Maschine has drum synths but they do not nearly sound as good in my opinion
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The TR-8S is a more mature product. Maschine+, being newer, and thus less mature, is likely to have a lot more bugs.
Youâve just got to try it and see what works for you. The TR-8S was an immediate joy for me and works brilliantly in live sets with a small range of our other gear inlcuding A4, Digitakt, Crave, vaiours Volca, MicroFreak etc.
Of course if you canât find somewhere to try, then I tend to go the 2nd hand route and resell without loss if itâs not what I want.
better step sequencing I assume.
Better TR sounds if thatâs what youâre after.
more drum machine performance features most likely.
there is not much info on the maschine yet, but maschine is thought to be a full production groovebox, while TR8s is mainly just a flexible drummachine.
You canât sample, chop samples etc, itâs not good for fingerdrumming, itâs not good for playing melodies etc
Well⌠thereâs not much comparison between the two. One is an excellent drum machine, the other is one of these âdoes-it-allâ groovebox, prone to disillusion.
Ok TR-8S afficionados, can anyone help with this?
Iâm using octatrack to send pattern changes to TR-8S, which in turn sends it to Dtone.
I notice that if I have an open hihat (or similar long sound) the end of a pattern, just before the pattern change happens, the open hat sound gets cut off. And not in a pleasing way.
If I chain patterns from within the TR-8S, then all is well and all sounds are as they should be. I tried setting TR-8S as the master changer, but Dtone and octatrack didnt seem to change in sync, always a full pattern behind.
Can anyone tell me why?
The Elektrons expect to receive the MIDI Program Change message that initiates the pattern change a very short time earlier that the TR-8S sends it.
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Cool. But why do the last 3 16th notes on the TR-8S get chopped when recieving pattern change messages from elektrons?
Either way it kinda sucks.
I think itâs reloading the kit on pattern change, even if the kit is the same as the previous pattern. Perhaps when it is chaining patterns internally it pre-loads the kit? On the original firmware there used to be quite a noticeable silence when it loaded a new kit when changing patterns. Maybe the external pattern change message is arriving too late for it to do the preload, or maybe it only does the preload when chained internally.
Are you able to send the pattern change instruction earlier?
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The kit is common to all patterns in the song. Also, if I turn kit change on pattern change off, it makes no difference. Still get the glitch.
So yeah, maybe it preloads the kit internally regardless of what settings you choose. Which is weird.
Its got me properly stumped.
My work around is to just omit notes from the end of the pattern just before a pattern change occurs. Probably not ideal for most people but for the type of music Im currently making, it fits the style. Kind of a pain though, an open hihat on the last 8th note of a bar is the quintessential turnaround marker.
I dont know about the send pattern change earlier thing? Ive just got âsend pattern changeâ ticked in the midi settings on OT.
Then TR8-S and digitone have âreceiveâ pattern change ticked. Im using channel 16 for pattern change.
Right, yeah, if youâre using the automatic pattern change thing I donât think you have control over when itâs sent.
Sorry, not sure what the answer is. It does sound like itâs reloading the kit even though it shouldnât.
Is there another way to send pattern change?
I didnât have an OT very long, but I thought you could maybe use the midi sequencer to manually send program change messages⌠maybe not.
Only when you change from one pattern to a pattern that is linked to a different part.
4 pc messages per bank on OT.
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Ah yes. I remember now. Cheers.
Certainly a curious thing.
Honestly I would be happy to use TR8-S as the master clock, and have it send program change to the elektrons, but the Elektrons cant keep up! 
If TR8s canât be master and if Octas four pc messages per bank are not enough, the
Digitone handles program changes differently than Octa, IIRC itâs per pattern or can it even be p-locked?
Maybe try with one of your Elektrons as midi master?
I donât have a TR-8S. The TR-8S manual implies that Program Change messages change kits, not patterns. Can you confirm that the TR-8S does change patterns, not kits, after receiving a Program Change message?
Which version number of the TR-8Sâs OS are you using?
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Same as TR-8.
Thought they would have fixed/added it on the SâŚ
The TR-8S can change both kits and patterns through program changes. You have to set the kit to a different midi channel than the patterns. For example: program change on channel 10 = pattern change (which may include the kit as well, also dependant on settings) and 11= kit change.
Be aware though that there is a small audio gap when sending program changes to the TR-8S. 
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I you can change both patterns and or kits, depending on how you set it up.
Latest OS version 2.
There could be a bug either on the elektron end, or the roland end, since I cant get a clean pattern change no matter which machine is master.
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