Really hoping the 101 gets the 707 jam Performance updates. The 101 is begging for them.
Thatâs one of the differences, yes.
The 101 has much less editable parameters than the 707, thatâs why I took the 707. Portability is one thing, but I think having such a great synth engine inside and not being able to edit it standalone is a bit stupid, much like Novationâs Circuit.
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(and I didnât understand at first you were talking about the 101, which makes my response about the manual pages wrong, sorry about that)
Okay, so the scatter sequencer is my favourite part of the 707 so far. To sequence lock a scatter effect, and route them through different tracks, is like having sequenced scenes on the Octatrack. This was my favourite part of the OP-Z and itâs so cool that it can be done here, too, especially considering that you can design your own scatter fx.
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I knew there were less editable parameters, but didnât realize the diff would be this big! So basically tone tracks are almost unusable on the 101, unless you like using the presets.
Just unboxed the thing. Messing with it running from a USB power bank. Some first impressions (adding thoughts as I go):
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Very intuitive to use, this one. Skimmed through the manual during lunch and everything made sense straight away when I got home and powered up for the first time.
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knobs feel OK, the rotary encoder isnt as flimsy as I feared (blessings to omnissiah for that!)
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16 pads feel OK for finger drumming. No velocity sens obvs. Spacing between pads isnt annoying (to my fingers anyway). Flamming the pads is however tricky as the pads are so tiny, you need a superb technique to do it consistently.
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The LCD screen is easy enough on the eyes, even with poor eyesight. Viewing angle is also pretty good. Screen as well as the RGB lights are adjustable in brightness. Will any of these be visible in daylight? That remains to be seen⌠canât be worse than with my analog rytm
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The faders exhibit a slight lag. Not scratchworthy, you will not be doing razor sharp fast cuts with these. They seem to have a bit of a fade to the action. More suitable for fading than fast cuts. Kinda like std line faders on a non-turntablist club mixer
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The new scatter is AWESOME! Footwork and junglist heads will be pleased
You can customize the scatters to a very fussy degree, and even combine fader moves with the scatters, which update in real time. Impressive -
Preset sounds seem to lack âairâ frequencies? Everything sounds slightly dark, which considering the fletcher-munson effect might actually be a good thing
Otherwise, the box sounds decent, better than the electribe sampler I had anyway (no hiss / whine in the headphone out). Will have to test with familiar samples to form a more informed opinion. -
Loading a new project requires stopping playback. However, loading any single item from another project does not require stopping playback! So you can just load new clips into slots on the fly, clear a previously played slot, load another clip in its place, and on and on, without ever stopping! Very dope, and makes this box kinda like a DJ system in a way, enabling hours of fun without ever stoppping to reload. A real standout feature!
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quantization settings seem pretty comprehensive. quantization seems to be nondestructive. And that negative shuffle
At this stage Iâm ready to say âRoland finally made something coolâ (besides the SE-02 which was a collab), but Iâll leave final verdict until I have had proper time to get aquainted with the 101. Its achilles heel might be the âgig preppingâ part, we will see⌠Judging from the factory content and messing with the controls for a bit, I can already see having a blast âperformingâ with this one. If some kind of editor software gets made for this, the 101 would be a really strong competitor in the portable groovebox market of 2019 regardless of price.
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So this happened to me last night:
Which is obviously wrong because:
and:
After an âoptimizeâ command (even though there was no fragmentation !), I was able to go on with the samples loading.
Another bug: importing wav in looper track renames the clip⌠but not the one in which you loaded the sample, the one above !
This adds to the forward-loop bugâŚ
This box is very cool and I have a lot of fun with it, but Roland has to release a firmware that is better than beta-quality before I consider to use this thing on stage.
Well, to be honest - thats the vibe of todays industry.
You are the beta tester, right?
I wish I was an official beta-tester: One to test a product before itâs released. Iâm not even kidding, I like to test, find bugs, report them⌠but also at one point Iâd like to use the gear for what I bought it 
One problem with Roland though: thereâs no way to report bugs. All you can do is contact support, which never calls back for bugs. So you donât even know how to contact the developers. I guess a youtube video posted on Gearslutz is needed.
You are using v 1.0.2 right?
yes.
I donât understand why they havenât corrected the spelling of usege to usage in the 1.02 updateâŚ
Anyway, hope for many future firmware updates to work out bugs and improve usability
Someone affiliated with Roland told me on another forum that an update is on its way⌠hope for the best !
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Hmmm, that battery option on the 101 has me thinking pretty seriously about flipping a certain other tiny mobile synth/sampler with no knobs or screenâŚ
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I returned my 707 due to bugs, among other things. But I was able to contact Roland and let them know about the issues by filling out a support ticket on their website. Had a few emails back and forth with someone and even sent them a video of the issue.
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What bugs did you encounter?
The main one was an issue with the multi fx. I would just be scrolling through the different fx, trying different ones out, tweaking the main two fx knobs here and there, really just auditioning fx, and it would freeze up on me. Lost work a few times because of it.
I had random freezing issues with my first MPC Live, it was resolved by exchanging the unit for a different one.
So far I have not had a freeze with my MC 707, knocks on woodâŚ
But I can imagine how you feel, stability is a must for a live machine
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The worst thing with the freezing is losing work. With other machines I save my work very frequently, but on the 707 saving is pain, and you have to stop playback in order to do it, so I wasnât as compulsive about it as I am with other machines.
While I thought the machine was fairly easy to learn, some of the layout decisions were questionable. I donât have one in front of me anymore, but I remember thinking why would they put the SHIFT button so far up to the left corner? It is a bigger machine, and I always had to look for it. Never got the muscle memory down on that one. And why put the motion record button so close the the regular record button?
Also, the screen isnât that good, unless I was standing over it. Sitting down and playing it, it was hard to see on an angle.
But, these can be seen as small complaints. There is plenty to like about it, and as I said before, I may revisit it again in the future. I am sure there are plenty of people loving theirs and making great music with it.
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Had a session today where I used only the live looping. Itâs a blast. Automated recording on cue straight through sequenced scatter fx is da shit.
Synthâs not too shabby either. Works best when you donât try to make it sound like something you know, but rather something in its own.
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