Essentially a re-packaged Drum Station, the v2 has a new look that matches the theme of the Super Bass Station. Just like the Drum Station it employs analog Sound Modeling - digitally synthesized models of the original waveforms which can be shaped, just like analog. You can adjust the tone, attack, decay, tuning, snap, and distortion of its drum tones. It includes all of the sounds found in the original 808 and 909's, the same tone controls for each drum part, and my favorite is the DIN Sync output which will allow you to sync a TB-303, 909, or 808 to it - just like the original boxes.

This is the perfect source for believable, tweakable 808 and 909 drums! It also features modern functions such as full MIDI implementation and control of all parameters, distortion, front-cut edits, note-off programming, programmable drum kits with 40 memory locations, and general-midi drum mapping. Plus there are multiple assignable individual outputs! It is used by Josh Wink.

Drum Station Drum Tone Specs:

Dark Star

October 25, 2012 @ 2:10 am

Its all about the processing.. this unit can sound almost identical to the 808 and 909 with the correct outboard, bearing in mind no two 909's or 808's sound the same after 30 years anyway, everyone of them is as individual as a fingerprint.
Anyway im using focusrite red 3 compressor and neve eq, so its pretty easy to make this shine. Laurent garnier uses one of these instead of the TR909 (which he used to have on his early records) so if its good enough for him.. go figure..

eraser

October 3, 2012 @ 6:11 am

The secret to making the Drumstation sound good is by paying close attention to the 'Front Cut' parameter and mild use of the distortion. Front Cut enables you to set the start point of the drum sound (almost like a sample). With a little experimentation, you can find lot's of 'sweet spots' where you can create snappy, clicking, glitch type kicks. A *little* distortion (setting of 2 or 3) can add a LOT of punch to your kicks and snares.

I layer mine under sampled drum sounds from my Korg ESX-1 and it really does a job in filling out the mix. Very useful unit indeed.

minip

July 4, 2012 @ 12:27 pm

I cannot understand the comments here re: the ER-1. The ER-1 and Drum Station don't sound remotely the same, It's much closer to 909/808 than it is to an er-1..

scaught

March 23, 2012 @ 10:50 pm

I did what Chris below suggested-- got a Drumstation V2 remapped to my TR-909--- wow! To up the ante, I also added a Roland R-8m with 3 cards-- all driven by the 909's sequencer. I have the outs from the machines going into a Mackie LM3204-- 32 mono inputs! OMG! The grooves! Thanks Chris-- U R a Genie Yes!

Chris

June 28, 2010 @ 4:16 pm

I own a TR-909, and owned a TR-808. My 808 was old and cranky, and suffered from a number of glitches due to age.
I've A/B'd the Drumstation against both the 808 and 909...
For those who say it's a poor imitation, well, they're dead wrong. IMHO, the Drumstation 808 is pretty much bang on, and clean and noise free to boot. The 909 sounds, however, don't stack up quite so well; my 909 has a lot more 'hair' and 'grit'; subjective terms I know... but close enough for most purposes. The Drumstation shines if you want to record realtime knob changes etc... but for me, the Roland drum sequencer has always been a large part of the attraction of the old TR units. What I have done is used a MIDI Solutions MIDI Event Processor Plus to remap the TR-909 'Ext Inst' mode to match the TR-808 mapping of the Drumstation, so in essence my 909 becomes a hybrid 808/909, with real 909 and Drumstation 808 all controlled by the 909 sequencer.

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