Boxed Ear has announced the release of R-8 MkII, a free sample pack made with the classic Roland R-8 MkII drum machine.

A spokesperson said, "You can hear the Roland R-8 on early 90s tracks by Aphex Twin and Autechre and it helped to define the IDM genre during that time. It's characterised by a clean sound with plenty of bottom end and is still a favourite in many studios today. 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."




Pricing and Availability:

R8 MkII is free and is available now from the Boxed Ear website.

More information:

• www.boxedear.com

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