Free Roland R-8 MkII Drum Machine Samples By Boxed Ear

Manchester based sound design label Boxed Ear has released Boxed Ear R-8 MkII, a free Roland R-8 MkII drum machine sample pack.

The R-8 MkII is not as much of an iconic electronic instrument as Roland’s much more famous TR series drum machines, but it definitely left a deep mark in the history of electronic music. It helped define the IDM sound of the 90s, being the staple of Aphex Twin’s hardware setup, similar to how Squarepusher used the BOSS DR-660 drum machine for most of his pre-2000 work. On the other hand, the R-8 mkII does include sampled versions of those classic TR-808 and TR-909 sounds as well, although with a slightly different, more plasticky vibe, which is not necessarily a bad thing. We all have plenty enough classic 808 sounds by now.

See also: FREE Roland TR-606 Cassette Sample Pack (WAV)!

Boxed Ear’s free R-8 MkII sample pack contains 58 drum samples in total, with the main focus on the machine’s TR-808, TR-909 and CR-78 sounds. The pack also includes a set of various percussion and SFX samples. All included sounds were recorded through the Universal Audio 1176 limiting amplifier, for added punch and saturation. The samples are well edited, normalized, and they sound great. Some of the more popular sounds, such as the 909 kick and the 808 snare for example, are provided in multiple versions. One of the included 808 kick drum samples has five seconds of decay, which is pretty neat.

The sample pack is available for direct free download from Boxed Ear’s website, no registration or subscription required. The download page also includes two other really cool Boxed Ear freebies: the Tempest vs MPC60 sample pack and the excellent Roland CompuRythm CR-78 sample pack containing 17 one shot drum samples and 27 original CR-78 drum loops in RX2 format.

Download

Boxed Ear R-8 MkII is available for free download via Boxed Ear (5.45 MB download size, ZIP archive, contains 58 Roland R-8 MkII drum machine samples in 24-bit WAV format).