Boxed Ear has announced the release of R-8 MkII, a free sample pack made with the classic Roland R-8 MkII drum machine.
The Roland R-8 MkII is a 90s classic. It is still much revered today for its clean, deep sound. The original R-8 focussed on acoustic sounds, but the popularity of the SN-R8-04 Electronic and SN-R8-10 Dance sound cards, which contained TR-808, TR-909 and CR-78 samples, prompted Roland to release the MkII which had most of those sounds already built in. Whilst the sounds don’t sound exactly like a real 909/808/78, they do have a power and usability all of their own.
This isn’t an exhaustive sampling of the R-8, but instead we chose to focus on the electronic sounds that made this drum machine popular with artists such as Aphex Twin and Autechre. And to add a bit more charm, we sampled it though our favourite UA 1176 compressor.
R8 MkII is a free download from the Boxed Ear website.
