Roland TR-08

Lesson 4: Programming your first beat in step write

Goal: build a four-on-the-floor house beat from an empty pattern, one instrument at a time. Roland calls this step write, and it’s the method you will use most.

Pick a pattern and clear it

Use a pattern you don’t mind losing. Bank 16 is a good scratch area.

1. Hold BANK, press step 16 (bank 16), keep holding BANK and press step 12 (pattern 12). Let go.
2. Turn the mode switch to PATTERN CLEAR.
3. Set the BASIC-VARIATION switch to A.
4. Press CLEAR. Variation A of pattern 12 is now empty and set to 16 steps.

There is no separate save step on the TR-08. Everything you write goes straight into the pattern, the way it did on the original 808. That’s why you clear a pattern you don’t mind losing.

Write it instrument by instrument

1. Turn the mode switch to PATTERN WRITE 1st PART. The bottom row is now the step grid.
2. Press START/STOP so you hear changes as you make them.
3. Turn the select switch to BD.
4. Press steps 1, 5, 9 and 13. Their lights come on and the kick plays on every beat.
5. Turn the select switch to CP (make sure the small switch under CP is on hand clap, not maracas). Press steps 5 and 13.
6. Turn the select switch to CH. Press steps 3, 7, 11 and 15 (the offbeats).
7. Pressing a lit step again turns it off.

The result:

Set TEMPO to about 124 BPM. That is a basic house beat.

Add accent

Turn the select switch to AC and press steps 1, 5, 9 and 13. Everything on those steps now plays louder. Turn the ACCENT knob up and down to hear how much. Then try accenting only steps 1 and 9, and listen to how the beat starts to lean.

Accent is one row for the whole kit, not one per instrument. To accent a single drum, put the accent on a step where only that drum plays.

Write the B variation

1. Set BASIC-VARIATION to B. The grid is now variation B of the same pattern. Clear it first in PATTERN CLEAR mode if something is already there.
2. Write a busier version: the same kick and clap, plus closed hat on every second step.
3. Set the switch to AB. Now the TR-08 plays A then B, back and forth: a two-bar pattern.

To copy A to B instead of writing B from scratch, see Lesson 6.

Changing the pattern length

In PATTERN WRITE, hold CLEAR and press a step to set the last step. CLEAR + step 12 makes a 12-step pattern; CLEAR + step 16 puts it back to 16. The length applies to both A and B of the pattern, whichever way the variation switch is set.

Starter beats to play guitar or uke along to

These are the simplest beats worth having. Each uses two or three instruments, so they’re quick to write and leave plenty of room for your strumming. Write each one the same way as the house beat above: clear the pattern, PATTERN WRITE 1st PART, select an instrument, press its steps.

Matching a song’s tempo. The TAP button is not tap tempo on the TR-08, so do it by ear. Play the first few bars of the recording, count “1, 2, 3, 4” along with it, then start the TR-08 and turn TEMPO until its kick lines up with your count.

Keep them. Write each beat into its own pattern number (steps 1 to 12 in MANUAL PLAY choose the pattern). Lesson 6 has a plan for organising them.

The songs listed are suggestions to strum along to whose feel suits each beat, not drum transcriptions.

Beat A: Boom-chick (about 80 to 120 BPM)

The campfire beat: kick on 1 and 3, snare on 2 and 4. Fits most strummed folk and country songs in 4/4, such as John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” (1971). Swap the snare for the rim shot or claves for a softer, more acoustic feel.

Strum: one downstrum on each of steps 1, 5, 9 and 13.

Beat B: Pop strum (about 90 to 130 BPM)

Beat A plus closed hats on every eighth note, which gives you a steady pulse to lock your up and down strums to. Try it under Vance Joy’s “Riptide” (2013), an Aussie uke staple.

Strum: down on every hat hit for steady eighths, or the popular down, down-up, up-down-up pattern across one bar.

Beat C: Folk stomp (about 100 to 140 BPM)

Kick on every beat like a foot stomp, with a clap on 2 and 4. This is the feel of 2010s stomp-and-clap folk such as The Lumineers’ “Ho Hey” (2012) and Mumford & Sons’ “Little Lion Man” (2009).

Set the kick TONE low with a short DECAY so it thuds like a boot on floorboards.

Beat D: Reggae one drop (about 70 to 90 BPM)

Nothing on beat 1. The kick and rim shot hit together on beat 3, and the hats mark the offbeats. Strum along to Bob Marley and the Wailers’ “Three Little Birds” (1977).

Strum: a short, muted upstrum (a “chop”) on steps 3, 7, 11 and 15, exactly with the hats.

Beat E: Waltz in 3/4 (about 90 to 140 BPM)

For songs that count “1, 2, 3”, such as “Amazing Grace” and “Scarborough Fair”. A waltz needs a 12-step loop: three beats of four steps each. In PATTERN WRITE, hold CLEAR and press step 12.

Flick the switch under RS to claves first. Strum: down on step 1, then lighter strums on 5 and 9 (“OOM-pah-pah”). The accent on step 1 makes the “OOM” stand out. When you’re done with the waltz, CLEAR + step 16 sets the pattern back to 16 steps.

Exercise 4

Swap the closed hat in the house beat for an open hat on steps 3, 7, 11 and 15, and listen to how much more “lift” it gives. Then write starter beats A and B into their own patterns, and play a song you know on guitar or uke over each one.