No excuses: A Guy Called Gerald is here with more presets proving Roland’s ACB emulation of the TR-808 can sound f***ing great. Plus a quick round-up of steep flash discounts for your 808 Day enjoyment.
Originator inspiration
Roland has been doing great work, returning to the legends and getting patches from the originators. I talked about how nice this was with DJ Pierre and acid – now we’ve got Gerald with both the 808 and 909.
Look, I’ll stand by this: Roland’s ACB emulations capture the sound of the 808, 909, and other x0x gear. And they’re a convenient way to go, because you get versions that run as plug-ins and easily in gear, including Roland’s compact devices plus the awesome TR-8S. But more than that, this is a reminder that a lot of this is down to programming and musical creativity. Gerald makes the 808 sound like a completely new instrument. Nothing about this is retro to me:
Hearing this just makes me want to play. It makes it an instrument, not just a sound or something nostalgic or genre-specific. The patches are available to Roland Cloud subscribers, but even if you’re using other hardware or software, give the playlist a listen – I guarantee you, you’ll get some inspiration.
It’s not 909 Day, but there’s a set for those, too:
808 Day Deals
Okay, I’m going to be really picky with these, as I’ve got a lot of deals I don’t care about – here are the ones worth mentioning.
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Manifest Audio has its awesome Octopulse Ableton Live sequencer – so you can sequence your favorite hardware or software, whatever. Use code 8080808 for 40% off at checkout for 48 hours (no affiliate code, but I might convince Noah to buy me a burrito).
OCTOPULSE Biomimetic Rhythm Engine
Inspiring!
Loopmasters has some great 808 content on sale, including an $8 deal on Planet 808 (which works really nicely with Maschine and Ableton Live; I’ve tested these):
And there’s 80% off other stuff:
80% off “hand-selected” 808 sample packs
Ooh, this Konturi set sounds really, really good, sort of master class in modern processing of 808 there.
And D16’s wonderful Nepheton 2 is on sale now for 50% off:
Nepheton 2 Drum Machine by D16 Group [Plugin Boutique]
See my review:
808 TV
You’ll find a ton of 808 Day streams already going on Twitch for the launch of the just-launched official DJ channel, and those will go through the weekend – more on the FLASH Recordings stream I’m joining on the weekend shortly.
Roland also has their usual landing site for the 808 Day vibes:
https://www.roland.com/global/promos/roland_tr-808/
This is an old video, but Roland’s past 808 Day vid still makes me smile: