@Tarekith Video
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Time wasting as well.
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After looking at all the videos I decided I had to try the MC-707 workflow for myself and ordered one yesterday, it was delivered today while I was at work, looking forward to checking it out tonight!
Update, first impressions:
Positive:
- Itās a traditional ROMpler groovebox with 3000+ presets and deep sound editing, not a sampling groovebox like Digitakt or MPC Live
- The sound engine is impressive: 4 partials with 4 oscillators/samples and filters each, so 16 oscillators and 4 filters per voice/key (not sure yet how this affects polyphony)
- The sequencer has 128 steps per clip, at 1/16th notes this equals 8 bars which is nice, you can even make it 16 bars when you lower your resolution (scale in Roland-speak) to 1/8th notes!
- The sequencer has other cool functions too, like reverse, random and inverse playback you can toggle momentarily for live weirdness
+The control surface is nice with 3 dedicated buttons + volume fader per track, good for live performance - The mute modes are cool, in mute mode you get simultaneous access to track muting (audio) and midi clip muting (mutes at the end of the clip automatically!) again nice for live performance
- Full and easy back-up off projects via USB mass storage mode (pay attention Elektron, we need this for Digitaktā¦)
Negative:
- The LCD viewing angles are really poor
- The build quality is very āplasticā especially compared to Elektron, but not as scratch prone as say a Roland JD-XA
- The manual is written in Roland-speak and difficult to understand at times
- The sound editing is not hands-on like Electribe 2 or Digitakt, lotās of menu diving
- A song mode would be realy nice to have
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Received mine this morning at home. But Iām still @work. 
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Well, I caved.
Hereās my first jam. About one hour into the box, I put this together.
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I have a question: can the 4 tracks on the MC-101 be all synth tracks?
Even further thoughts on the MC-707:
The synth engine can sound really fantastic (even if the presets are mostly rubbish). Iām impressed at some of the variety. And editing the sounds is relatively straightforward if youāre used to editing subtractive synthesis. There are some strange missing features, notably pan spread on poly synths, but most of what youād want is there.
The lack of master-level effects on the drums is kind of bummer, though itās good thereās a master-level compressor. It means the drums have this very clean and not super glued together quality, which will favour some types of music over others. Iām under the impression that you get one drum track with compression on it, but I havenāt tried it out yet. Still, it would have been nice to saturate/overdrive the drums, or be able to quickly sidechain other tracks to the drums (a la the Novation Circuit), or do other creative things (e.g. a phaser on high percussion tracks). Maybe Iām just missing something, or maybe Iāll discover some of these features soon.
Iām making a little music on the device now, which is fun, but I canāt help but note a distinct absence of (for lack of a better word) musicality in some of the design decisions. In many instances the assigned filter cutoff knob, if Iām not mistaken, doesnāt sweep the entire frequency range (or maybe theyāre just really bright, 6dB slope filters or something). The knobs under the screen can scroll through one unit of value at a time, i.e. a 1/1000 increment, i.e. painfully slowly, or they can jump by large numbers by pressing down and spinning the knob or holding the shift button; but those faster turns sound very steppy / not smooth, which leaves you with no ability to alter those parameters during a performance unless you assign them to one of the performance knobs. Some of the preset scatter choices are very musical, and others are jarring and destroy the mix (I know these can be changed, but Iāve yet to dig into it). Most of the drum presets are set near full volume for the individual parts, which means you have no headroom and can only turn down individual drum parts in many instances. And so on. Itās nothing that makes the MC-707 a dealbreaker, but Iām still often pushing back against these decisions and they slow down the creative process.
All in all, the MC-707 really has a lot of what I want on paper, and some of its features really are fantastic, but Iām finding it slower and less immediate than I found the Novation Circuit, which is a bummer. Iāll continue to explore it, but if Iām not making tracks I love soon, Iāll switch back to other gear for a while. Thereās too much to do in life to be fighting against the natural inclinations of a groovebox!
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Iāve been starting to get more interested in the 101, but the price feels a lil steep. With samples and customizable scatter fx, it could be a nice compact breakbeat machine.
Iāll wait until the eventual Roland price drops though. A pity the 101 doesnāt appear to be class compliant.
How intricate can the pattns be? can you play unquantized into it, or is it a typical step seq grid affair? Is there microtiming if so?
Playing breakbeats and sequencing long patterns over MIDI would be enough for me to seriously consider getting one at some point. If some of the BOSS fx algos are on board this thing, even better!
So I was really keen on the 707 and went to test one out at my local music store over the weekend.
Quite disappointed.
Clunky menu system
Sample assignment was clunky too
Feel of unit wasnāt great
Not impressed with synth sounds or the pads to play them
Compared to the Digitone which blew me away when I first sat down and used itā¦
Not sure what I was expecting, but it was a lot more. Not a Roland user (only Roland gear Iāve owned is 3 sp404s).
Not sure what Iām going to buy instead of the 707 but wasnāt impressed enough to pay $1699AUD for it
Attractive as a groove rompler - a grompler perhaps?
Need to sell something though - and like having a loaded Fantom XR as a stand-alone module, despite its heftiness.
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@FrankLeone Yes they can all be synth tracks.
@tsutek Yes there is unquantized note entry and nudging.
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I recognize a lot of your comments, the workflow is a bit clunky and slow but Iām gonna give it some time, maybe I can get used to it.
Btw, there are master level effects on the drums and you can decide which pads or samples to route dry or to MFX. It took me a while to figure out how to route each pad to one of the six compressors on a Drum+Comp track, lots of menu diving (and I couldnāt find it in the manual). Select a pad on the drum kit sound edit screen and hit enter button to go Drum Inst Menu for each pad. Then select Pad Edit and hit enter again, go to the second tab called CTRL and scroll down to Output assignā¦ the menu diving on this thing is really something 
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yes indeed. Watched the loopop videos just now. The specs Iām looking for seem to be on board. Only thing which I was left unsure about is the shuffle parameterā¦ does it also have negative values? If so, this is starting to look quite tempting!
Biggest hurdle for me would be tied to just 16 patterns per projectā¦ Can you load clips from other projects into the current one while the sequencer is playing? I wouldnāt ideally want to be limited to just 16 patterns per gigā¦ and guessing the load time for switching between projects is significant?
Iām a big fan of groove boxes since the 90ās, so I just got the 101. Iām impressed with it. So far, the good points :
-Sound per clip option;
-Drum tracks can have 16 independent sounds;
-Individual āMFXā for each track in addition to the master delay/reverb/MFX;
-LOTS of very usable fx algorithms;
-Tons of usable presets;
-Transparent sample importation procedure;
-Samples can be used everywhere (drum, tone or loop tracks);
-Easy navigation.
What I like less :
-Only 4 assignable knobs;
-No scales;
-No arpeggiator;
-A better screen would have been nice.
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I think itās pretty damn cool that you can step sequence the scatter fx. Thatās OP-Z territory right there. Or that Aira mixer, I guess. Itās cool either way.
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I donāt think you can sequence your scatter effects like on OP-Z? Or I cannot figure out howā¦
Go to Scatter mode. Press Scatter again. Press a step on the sequencer, and a corresponding desired scatter effect. Now, you got a sequenced scatter effect. Mix and match for afx mayhem.
Only sixteen steps, as far as Iāve experienced, but still.
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Thanks!
I found it in the manual now tooā¦ in Roland-speak āWhile in Scatter mode, press the [SCATTER] button .ā
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Yeah, manualās confusing at best. Machineās pretty consistent though, so Iām finding that itās fairly easy to figure stuff out once youāre wired into the way it thinks. Coming from Elektron land, that takes some re-wiring, however.
Hey I noticed that too. However, as an OT user, I found the MC101ās structure to be relatively easy to figure out. Overall, I like its flow.
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