Roland TR-08

How to use this course

Ten short lessons take you from switching the TR-08 on to writing, chaining and performing your own patterns. Each lesson is 20 to 40 minutes, hands on, and ends with an exercise you should be able to do without looking before moving on.

All button combinations and parameter descriptions come from Roland’s official owner’s manual. Where a detail comes from somewhere else, the lesson says so.

If your main goal is a beat to play guitar or ukulele along to, do Lessons 1 and 2, then jump to the starter beats near the end of Lesson 4. You’ll be strumming along within the first hour.

What you need:

The TR-08 with four AA batteries, or a USB cable to a computer or USB power supply
Headphones or a powered speaker with a 3.5 mm lead (the built-in speaker is fine for practice but has very little low end, and the 808 kick is mostly low end)
About 30 minutes per lesson
Optional for Lesson 8: a computer with a USB cable, a MIDI keyboard, or another piece of gear with MIDI or trigger input

A word on the machine. The TR-08 is Roland’s small Boutique remake of the TR-808 Rhythm Composer from 1980. It copies the 808’s panel and way of working almost exactly, so this course is also a good way to learn how an original 808 thinks.

Notation used in this course:

BANK + TRIGGER OUT means hold BANK, press TRIGGER OUT, and keep holding until the step says to let go
Step 5 means the step button numbered 5 along the bottom row
Mode switch is the small knob at the top left marked PATTERN WRITE, MANUAL PLAY and so on. Select switch is the knob next to it marked AC, BD, SD and so on
Patterns are written as a 16-step grid, with x meaning a hit and . meaning silence