One of the very best drum machines ever. It has excellent sounds which can be expanded by adding additional sound cards (808 and 909 cards). Great rock, electronic, ethnic and industrial style drum kits! Most of the sounds are editable – tune, decay, attack, nuance, output, etc…

But its coolest tricks are the Feel Patches which give your program a human-like groove! The sounds are ROM based samples, the R-8 has 32 note polyphony, 68 instruments, 100 patterns and 10 songs! The R-8 later became the R-8mkII with more memory and sounds. It is used by Orbital, Underworld, Jimmy Edgar, Autechre, 808 State, Dave Holmes, Fluke, Human League and The Shamen.

Specs

• Polyphony – 32 voices
• Sounds – 68 Rom samples
• Controls – tune, decay, attack, nuance, output, etc…
• Patterns – 100
• Songs – 10
• Arpeg/Seq – Sequencer
• Keyboard – None
• Control – MIDI
• Date Produced – 1989, R-8 mkII – 1992

Source: http://www.vintagesynth.com