge performance and live pattern manipulation capabilities to create a modern-day classic, well-suited for stage or studio. Build your dream kit with the onboard drum sounds, or peruse and layer Roland's vast stereo sample collection to create original tones never heard before. What's more, the SD card slot allows you to import your own samples. Roland developed the Analog Circuit Behavior (ACB) technology, which faithfully recreates the tonality and behavior of true-analog circuits. With ACB, every detail of these original machines is captured, including the variations in tone that occur when multiple instruments are entered in accented steps.
The TR-8S features 128 user kits made up of 11 instruments, each assigned a tone. What's more, each tone has several variations and each tone is freely assignable to any of the 11 instrument slots. Each channel offers controls for tune, decay, and an assignable customized control knob, which places all the sound-shaping power within easy reach. You can program on the 16 TR-REC buttons or use the velocity-sensitive performance pad to play live, or record into the sequencer. You can move seamlessly between playing and editing, allowing you to reshape your drum parts without ever interrupting your flow. Each of the 128 patterns can store eight variations and three kinds of fills. Patterns and variations can be played or chained in any order, plus the auto-fill function automatically plays a fill every 2, 4, 8, 16, or 32 measures.