Ive had both. Got rid of the AR, still have the TR8-S.
Well in terms of playing it, yes. TR8-S is way more immediate. Faders, knob per function, you dont need to select a page to tweak a parameter as you do on elektron stuff.
Setting up your kit takes a bit of time. But once its done, all good. Editing a variation while another one is playing is way cool. AR cant do that.
Sure, the AR wins on synthesis and weird sound design. TR8-S wins for speed of patterm writing and playability though. At least for me.
The sound quality if the TR8S is insane. With the AR, you are very dependant on the screen to know where you are. With the TR8-Sā¦ what you see is what you get.
Thanks all of you for your vision and experience. @dcullina : yes I think that faders are a great advantage. @Synthastic, yes the Tr8s seems to be really easy to be learned. Seems that tweaking and programming sound is more complexe due to UI an little screen, thatās a problem in live situation. Programming and tweaking sound is the DNA of AR. @finalform, I thought that there was not a real difference when starting from blank pattern. I saw a lot of videos and on both you have to select the track and record the trigs, on both too, they can be recorded on the fly. Thanks for confirmation. Youāre right too about the main difference in the performance : some actions have to be programmed when preparing the kits in AR, those same actions can be improvise thanks to the faders and unmute/mute button on Tr8s. Thatās an important fact. When playing with AR, complexe evolution must be thought previously. More confortable. Iām pretty fluent with AR, and able to quickly program Scenes or Perf, but it needs not to be too much busy during performance because it can involve lot of tweaking and increase the probability of mistakes. @Microtribe, the sound quality and the dynamic seems at the rendez-vous. I think itās the same for the ability of itās sound to be easily out of the mix. What I see is what I get is an important factor in the fog of action during live performance.
Futhermore, the main ability is the possibility to write variation while pattern is playing. Itās a fantastic weapon that Elektron canāt do. The fills in AR cannot plainly replace that. Maybe a game changer
Well all your entries far from simplify my vision maintain the doubt. The problem is to choose the right set-up for techno drum machine and work with it to be ready playing improvisation.
One more question about the variations. ItĀ“s impressive, that we get 8 variations (that can be chained) per pattern, 16 patterns per bank and 16 banks (per project I guess?), but what about saving those chains of variations? Is it possible? When I change to another pattern, it will always loop 16 steps and IĀ“d have to chain variations manually?
IĀ“m thinking about something along the lines of Elektronss pages. I usually work with 64 steps master length on OT, 64 steps on AK so having the TR8s automatically recall chained variations would be great.
Kinda bugs me, that they linked the motion recording to the ctrl knob, so gotta choose that wisely.
Would have made sense to record the ctrl knob, change parameter assignment, do another motion recoding etc. but you canāt have it all and it seems the TR8S does a lot really wellā¦
Totally agree that the motion recording is a bit meh, I dont really use it. But Iāve had electribes, and they have their annoyances too. I sometimes yen for one, but honestly, I dont think I would want another elektron. Ive got an octatrack, a digitone. That covers pretty much everything. For just straight up drums that sound amazing with bugger all effort, this machine rules. The layout is great, everything is easy to get a hand on, I like that you dont ever have to look at the screen when playing.
The extended reload functions just made it proper jammableā¦ if thatās even a word.
Well i know what Iām doing tonightā¦ uploading new firmware hubba hubba
Step sequencing the morph parameter on these FM tones is really cool. You can make really unique organic patterns with this. The depth of this machine has really reached a new level.