They are just feel like different tools. Probability is cool for generative or ambient.
Or hi hat. On the TR8s this is nice to break away from all locked instep behavior.
But conditional trigs are great for more of an element of control. The one thing that makes it hard is sharing of one LFO on the TR8s.
You can map any parameter on it per track, and adjust depth. But rate and wave are shared by all.
I’m actually not mad at this. It focuses the intention to what the TR8s, and also the sp404 towards what it’s designed for in my opinion which is immediacy.
And if you wanted to get into deeper sound design, then there’s the mc101/707. It has partial editing.
The best you get is some of the new modeled instruments that the TR8s has, but it’s a little menu dive-y. Other than that, it’s just the morph parameter. And I love it to be able to sweep through changes and get minutiae out of fm sounds.
Sorry if Im going on and on. I’m on the train, and I love talking about this stuff.
Agreed on this, the main this about the TR8S and the SP404 mk 2 are the immediacy, and I’ve come to realise that is my number 1 priority in my gear choice.
The great thing about the TR8S is that once you’ve dived in to start with and created a few custom kits (which is a bit menu dive-y to start with) it’s literally ready to go as soon as you fire it up, and it’s so quick to get a beat going. I have a template kit I use but always start with a blank pattern as the default and then jam away!
Re. The probability, I agree it’s not the same as conditional trigs. What I think it is good for is adding some subtle variety or movement to certain sounds/instruments to add some interest. So I’ll add a reduced probability to some hat hits, maybe chord stabs and other percussion sounds just to keep it feeling fresh, for this reason I’m really glad Roland added this feature.
I use these two together as well (into an Akai Force). I (generally, sometimes I swap it around) run the TR8S audio into the SP404.
My main drums (kick, snares/claps/toms/ percussion and hats) come from the TR8S. I can perform them live on the fly with the TR8S controls and can grab a ‘loop’ on a spare pad on the SP if something catches my ear. Mostly though I use the SP to ‘live’ launch/trigger loops and samples in an improvised manner over the drums.
I’ve got a ‘project’ set up on the SP for various ‘genres’/tempos so I find something that matches what I’m planning to jam and I know all the samples in that project will ‘fit’ so I can just jam away.
Obv I can also use the SPs live effects to go crazy on a beat.
All that runs into the Force for extra processing/FX and adding any additional plug in instruments. I can also use the Force to sequence the SP over midi which gets over the sometimes awkward live sequencing on the SP
Yeah it works well, the Force is able to fill the gaps the 404 is ‘weaker’ in (for me) some of the live effects stuff (without needing to stop to resample) and also live sequencing on the fly without having to resort to pattern mode, which in a live/improvised situation (which I like to do) doesn’t always ‘flow’ as easily for the 404.
I guess in reality the Force could do most of the things the 404 does, but what I am loving about the 404 is the immediacy of the things it DOES do well, and it does them much more easily than the Force so I think the two work together well
(Sorry just remembered this is the TR8S thread and not the 404!!) back to the TR8S-it’s awesome!!!
I just got a TR8S last month and my initial thoughts are that it’s very immediate if you’re looking for bread and butter drum sounds. It’s very fast to work with in my opinion, especially once you’ve put together a few kits. Once you’ve got a nice drum loop going with some traditional Roland sounds, sprinkle some samples in and you’ve got something solid. I’ve been making a lot of Electro on it and it really does sound great! Lots of good onboard fx for rounding out the kits too.
If so, assuming I understand the question correctly, the answer is pretty straight forward. Simply create a pattern on the 404 (I actually use an empty one-bar pattern as a space holder) and save it to pattern A1. Then, provided the TR is sending clock and transport, that pattern should automatically start/stop with the TR’s transport.
Apologies if I’ve missed the point.
Cheers!
P.S. It’s worth noting, however, that once the transport is running, you cannot stop a pattern on the 404 and then start it again in-sync with the clock, unless you restart the incoming clock.
This is why I use an empty one-bar pattern as a space holder: i.e. that way I can just drop to that pattern, whenever I want to “mute” whatever is playing on the 404, without restarting the master clock, and use it as a jumping-off point as well. This makes tempo changes possible too.
A question, in anticipation : I’m aware motion recording has only three lanes. What happens if one record motion for the control knob, and then switched the parameter it controls?
I’m wondering if the recorded motion keeps on playing and I could then manually affect another parameter.
I think what happens is that the knob movement is recorded, and if you reassign the control knob, the motion recording is applied to the new parameter.
Question: I’m considering pairing my TR8S with my OT, sending the OT master through the EXT IN for sidechaining. But, I don’t want to lose the OT’s live looping ability.
I could send just my kick (and maybe clap/snare, so they dont get sidechained?) through the TR8S main outs, then send everything else via assignable outs to the OT for live looping, then back into the TR8S through the EXT INs. Usually only need to loop shakers/hats anyway since I take the kick and clap out during transitions…
Does this mean for tracks sent to the assignable outs, I would also lose the ability to do individual INST sends to delay/reverb? According to the audio diagram, it looks like anything assigned to the assignable outs does not get sent to delay/reverb…
I could of course send the entire EXT IN signal to the delay/reverb once it comes back in, at least a small amount for glue. Still could work, although would be sent together along with synths/stems master from OT. Probably less to manage compared to individual send amounts from indidivual tracks though:)
Followup question - is the TR8S sidechain somehow also internal? The kick punches through so clearly, it’s hard to imagine there’s not some kind of internal sidechaining also happening. Just doesn’t look like it from the diagram.
Nice. Thinking seriously on getting the TR8s soon as i have a bit of spare money. Subbed to your channel and followed your Bandcamp to listen more closely.
