For a good example, every producer has been claiming for ages that the MPC handles swing in a special magical way, but Roger Linn states that it is a dead standard swing implementation. He details how it works exactly, but the myth is still alive. People love to fetishize old gear, so I wouldn’t take the idea that the 808 has some special, unquantifiable, magical type of groove very seriously at all. I don’t own one though.
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Yeah the 808 “swing” is a bit of an urban legend, I can’t recall if it was Colin Fraser (of Sequentix) or Robin Whittle (Devilfish guy) who debunked it some years back, IIRC the TR-606 has a very slight push/pull on each step though and so does the Monotribe, but neither really sounds like swing as the timing difference is very slight, more like a very subtle shuffle. The TR-808 possibly has a very slight push/pull too as I think it uses a similar microprocessor to the 606.
I’ll see if I can dig up the write up though.
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Also perhaps likely that the analogue voices are unstable and interacting somewhat with each other?
I mean, it’s far easier to spot an analogue drum machine when a pattern is playing, than a single analogue voice vs a single sample (I think).
I always thought ‘MPC-like timing’ just meant accurate midi timing (rather than poor timing from a 909 or similar).
BTW here is something interesting from the original 808 designer
And an interesting read
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Interesting. Anyone try to run this?
The 606 I used to have was indeed a tiny bit sloppy. You couldn’t really hear it but could see it push pull steps but in a totally random way.
I think the groove of the 808 comes from the sounds themselves. As you know from editing samples, even a tiny difference in the envelope, or where the peak is placed on the beat, will affect how we perceive the rhythm. In a very real sense, timbre is rhythm. The 808 had great sounds and they were also sculpted to work.
My 606 was a bit wonky too. I think it was baked into the silver paint. 
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I believe the EMS clone is in the pipeline.
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Is it bad to lust even thought I have a yocto 808 already?
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The Behringer pipeline is about 300 light-years long, however.
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I love it when people complain about how long their products take to come to market. it’s really not that long. it’s just that they tease 'em when they’re in the prototype phase, creating lots of cheap hype/marketing that lasts until the thing is released.
unlike most other companies that work diligently on something new for years and only give you a peak when it’s either ready to ship, or shipping very soon. they need to create hype and deliver. but Behringer is a music gear Xerox machine. just saying: “we’re working on it! barring a paper jam, it’ll be available soon!” is enough to wind people up until it’s ready.
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There’s pros and cons about announcing products before they are ready, mostly cons which is why most companies don’t do it.
I would certainly prefer it if more companies would say what they are working on, makes it easier to plan purchases, like if I want another monosynth and I know in 3-6 months elektron or whoever is going to have something new, i can decide if i want something available now or if I want to wait and see. It’s pretty shit if you save up for something over 12 months, only to find something a better fit comes out a month later.
I actually find it reassuring when announced products take ages to ship, it means the company making them are taking it seriously and not just pushing out half assed, unfinished stuff, which probably works in bgers favour given their historic focus.
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If you want an example of the cons, just look at Overbridge …
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There’s certainly a grey area between ‘building suspense’ and ‘taking the pee’ 
I’m patiently awaiting the RD-9 
I would prefer Thomann not to fly their early orders in. That seems like quite an irresponsible CO2 emission!
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299€ !?!!?
Oh shit 
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Ordered…
Wow, that is actually SO accessible and playful. The tom bass line sounds real good. Now, the AR still is the greatest drum machine ever, but this is truly up there for other reasons. I had the TR8 for a couple of months and I miss it for the playability. This drummer is a must-have!
Gear4music states 1st of november for availability. Guess I’ll wait then, dont want to commit in case some other retailer can deliver faster.
The thomann batch sold out already I reckon?
EDIT: Thomann stated availability in 4-5 weeks, so I went with them instead. Lets hope they will actually be able to ship in 4-5 weeks!
Just poking fun. Having said that, Behringer do shoot themselves in the foot when they announce multiple release windows but fail to meet any of them.
For a company that owns their own manufacturing “city” they really don’t seem to be able to forecast the development of their products very well.
From watching many videos it seems like a lot of this is down to firmware development, which is fine, just get PR to tell Uli and the devs to stop promising dates that they can’t hit.
yeah I get the sense they struggle pretty hard there. code is a little trickier to Xerox.
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Shoot themselves in the foot in what way? I think they sell huge numbers of every synth product they release, and shooting themselves in the foot would mean that they harm their ability to sell the products. I love knowing that they’re working on cool projects, the stated release dates don’t really matter anyway, they’re ready when they’re ready.
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