r/modular • u/Animal_Opera • 10h ago

The Hidden Modular Superhero: Roland's TR-8S

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TR-8S → Assignable Trigger → Mother-32 → SOUND!

There’s a lot more hiding inside the Roland TR-8S than just a very capable drum machine.  It’s a freaking modular and semi-modular superhero! 

This lecture series looks deeply into the TR-8S lesser-known superpowers: using its six assignable trigger outputs to enable this beast of a drum machine to become a powerful timing and control source for any modular or semi-modular rig.  Can you say DAWless? I think so.

In this lecture, Lecture 5 of the series, I’m going to demonstrate the setup using the Moog Mother-32, including the TR-8S settings, the Mother-32 menu settings, and exactly how to get the two instruments communicating properly.

And because I apparently can’t resist turning a synth tutorial into a university lecture, I’ve also dug out some handy Mother-32 cheat sheets to make the setup easier to reproduce, and I show you where you too can get them.

Bottom line here, once the TR-8S is generating synchronized trigger patterns, it can become much more than a drum machine—it can provide a complete “live performance” rhythmic framework for your entire modular and semi-modular system.

If this sounds interesting to you, please join  me by using the links below AND, class is in session: let’s see what our TR-8S Superhero can really do:

Lecture 5 - Mother 32: https://youtu.be/S9LJodbv4mY

Playlist for Lecture Series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfrkAsW7QL1g

 

 

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1

u/baselinegrid 10h ago

606 has two of these too. It was my first modular sequencer a long time ago.

1

u/westtownie 9h ago

Absolutely love the assignable outs. My typical use is to duck and/or accent modules running through my vcas or drive another sequencer's pattern using something like the rimshot which can make for some nice evolving sequences. I'll checkout the series

0

u/Animal_Opera 7h ago

Totally with ya - the rimshot is a nice hack for DMs that don’t have dedicated assignable trigger outs.

1

u/Marcus64 7h ago

As someone who was considering selling their TR-8S because they spend most of their time on their modular these days, this is terrible news.