Roland R-8


The R-8 Human Rhythm Composer is an electronic drum machine introduced in 1989 by Roland Corporation, using PCM voices. The R-8 features velocity- and pressure-sensitive trigger pads, and the ability to create loops of beats. The device has eight individual outputs, 12-voice polyphony, and four-part multitimbral MIDI.
The R-8 had one RAM memory card slot for saving user-created patterns and songs, and one slot for PCM ROM cards to augment the internal sound banks.
The R-8M is a rackmount version of the R-8, lacking the trigger pads and the sequencer capability, but with three front-facing ROM card slots. These sound libraries may be accessed simultaneously. This device was available from 1989 through 1994. The rack version has less individual outputs: 6 instead of 8.
In 1992, Roland released a second version of the R-8 drum machine, the R-8 MKII. This version offers greatly expanded memory. The ROM went from 67 to 199 samples. It brought onboard basically the content from the PCM cards SN-R8-01, SN-R8-02, SN-R8-09, SN-R8-10 and most of the 808 samples from SN-R8-04. It did lose 22 of the MK1 samples. Another 16 samples from the MK1 returned in a slightly modified version with another name. A minor omission on the MKII is the absence of the Space Invaders boot screen. This device was discontinued in 1996.
Roland also came with a trimmed down version of the R8 in the form of the Roland R-5 which had less sounds and features than the R-8

PCM sound cards

Known Roland ROM cards, each containing 26 samples: