Roland AIRA TR-8 vs Roland TR-909 & TR-808 comparison demos

[Dal-Tech]

I remember a house artist that did well telling me he only sampled an MC-303 with an MPC2000 and also used a JV1080. You can now probably find an MC-303, Akai S2000, and a JV1080 all for under $500 and still make 90s sounding house music that sells. The moral story is it's not what you have but the person behind the equipment.

[damnwords]

http://www.residentadvisor.net/feature.aspx?1033

Is it the same situation as when you do stuff with Ricardo, for example, or with Martin?

No. With Martin, we work differently. We build things up. With Ricardo it was similar. The reason I did something with him, though, was just because I wanted to listen to my 808 on his soundsystem. He doesn't have an 808, and he always says, "Ah, I don't need this machine." And he also somehow doesn't like the 909 as well. He doesn't like the real machines, he wants to have machines that just imitate the 808, you know. I don't know why. And actually, when I connected it, it didn't sound as good as I thought it would for some reason.

It's funny. He has the biggest speakers and subwoofers in the world. So I guess it's too much; it sounds kind of fat and unbelievably loud and full of sound, but usually the 808 in a club will sound perfect through the speakers. When the soundsystem is nice, the 808—without EQing and without compression—sounds perfect, but not in Ricardo's studio, I don't know what happened there.

Marketing.

[John Clees]

sorry john but were does ricardo speak highly of it? i think the marketing department of roland did work on you.

haha. Saying the word "good" is a positive. Plus as mentioned he seemed a bit excited about. perhaps to knit pick I "could" have said he "seemed" positive "towards" it.. better?

I do agree the sentence he said may not make a lot of sense or actually had any content. I also said the word "rather" and not that he was a spokesperson for such an instrument. I was just more of a shock to seem him of all people on the roland site, and to see him in the video I thought it was kind of cool to see behind him.

So also another good point of someone who didn't fine tune the new roland gear. There is a video I came acrossed on there website where someone really fine tunes the 808 and it really does sound deeper that in the first example of YouTube video. playing the stock sounds and fine tuning them would naturally produce different results if adjusted properly..

I'll try to post a video soon as I find it when I get to my computer where this guy really tricked it out and drastically changes the 808 kick which the first video he seems to neglect doing so completely or has the knowhow to even try..

[blizt]

You would like to read the many hundred of pages thread in the gearslutz forum to get an idea of the general consensus. For the most part, it seems that the machine is like 95% there when you compare instruments side by side, which is ok for 500 euros. But when you have a whole pattern playing together you really perceive there is something missing. If you want to buy a good analogue drum machine these days I would recommend the tanzbar. Imho it kicks aira ass big time. Huge sound and amazing flexibility.

I also think Ricardo is just playing the marketing game here and cashing the dollars by Roland. It's even funnier that on that video you can spot behind him the acidliab miami (808 clone) lol

[thom]

Maybe a comparison between he Aira and the Novation drumstation is a bit fairer...

We once compared two tr909's and the kicks and toms were bassier on one of the two...

[damnwords]

Not sure how relevant it is because it's most likely an mp3 .. but it's something.

[John Clees]

But when you have a whole pattern playing together you really perceive there is something missing.

really good point..
single one shots vs. lots of parts all trying to work together = a much bigger gap in frequency range..

I was optimistic until I went on ebay and found..

808's going for $3800

and

909's goings for $3200

[damnwords]

Thomann prices

Roland TR-8, EUR 499
Roland TB-3, EUR 299
Roland VT-3, EUR 199
Roland System-1, EUR 599