Introduction To The Roland R8 Mk II Drum Machine - Audio Samples Collection
About The Roland R8 Mk II
The Roland R8 Mk II drum machine should need no introduction.
Introduced in 1989, The R8, using PCM voices, features velocity and pressure sensitive trigger pads.
Roland released a second version of the R-8 drum machine, the R-8 MKII, in 1992. The Roland R8 Mk II offered expanded memory, allowing more internal sounds. Internal ROM went from 67 (R8) to 199 samples (R8 MK II). The 16-bit, 44.1kHz, PCM sounds on the Roland R-8 MK II, range in styles. These include Rock, Orchestral, Jazz, Dance, House and Rap / Hip-Hop. Featured samples include those from the TR-808 and TR-909, which were only available on the 'SN-R8' expansion card, for the R8 (All sounds on the SN-R8-10 Dance expansion card are included in the Roland R-8 MK II).
About This Roland R-8 MK II Audio Sample Collection
In this sample collection, we wanted to capture and provide the default sound set from the Roland R-8 MK II.
A full factory reset was done on the Roland R-8 MK II prior to recording.
No effects, EQ, compression or limiting have been applied to the samples.
All samples were treated with iZotope RX, giving a gentle cleaning process, that removes background hiss or hums from the Roland R-8 MK II.
Bit Format
To give more flexibility, we wanted to offer these sounds in both 24 Bit and 16 Bit format. (Note: The built-in sounds on the Roland R-8 MK II are 16 Bit, 44KHz)
A full list of files is also provided.
File Names
The sample files names given, reflect that of the Roland R-8 MK II.
Example: [B] 01 - FngBass.wav
All samples are organized to their original group identifiers.
In the above example, this is indicated by '[B]', which means Bass.
The sample name itself, FngBass, is derived from the Roland R-8 MK II.
PCM sound cards
There is NO plan to include any of the sounds from any of the SN-R8 expansion cards, as they are overpriced on the 2nd hand market.
This could only happen if someone was to donate a card to us.
Sometimes you have to ask, is the juice worth the squeeze. Consider this, each card has only 26 sounds and the Roland R-8 MK II has many of the sounds from the cards already, but not all.
Donationware
This collection is "Donationware".
Much time and effort goes into creating these sample packs.
When you make a donation, of at least the minimum amount, we will send you, via email, an Access Code for the download link. You can then access your download link, with the Access Code, via the Download Portal We really appreciate your donations and hope that you do consider donating more than the minimum amount, as this really helps us create more sample packs in the future.