Glad yours has landed Rob! Re the wave designer, I’m sure the RD8 is the same. Mono output will drive some headphones so that might be a cheeky workaround?
1 Like
people on MW saying the step buttons are shit. but also “fine for the price” and “I’ll just use it as a sound module I guess” sort of outlook.
sucks they look like cherry MX keys but apparently are a cheaper knock-off version, and not mechanical ala Cirklon, the original 909, or the Din Sync, Nava, and Steda clones. are they better than the TR-09’s though? if only in size, I guess.
They’re not mechanical buttons but there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with them imo. They work fine, don’t double trigger or miss presses.
1 Like
Love mine mate buttons are fine here I love it 
1 Like
@rob_lee, or anyone with an rd9, can you do me a favor and measure how wide the end cheek panels are? Try and be as accurate (in mm) as possible if you can.
Im curious if removing them will be enough to rack mount the rd-9, or if they were still a bunch of ding dongs like they were with the rd-8 (unrackable by ~20mm with end cheeks removed). It looks like it might be tight, but possible?
Much appreciated if you can.
@micabeza I get 10mm either side mate
PS
I haven’t had mine off however the end caps may be fitted over the body of the RD-9 if you know what I mean? So the body may still be as long as the caps over the top, maybe someone else has had theirs off but I get 10mm either side.
1 Like
Not had the end cheeks off mine but I’d say even with them off it’d still be too wide. Mine is when I offer it up to a rack, even taking into account the end cheeks. Overall width comes in at around 476mm. The RD9 is still a little narrower than the RD8 and the cheeks are a little slimmer. Excuse the crappy pic and my workshop floor!
2 Likes
The first. With the LOUD rimshot! Early adopter as you know Rob 
1 Like
Ah I thought it was the new one mate sorry. I have the MKII on order supposed to be 10th January. I’m seeing about 10mm size difference to the RD-9 there. I need to also find space now seeing that.
1 Like
Thank you! It’ll be tight but probably do able if can file a couple mm of the rack posts themselves. I was about to be straight up annoyed…
1 Like
I think you’ll need to take off a fair bit. My RD9 is 6mm narrower than the full width of an other rack unit including ears. That’s with the end cheeks on.
Aperture of my rack between the rails is 450mm. I measure the RD chassis W/O cheeks at around 464mm. The chassis doesn’t look to extend into the end cheeks by any great amount, Prob 1 or 2mm at most.
1 Like
IMO the RD-9 and the new RD-8 MKI or MKII are an absolute steal for the price and what your getting. They both sound absolutely fantastic and as I say they’re cheaper than a hell of a lot of soft synths out there.
They make good for sampling too. Gutted I can’t record pitch etc in the automation tho although the filter records fine here.
2 Likes
But it’s gotta fit inside the space, not to the outside posts of the rack.
Manual says it’s 477mm. The usable space in a 19" rack is ~445mm on mine (between the inner posts). That usable space can vary from company to company if the posts are a little narrower, but average is 19" rack minus 3/4" on each side for mounting leaves 17.5" (445mm)
Edit: either way, they’re still a bunch of ding dongs over there for this. By all means clone the original device, but did you also need to clone its massive footprint? Particularly after things inside are SMD now?
Yeah that’s my point. It’s around 15 to 20mm (depending on your rack) too wide to sit inside. 10mm off the inner edge of each rail is a fair chunk. It’s doable I suppose.
This is assuming that the front panel doesn’t extend into the end cheeks either. The measurements I’ve take are of the base panel as you can see where it stops in relation to the end cheeks.
Correct, they are (unsurprisingly) not scissor keys. Not as precise feeling as Elektron Digis etc but equally as … er … mediocre as the TR8s or TR09. The size is lovely for moving around quickly and it’s completely intuitive to use (unlike MFBs imho).
I was expecting worse build quality feels than the modern Rolands but it’s on par.
The power lead is a bit short though. MW will be happy, at least they have that to moan about.
I had to return mine for a replacement. Play/pause button was sticky and stayed down. New one seems fine though.
Its so cheap. How do they do it. Remarkable.
Cheers for this. I have since ditched the user guide and found the proper manual.
‘Trigger out BD assignable’
Mine just mimics trig 1 (the rimshot).
[I’ve had a dig under Settings>Preferences and tweaked Analogue Clock settings but they don’t have any effect on those three outputs it seems. I wonder what assignable means in this context? Changeable via software perhaps?]
So there initial outlay is higher which makes them risk takers?
1 Like