It sounds just fine as you describe it but in real use it doesn’t work well.
This Roland instruments are audio interfaces, but DAWs can only use one interface at a time so you can only connect a single device. There are work around on MacOS like agregating devices but that introduces latency and stressed the CPU. And you may have crippled your other (main) audio interface capabilities.
The way elektron and Access have done it it is the right way, a plugin streams audio, it doesn’t need to be used as an interface, you can use these devices and you own audio interface, and while it uses some CPU it is way more stable.
We can currently watch how hard it actually is to implement this featureset here at Elektron. This is not a rant, just an observation. Maybe Roland can be succesful because their system only has to work with one hardware configuration and not with countless OS/cpu/host configurations.
Pretty cool. But when even a humble sub-$100 Pocket Operator can handle live sampling through either line-in or built-in mic easily and can fit that into an accessible workflow, it looks a little silly that it’s not included here. Everything else seems good. With other companies increasingly offering “p-lock”-style sequencing, it starts becoming worthwhile to investigate how exactly the p-locking is implemented. Not all p-locking is the same, and Elektron has a special knack for doing it right that other companies often can’t replicate.
Wow, I think Roland hit it out of the park. I’ve regretted selling my TR-8 and getting the TR-08 and 9, and now I’m considering this, even though I just upgraded my Rytm to a mk2.
The TR-8S does seem more performance friendly - the TR-8 was/is butt simple to use, and my primary issue with it has been resolved - the lack of memory.
And 3 dedicated fill tracks - 3! Hear that Elektron? Having to share fill conditions with the regular track is no-bueno.
