I love dialing in the step filter on the MC-101. Also I discovered that you don’t have to be in clip mode to change scenes. I like to stay in scatter mode, hold clip button + 1-8 (to change scenes) when you release the clip button you can continue scatting. Slick stuff
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Yes, saving is slow, I was wondering if it might be the stock SD card but I haven’t replaced it yet… having to stop the sequencer to save sucks indeed
Some workflow choices are definitely questionable, I keep hitting the clip button (next to the sound button) by accident which makes the MC 707 scan all the projects on the SD card every time, waiting for that to finish is tedious, swapping the clip/shift+clip button behavior might have been more logical
Also having go hit shift+sound every time to edit a sound feels cumbersome, here having the sound/sound+shift behavior the other way around might have been more logical
The knobs below the display also don’t always work the same way in every mode, sometimes pushing down works for bigger changes something you need to press shift
However on the whole I seem to gel with the unit and I can’t be bothered too much with these issues. On other gear I would have returned it for a refund, but there is something that makes me come back to the MC 707 and wants me to master it
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Final thoughts for now:
There’s a lot to love about the MC-707, but ultimately it feels half-baked.
I just finished up a track, but there’s inconsistent voice stealing all over the place; I’m nowhere near 128 notes of polyphony, so I don’t know if I’ve got super long release times on some tracks, or what. To record this track, I’d either need to do some more troubleshooting or wait for another firmware update, neither of which sounds fun or like a good use of time.
Things I really like: I think the synth voices, and many of the strictly synthy presets sound really, really great. There is in fact all-drum effects (thanks, @acidhouseforall), which is great. The scatter is awesome when it’s awesome. 128-step patterns is great. There are a lot of bonus sounds (e.g. piano and electric keys) that you wouldn’t get out of something like a Circuit. The faders and knobs really do a lot for performing on it.
Things I really dislike: Mainly just a lot of poor design choices or inconsistent rules. Examples: when you add delay to a track, the most basic parameters you’d want access to (i.e. feedback and mix) are buried in a submenu, and other parameters are instead surfaced; there’s a master compressor, but it’s a multiband compressor with no visual feedback and lots of fussing involved; the filter cutoff knob often doesn’t represent the entire sweep of the filter, and while it can be set to the absolute values of the filter, but it takes a bunch of menu diving on a number of presets; the knobs under the screen scroll either too slow or two fast, never hitting the sweet spot; the master effects on the entire device, and the all-drum-level effects, are named the same thing, which is unnecessarily confusing; the buttons feel as though they’re in the wrong positions (@HoldMyBeer mentioned the shift button, and they were totally right!); there’s no simple copy/paste function present on the face (kudos to Elektron for changing my workflow with this one!); sometimes the ADSR parameters don’t actually change when you change the numerical values on the screen; and so on. Nothing on its own that is a dealbreaker. The only true dealbreaker is that inconsistent voice-stealing I’m running into, because I can’t trust it work right or to at least break in a reliable way.
I don’t think I’ll return it or sell it yet. I think maybe I’m just so busy in the rest of my life that wasting time on poor design choices and troubleshooting is extra frustrating for me. In so many respects, it has much of what I wanted from a next-generation Circuit, so maybe I should blame the user. But ultimately, I’m not having a lot of fun with it, and I’ve got other great gear, so I’m going to put it aside for now. Here’s hoping they smooth out some of the firmware side.
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Some very good points here. About the voice stealing, have you changed the polyphony track settings? I believe by default it is set to 4 voices per track, but can be bumped up to higher, maybe to 10. Also, I had read somewhere that there is some sort of an analog modeling filter that you can use, maybe with the synth tracks, which is very system intensive, and would lower overall polyphony.
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Pretty sure you only get 128 voice polyphone with sounds that only use a single part. Most sounds use up to four parts so you can get voice stealing with a lot less than 128 notes playing at the same time.
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Stupid question on my part, but these receive midi, right?
Like the 101 would have 4 midi channels that respond to notes? Like a normal synth or drum machine, correct?
just thinking about sequencing the 101 from Ableton or the MPC
I had no idea there was a polyphony track setting (case in point?), but none of my individual tracks is beyond four voices at a time (three max, I believe). Similarly, if some of these filters are lowering polyphony, I feel like there’s a way you can warn the user of it, right? Or maybe they did warn me and I failed to see it.
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I think I read from somewhere that custom PCMs can eat much more into polyphony than factory sounds… any truth to this?
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You’re lucky. I sent detailed bug reports at Roland backstage but no answer. I’ll wait for an update though, none of the problems is a deal breaker in my case.
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Yeah, they don’t really warn you, it looks like is in the reference guide, but it is just mixed in with filter editing stuff. If voices are going to be lowered, there should be more warning. Anyway, It looks like on the tone tracks, using Time Variable Filter (TVF) instead of the VCF, and/or using the filter at 24db will lower the polyphony. Also, maybe look at voice priority settings, it can be set to last or loudest.
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Also, you can set reserved voices per track. 4 is the default.
I agree the scatter, is the most interesting part of the 707 so far. It can be used for a lot of effects, from faking a ducking effect to more advanced stuff.
It can also be used as a workaround to apply two MFXs to the external Input only.
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The scatter can also be used to hold a loop recorded from any single or all tracks. Useful for transitions and such.
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What I’m missing now, is slicing. I love messing and chopping stuff up on my Blackbox and build beats with that. No such thing on the MC 707.
Given that, I’m pondering if the 101 with the Blackbox is a better match than going all 707, tho the sound edit limits of the 101 might put me off.
EDIT: Ah, no. Browsed the 101 manual. I’m sticking with the 707.
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you need to use the slices like on legacy MPCs. Assign the slices to drum pad slots. If needed, assign all drumpads to the same choke group for monophonic slice playback.
Keep the 707 if you have the space for it. It clearly is the better machine. I went with the 101 because I already have a plethora of “full size” grooveboxes (elektron trinity, MPC live, Akai Force) and needed a portable solution.
I’m still trying to get over the fact that tone editing on the 101 is seriously crippled. If Roland will not release a 101 compatible tone editor later, I will be very disappointed. Right now, if I want to make custom tone patches with deep parameter edits and VA partials mixed with custom samples, what are my options? Asking someone with a 707 to do a preset for me? 
If no editor will be forthcoming, I’m smelling a “cash grab move” on Roland’s behalf… Downloadable tone sound packs will be coming soon no doubt, so Roland’s stance might also be that “101 users can expand their tone pallette by buying sound packs”… which I’m not into at all tbh
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.Thanks. Yeah, it’s a bit of an odd proposition, the 101.
As for slicing, there’s no sample editing going on for tone and drum tracks as far as I can tell, so my twenty second funk recording from some dusty old crate from which I want to slice the perfect snare, doesn’t seem
doable. Given that I’m still learning, tho, I could be wrong. I’d be totally cool with the workflow you suggested if trimming and assigning that to a pad, was possible.
I have no boxes now. A Rev2, a Heat, a Bbox and the MC707. That’s it. So it’s likely a keeper for me.
EDIT: I was wrong. You can edit drum
pad samples, Dilla style. I friggin’ love this thing. Not even sure that’s a word
MC-707 has some flaws yeah but I quite like it. Just set it up with the MPC X to try out some auto sampling etc.
Just fitted the MPC X with a 500gb SSD too
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If you look at the Aira Media website you will see that Roland pretty much always provide free tone sound packs for their instruments. Doubt the 101/707 would be any different.
What role does the 707 play for you, given that the MPC X is pretty accomplished on its own?
elektron may have joked about a sequencing rompler, but they really should think about it.