Master your Roland TR-8S drum machine settings with a plug-in editor

Roland’s TR-8S added loads of parameters for shaping drum kits and effects. Now you can get at all of those without diving through menus with this VST/AU plug-in – and keep your drum machine settings stored with your project.
Hardware is great, but it introduces two problems. First, there are inevitably some parameters buried in menus that are hard to reach on the front panel, no matter how many knobs and faders makers add. Second, stuff you do on the hardware is likely to get out of sync with your DAW, leading to that invariable “what the Hell was this supposed to be?” feeling when you power things up. (Okay, sometimes that leads to happy accidents. Sometimes it just leads to misery.)
Momo Miller has been trucking through the full Roland range (plus KORG and Novation Circuit). He’s been adding plug-ins for just this reason. You get more accessible editing and control, and your settings stay inside your DAW projects for easy recall.
Now, first, what this isn’t: it isn’t a full-blown editor for the TR-8S. And it’s a shame, given Roland Cloud, that the manufacturer didn’t provide one. That also means loading custom samples on the TR-8S is a manual affair. This unofficial editor isn’t able to load sample files. And you don’t get full access to all of the TR-8S’ hidden parameters, like the deep settings per kit. So, Roland, if you’re listening – please, give us that.
You do, however, get a lot of access to parameters per sound and kit – basically, anything that has a MIDI CC assignment. And you can still save your changes on the hardware, for anything this controls. Plus you can save parameters separately in software. And there are some useful performance controller mappings.
Here’s what you get:

Full access to TR-8S parameters (as accessible via MIDI)
Control effects via custom-mapped X/Y performance controllers
Automation of parameters inside your DAW
Save parameter data with your DAW – including which kit was selected, which is invaluable on its own
Interactive visual display
32-bit and 64-bit VST (Windows, Mac) AU (Mac) and standalone (Windows, Mac) versions

Have a look:

Price: 5,90€ / US$6.90
TR-8S editor/controller
The post Master your Roland TR-8S drum machine settings with a plug-in editor appeared first on CDM Create Digital Music.