Roland's TR-8S mashes all your favorite 80s drum machines together
In the 80s, Roland drum machines were at the epicenter of hip hop, house, techno, acid house and other music genres. The 808, 909, 707, and 606 helped create the beats of some of your favorite songs. But if you wanted to pick up any of these vintage drum machines today, you'd probably end up dropping thousands of dollars. Fortunately, Roland just made getting all those vintage drum sounds a lot easier and cheaper with its new TR-8S, drum machine. The successor to the Aira TR-8 introduced four years ago, takes what the company learned from that drum machine and fine-tuned it into a more capable and feature-rich drum machine that's ready to mix and mash all those genres along with a few more with a just a few twists and button pushes. I got a chance to try out the new $699 TR-8S and during a hands-on and I came away impressed with what Roland has accomplished with the machine. Right off the bat, my favorite new feature is the ability to import and play stereo or mono samples....