Roland Aira Compact T-8 Beat Machine Reviews

I'm a big fan of Rolands Boutique Series Synths (I have 5 of them, the JP-08, JX-03, JU-06A, JX-08 & JD-08), they all represent a point in time of Roland's Synthesizer history (all of which I either owned or worked with and are all unique in their own way, that is why I bought all 5).

The new AIRA Series builds on this Roland tradition with both the T8 and new S-1. I first bought the S-1 because of its SH-101 heritage. I never owned one but I always felt it was an underrated Synth at the time. After really enjoying the S-1 I decided to add the 2 other AIRA Synths. Starting with this T-8 ad finally there E-4 (another review).

Here's why:
I love the Form Factor of the AIRA Series, small, compact, I can fit 3 of them on my small, portable workstation table, (see attached photos).

Roland's ACB sound generation technology is excellent recreating the sounds from TR-909, TR-808, TR-606 & TB-303 perfectly.
Interconnectivity with MIDI and or SYNC In/Out between makes them so easy to be alone Music Station.
The Effects in these units are extraordinary.
Super Easy to program, until you use the Menu System
64 patterns
Pattern length up to 32 steps
TR step sequencer
Shuffle & Accent programmable
MIX In/Out/Thru makes it easy to use with the other AIRAs
Although Plastic, they are solidly built. All of the knobs and buttons feel good and are easy to adjust.
Rechargeable batteries make it very convenient to use, although under normal daily studio use I power them via the USB.
You can't beat the price for a great sounding "GrooveBox"

So what are my observations, negatives or Cons….
Just an observation, This is a "what you hear is what you get" Machine. If you are looking for a full featured TR-909, TR-808, TR-606 & TB-303 this is not it. It's just a great "Snapshot of those classic sounds

These comments are the same as I reviewed my S-1:
The little display which is only four-character, seven-segment is far from informative, most of the time the cryptic numbers confuse me more than they help. Because of this the manual needs reading, quite a bit and quite often at that and to get the most out of it there is Endless Menu-Diving

Several of the Buttons are impossible to read, transparent type on black buttons. The only way to barely be able to read them is by holding down the SHIFT button which is what you need to do in order to use most of them but then they Flash Repeatedly making them very hard to read.

Not a CON but something to be aware of, the Battery lasts 4.5 hours (or close depending on use) but in a regular Music Studio environment that goes by very fast so be prepared to use the USB port to keep it plugged into a USB Power Hub. I do and it is Noiseless.

One last CON and a pet peeve of mine, and this is true of Every Roland Synth I own, they never include ANY additional cables. All of the Boutique Series do not even include a USB Cable. Now because the AIRA's have a rechargeable battery Roland almost has to include a cable and they do...1 USB C (for the T-8 end) to USB A, Roland needs to get into the year 2023 and also provide a USB C to USB C cable! They should also include a Type A 3.5mm TRS to 5-pin MIDI adapter and at least one 3.5MM TRS Sync/Midi Cable

I love this little machine.... It is fantastic for acid house beats.... plus just like my J6 completely portable and handy on the go. The sounds are great I use the little drum machine with a variety of synths I own including the J6. It's just great. You use the preset sequences or just go wild on your own. It sounds great and it works perfectly It is a valued addition to my collection... Way to go Roland.... it is a fun, very affordable little powerhouse!! Highly recommended

I can't express enough, how amazing this little machine is! I'm having way too much fun!
If you're just getting into electronic music in the sounds of the 80s 90s and up you definitely need to buy one of these boxes!
There's so much to this little machine. the T8 is the coolest little drum machine/bass line module that Roland has ever come out with!
Plus the fact it has a rechargeable battery and you can take it anywhere. it's so small and it sounds that good. Some people are calling this a toy. this is not a toy I've already recorded some great stuff with this thing. I own TR 8 the Tr8s the TB 3 and the TB 03 !
I love them all they're amazing.
But this one little box,it's probably the size of an iPad mini. Speaking of which you can also hook it up to an iPad through USB-C or do you computer. Because it records audio and midi through the USB-C cable that comes with it. Amazing! Amazing! Amazing!

I've been in the electronic music scene since it began, pretty much. This box provides many of the wonderful sounds I've grown up with over the years, and the sounds are all top-notch. I'm still learning it, but it looks promising. And I'm sure that it's going to be a quite capable unit, as it has a LOT of stuff for such a small and inexpensive unit. It's a lot of fun to take along to laundry or anything else to pass the time, and being small, it goes anywhere. It's not my main instrument, but at one time, it could have been. I will be using it as an instrument, though, in my midi setup. The bass is capable of some really nice and wide-ranging basses, not just acid. Thanks again, Sweetwater!

This is an amazing combination of a TR-style drum machine and a 303 clone along with a suite of effects. Both parts of it sound fantastic. All for about the price of a Volca in a form factor that you can easily throw in a purse. A decent pair of headphones takes up more space to carry around than this. It's design is focused on being played in a live performance, and it doesn't really facilitate sequencing with it. It has a built in lithium ion battery for portability, and a digital out over USB for sound quality. Oh, and it has a mix in jack. So if you want to play this with another synth, you can daisy chain the output to this and run them both to your speakers and headphones.

This uses Roland's Analog Circuit Behavior (ACB) digital emulation, so instead of reproducing the actual analog components they made a 303 out of, it has a software model of what each of those components are like, and it's a really detailed emulation. If you want your hardware to really be analog, cool, but this is probably going to sound more like a 303 than anything analog that you can buy new today. The same is true of the drum models.

The drum machine has a set of pretty standard sound controls for x0x drums: per-part level, tune, and decay, and selectable snappy for the snare. Attack for each part is available in the menu. It has global accent for the drum parts (though separate from the 303 accent), but selectable velocity per step per part if you want to dig in a little. It has step divide and flam for rolls, and a step loop function for just repeating the same step or steps. The patterns are up to 32 steps and include a separate fill pattern. There's also step probability, which is a really nice feature to find at this price, and you can pan each of the drums individually. It feels like a really complete set of features (except as noted below on downsides). Also, you have built-in effects that are very usable: you can set the wet/dry amount for each part for overdrive, delay, and reverb, and you can sidechain the different parts individually (as well as the 303) to make room for the bass drum (or any other part).

The 303 has all of the standard controls including pitch, accent, slide, cutoff/resonance, and decay. You can either play the keyboard live or punch in a note to play and then dial in the pitch with the value knob. You can select a separate pattern length than the rhythm pattern. It also has overdrive, reverb, and delay, and, as mentioned, you can sidechain it to the bass drum. You can pan it and it seems to have some width to it. 303s have a lot of limitations, but this is a solid one with some decent effects and it sounds great for bass lines and acid lines.

I didn't find the size to be frustrating. I like using the small buttons much better than the Volca ribbon thing, and the knobs are perfectly usable. All of these controls are easily accessable. The menu is brief and mostly one level deep, with a couple of exceptions like overdrive. There are plenty of performance shortcuts. If you really learn this thing, there's a lot you can do with it live.

The downsides:

(1) This thing looks and feels like a plastic toy. If you pull up with one of these things, people are going to think you're one of those twee musicians who plays toy pianos or something until you actually get the beats going. It doesn't feel like it's going to fall apart or anything, but heaven help me, the only visual difference between this and a My First Drum Machine that you'd give a 5 year old is that it has a bunch of tiny knobs and buttons instead of a few big ones.

(2) The patterns are 32 steps max with no chaining and no knob automation. You can't save preset sounds -- it will switch patterns but keep whatever sound you have dialed in. This thing is designed for live performance, not sequencing, period.

(3) The drum sounds aren't selectable: you get one 808 kick with some controls to adjust it, but there's no way to dial in a 909 kick or a sample or anything. There's one snare, and one open and closed hat. The tom and clap have a couple of source sound options so you can get two toms or a noise tom or something. If you want a lot of control over the sound design of your drums, this is not your drum machine. The good news is that the included sounds are very usable and have reasonable control knobs for adjusting the sound.

Verdict: it is what it is. It has a great set of emulated x0x drums, a great emulated 303, and a workable set of effects right in the box. It's small and light, you can play it anywhere, and it's optimized for performance, with surprisingly deep features for that use. If that's what you want, don't hesitate to buy it, there's nothing that comes close. If what you really want is a drum machine in this price range with more control over your drum sounds, look at stuff like the Volca Drum, the TR-6s, and the Electron Model: Cycles. Or maybe something that can sample. (Please don't buy a Volca Beats: it has way fewer capabilities and doesn't sound nearly as good.) If what you really want is a nice, easy to use 303 clone, well, honestly, this is a really good one. You could treat it as a 303 with a free drum machine thrown in. I honestly don't know why anyone would pay twice as much for a TB-03 other than that it looks like a 303 and not a toy.

Bottom line: they are going to sell a ton of these things, and they're not just gimmicks, they actually sound good. If Roland x0x sounds or tiny boxes aren't your thing you already knew this wasn't for you, but if those are things you like to have in your toolbox this is a good way of getting them.

This drum machine is very deceiving. It arrived with no set-up instructions or user's guide. The on-line instructional videos are also useless. It is very complicated and not what you need for simple drum machine jamming. I would not recommend this for anyone looking for a simple drum machine to se for practice or jamming with others.

The Roland T-8 Drum Machine was a big disappointment. There was no set-up instructions and no user's manual. The on-line demos are also useless. They fail to actually show you how to set it up and use it. Simple instructions like what to attach it to and how the machine functions are no where to be found. I would no recommend it to anyone looking for a simple drum machine to practice or jam with.