The TR-8S and TR-6S
represent the apex of the Roland
TR line, culminating in
our most complete drum machines to
date. The addition of the free
TR-EDITOR significantly enhances
your workflow, providing an
easy-to-usegraphical interface
with expanded visual controls and
organizational tools that amplify
the TR's creative possibilities.
Enjoy the expanded perspective
and control with the standalone
editor, regardless of whether you're
using your TR with your DAW
or not. The fluid on-screen
editor minimizes the need for
hardware menu diving and page
scrolling, and the librarian window
allows quick access to all your
patterns and kits.
You can use the TR-EDITOR with both
the TR-8S and TR-6S,
experiencing the same interface and
functionality, with the only
difference being the number of
instruments.
Let's take a look.
The TR-EDITOR has five main
screens that you'll be working from.
The first is the Overall Screen
and as you can see, most of the
hardware controls from the TR-8S
are mirrored here in the editor.
Let's play a sequence and we'll see
how these interact.
Any changes made on the hardware
are immediately reflected in the
editor.
And the same is true, the
opposite direction.
Any changes we make on the editor
immediately affect the sounds and
sequences of the TR.
We've got the familiar Tune control,
Decay,
our assignable Control knob, and
for the Control knobs, we've
got a very quick way to assign which
parameter is applied.
We also have the addition of an
Instrument Effects knob,
which is always active.
Along the top, we've got our Accent
level, basic Reverb and
Delay controls, Master Effects,
as well as Tempo, Shuffle, and
Auto Fill-in.
Not only that, but we can very
quickly change up which instrument
is on each track.
We'll take a look at that in more
depth in just a moment.
Regardless of what screen you're on,
you can always click the pattern and
kit menu up here to
open patterns and kits,
which you can swap out whenever you
would like.
Let's try a different pattern.
Now everything's adjusted to reflect
exactly what's happening in the
hardware.
You'll notice along the bottom
of many of the different screens,
we've got this simple one-track
sequencer.
Now what we're able to do
is select our instrument and
we can sequence away,
either by adding notes or
Motion Recording.
For example, if we want to pull up
the closed hi-hat,
we can add hi-hats just
like this.
Or alternatively,
we can draw it as long as
we're selected on Velocity.
We can go ahead and select
Tune, Decay, or Control for Motion
Recording.
Let's play with the Decay.
Nice.
And of course, you can get very
creative with the Control Motion
Recording.
Totally depends on what you
have your Control knobs set to.
Now this is a great way to edit one
instrument at a time.
But if you want to get an overall
view, we can go over to
the Pattern Screen.
Here, we have access to every
single instrument, including Accent
and the Trigger output,
and we can input notes wherever you
like.
And that includes adding
substeps,
alternate sounds where appropriate,
and we can hold "Shift" at any time
to add some weak beats.
We can also change the Last Step,
either for the entire pattern or
each instrument.
And things get pretty wild, pretty
quickly when we do that.
Let's set that back to 16 steps.
If you'd like to change which
variation you're editing, simply
choose it on the left side here, A
through H, including fills one
and two.
Now on the top of the Pattern
Screen, you're able to
rename the pattern that you're
working on quickly, and
you can change the kit as well.
Let's keep working with the same
pattern and we'll check out the
Instrument screen.
Here we can use sub-tabs to select
which instrument we're editing.
Let's take a look at the snare drum.
We had a quick preview of this menu
before when we were looking at the
Overall screen.
But if you press in the instrument
name, we enter the
Instrument Select browser.
Now here, we can change which
category we're looking for: snare
drums, toms, rimshots, you name
it.
And we can also filter
by which type of sound we're using
ACB, FM, Sample,
or User.
Let's take a look at a couple
different snares.
ACB Snare
"909 2."
On the right side, we can change our
Gain, our Panning, our Reverb
send, let's turn that down a bit,
and Delay send.
We'll switch up one more time.
Let's take a look at some
sample-based snares.
Why don't we choose "106 Snare"?
And you'll notice that this area
here has updated with many more
parameters.
That's because sample bass sounds
have a bunch of extra parameters
within the TR engine.
To the right, we can see LFO
Destination and Depth.
We're able to change up the color of
our sliders.
Let's change the snare drum slider
to green.
There we see, it updated on the
hardware right away.
We can change our Mute Groups,
which output the sound is going out
of, and also
the grouping of different tracks.
Let's check out the kick drum.
Here, we can change our instrument
effects.
Let's switch this up to Compressor
and Drive.
And just like when we switch up our
type of instrument, when we change
our effects, all of the detailed
settings become visible right here
for quick editing.
Next, we have the EFX Screen,
and here we can see an overview of
our Reverb, Delay, and
Master Effect settings.
I've also chosen a different pattern
that has more melodic content.
I'm going to go ahead and turn down
the drums,
so we'll just listen to the synth
sounds.
So up top, we can choose
which Reverb we're using.
Let's change that to Mod.
We can adjust the Reverb parameters
and most importantly, we have the
Reverb Send for every track.
Now, having this all in front of you
on one screen is a great way to
really tune up your kits
and get them sitting with the
effects exactly the way you want.
Below Reverb, we've got the same
kind of situation for Delay.
You can choose your type.
Change your settings.
And then below that individual Delay
Sends for each track, including
sending the Delay into the Reverb.
Let's bring those drums back.
Under the Master Effects, we can
choose from many different effects.
Right now, we're on the DJ-style
filter, so low-pass to high-pass.
Tweak that on the TR. I'm
going to go ahead this time and turn
down the synth sounds.
So we're just dealing with the
drums.
And let's just loop variations E
through H.
Try out some more
Master Effects.
Let's go to Transient 2.
So we'll turn that on on the TR.
Turn it up.
That's a great effect, really gating
anything that's got a long decay.
It's like a transient designer with
a built-in filter.
I'm gonna continue tweaking on the
TR while I
try out some other effects.
Let's try the Phaser.
And under the Master Effects
section, we can also change
what the Control knob in the Master
Effect section is doing.
So let's change it to rate.
Very cool.
And finally, we've got our Kit
Screen here.
We're able to quickly rename our
kits, adjust the overall level,
address LFO settings such as
Waveform, Rate,
and Tempo Sync on or off.
To the right, we've got a handy tool
that allows us to copy all of
the settings from any one instrument
and paste it onto another.
Below, we see an overview
for every instrument of some of the
settings that we've seen on
individual screens before,
such as output routing,
Mute Groups.
We've got Control Select,
as well as another area
where we can adjust
the colors of all of
the faders.
And then to the right, we've got our
instrument grouping.
On the left side, we've got settings
for the external input, which allow
us to edit the Sidechain Source,
Type and Depth, Gain, Panning,
and Effect Sends.
While editing settings for your
individual instruments, your kits,
your effects, and even your
patterns, you may make a mistake
and want to take a few steps back
on the top right.
We've added an Undo and Redo
button, which allows you to step
backwards, undoing some of the
actions that you've taken.
When you're happy with your edits,
you can press Write
and this will save both the kit and
the pattern at the same time.
The Get button is here if you need
to retrieve all of the currently
active kit and pattern data from
the TR hardware, and the
Send button will send all the
currently active kit and pattern
data from the editor to your
hardware.
The TR-EDITOR is the perfect
addition to your TR-8S or
TR-6S Rhythm Performer,
aiding in the creative workflow of
beginners and seasoned producers
alike. Download the TR-EDITOR
for free today through Roland Cloud
Manager, the software interface
for Roland Cloud content.
Roland Cloud is also the home of
Sample Packs and other premium
content for taking the TR experience
to the next level.