Introduction.
The RS808 is Roland's TR-808 Rimshot/Clavs sound generator adapted for modular
synthesizer use. The front panel contains all of the controls found on the original
TR-808 drum machine, allowing you full control over the sound’s volume levels to
mix with other drums, and accent levels. In addition to that, the RS808 includes a
Pitch control knob, Snap control knob, and two switches for selecting between
four different sounds.
Let’s get started.
To start using the RS808, plug a gate signal into the GATE IN and plug the
RS OUT to your sound system, set the LEVEL half way, set the two switches down,
set SNAP to about 30% and PITCH to 50%. You should hear the classic 808
Rimshot sound. Flip the two switches upward and you will hear the 808 Clavs sound.
Four sounds to chose from.
The two switches allow 4 different positions, both up are Clavs, both down is the
Rimshot, Left up, Right down is a nonlinear mix of Clavs and Rimshot, Left down,
Right up is a short “click” sound.
Controls.
SNAP Explained:
SNAP controls the height of the internal envelope generator. It has a different subtle
effect with each sound setting but in general will go from silence to maximum snap.
This control was not available on the original 808 machine and adds more variation
to experiment with.
PITCH Explained:
PITCH lets you set the frequency of the sound so it can be played in harmony
with other sounds. It also give you the ability to shape the sound together with the
SNAP control, creating new sounds. This control was not available on the original
808 machine and adds more variation to experiment with.
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Dynamics and Gain.
Accent and Levels:
Dynamic Accent and Level control of any drum sound in the mix is a big part of
making a beat sound right. Dynamic Accent provides emphasis on a particular note
through loudness. In analog circuits like the RS808, the accent pulse physically
"hits" the internal VCA circuit harder and provides not only a louder sound but also
slightly more attack (much like if you were to hit a real drum harder or softer
with a drum stick.)
While the original 808 has one global accent knob affecting all of its sounds
simultaneously, the RS808 (and all other drum modules in this series) offers an
independent accent level control. This feature adds far more dynamics than what
was possible with the original machine.
Accent Explained:
The accent input is a gate/trigger signal.
While the accent input is not in use, the incoming gate input is routed
(normalized) to both the accent input and the gate input. This serves for two
purposes:
1. To allow you to reach the hottest drum sound possible even when there is no
accent input signal connected.
2. It makes the ACCENT knob act as a fine control of the output gain level. This
is very useful in situations where the level knob range is too coarse for setting
precise levels in a mix with other drum sounds.
Connecting a gate signal into the accent input will break the internal routing
mentioned above and will allow for independent control over accent regardless
of the incoming gate signal. In this case as long as there is no accent signal
present, the drum sound will be set to the minimum accent level set internally,
and once the accent input gets hit by a gate signal, the drum sound will get
louder in proportion to the accent level set by the accent knob. In short: the
higher the knob setting, the larger the difference will be in gain levels between
the accented notes and the un-accented notes.
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