Theoretically you can have 10 sample slots per track. You get 4 drum tracks and 4 tone tracks. The drum tracks have 2 note polyphony and can sample 12 seconds in each slot that are chopped. You can adjust start and end points on the chops. That should give you 40 chopped break loops. No time stretching but you do get a tape track that you use as a looper and slow down or speed up just like a tape machine. You only get 16 trigs per bar but you can divide it up to 10, for example I divide my track by 2 now my trigs go from 16th notes to 8th notes but the track plays twice as long. Each track is independent of each other, you adjust the track length from 16 down to 1 for polymeters. The tone tracks also Have 10 slots you can sample into but with only 6 seconds of sample time each. With the tone tracks you get 4 note polyphony and one of the tone tracks specifically does arpeggios. The drum tracks are very similar to PO-33 but you also get conditional trigs, plocks, performance effects and an additional 2 effects per track. Itās a sick instrument and the sequencer is top notch especially for a device this small. I havenāt maxed out the sample time and maybe I should give it a try. The OP-Z is class compliant so I can sample straight from my iPhone.
yes. itās even top notch when compared to bigger sequencers
thanks. What about quantization? So I get 16 trigs, but do these always have to be strictly quantized?
What about the MIDI sequencing? Does using it eat sample tracks
The price diff isnāt that huge actually, at least without OPlab. This makes the op-z a serious contender for the 101 in my book. I donāt really care much for the canned Roland rompler patches on the 101 tbh, maybe if the engine was exposed like on the 707, but the way it is now, meh
Oh forgot it has micro timing very similar to the Elektron way. You can live record with no quantize and adjust after the fact.
It has 16 tracks total the first 8 are designated for internal but can be used for midi. Tracks 9-16 are specialty track that have insane features like video and lighting sequencing capabilities but could also be used as midi tracks. Nothing on the market like the OP-Z.
Can the 707 stream an audio input so that I can apply its effects and scatter to the input? Was thinking of playing an external instrument through it at same time (guitar, electronic drumset, etc) while tracks played.
Received the UDG U8450BL hardcase today for my MC-707. The case was originally made for the Pioneer Toraiz SP-16 and the Roland TR8S, but itās a snug fit for the MC-707 and plenty of room for cables etc.
We have a gig coming up on the last Thursday of November, I might bring the MC-707 if I manage to prep enough material 
Out of curiosity, was this happening before the firmware update as well? Also, are you a Mac user and if so, did you do the update through the unit or remove the SD card and do it that way? Iāve had similar freeze issues.
Mine froze twice. Between this, the memory full bug, the forward loop bug when importing wavesā¦ a new firmware is very much needed.
For most of the time I had it I was using firmware 1.02. I am a Mac user, and updated it by removing the SD card from the unit and using an adapter for the computer. They recommended doing a reset after the firmware update, but that did not help in my case either.
I did the update from USB storage mode without removing the sd card, I used a Mac too, so far no issues (knocks on wood)ā¦
I would return/exchange the unit if it freezes, maybe itās a bad unit?
New Blackbox update has me all wired up. Iām returning the 707 to the shop to remain close with the Blackbox.
I kind of like the 707. But I just love the Bbox.
I grabbed an MC707 and here is my quick-ish review.
It is the first Roland groovebox type thing where I will use the synth sounds. They are totally usable for a lot of bread and butter stuff. The drum sounds are great, and I have loaded in my own samples and used the four velocity layers, which I like. The effects (for me) range from garbage, to surprisingly good - they donāt sound like the stock effects Roland often throw into their machines. There is a good variety of reverbs in there. There are lots of effects routing as well, so Iām not left wanting at any point.
The main thing for me is having 8 tracks so I can choose to have multiple drum kits when writing. In a DAW, I almost always have an 808 + 909 + custom samples, but I donāt want to pick just a few sounds to throw into say the R8-S, I want all of them available, even if I donāt use them all in each pattern. I can throw some drum sounds on one track with one type of reverb, and have clean hats on another track, and mix and match pieces of rhythm from one pattern to another. The basic workflow of this is exactly what I want in a drum machine - lots of drum channels and the ability to write rhythms with a bass track. The whole āclipā concept really helps me write in a way most drum machines donāt.
The bad stuff.
It does not have enough sample memory. This is the biggest disappointment in a day and age when memory is a cheap feature to add. When you see a grid of 8 x16 patterns, you imagine Ableton. But I can get like max 8 to 10 loops in there. This part really sucks because the 404 can stream from the SD card. Drum hits donāt take up a lot of memory, but this is a loop based arranger, and should have memory for that purpose.
It has bugs. Usually Often I canāt recreate them. Some things in the manual just seem to not work. For example, I canāt set the effects level on a drum kit per pad. The setting is there, but only the send for the whole kit seems to work - the individual sends donāt. There are other issues, and Iāve posted on the Roland forum, with no response.
thank you, I am on the fence with 707 all the time but 60 sec limitation is killing me for what I ant to do with it.
Iām ok with any single loop being less than 60 seconds, no problem there. But I want like 32 loops to be able to have 3 songs loaded at once. It is a performance based tool, it should be designed to let you play live seamlessly without loading. yuck.
So the shortcomings from the TR8S were pretty much carried over to these? I would have hoped they would have learned from all of the complaints from TR8S sample management and file system and limited memory they would have improved on that for the MC707. I am interested in the performance and sound customization it offers but the menu driving with Roland is horrible. Im about to sell my tr8s. Iām not even interested in trying with the 707. Iāve given them too much of my money in the past with hopes that āthis one will be betterā. But they continue to let me down.
Maybe Behringer will do a proper recreation of the 707. Call it BC7 
improved memory and menu system. Worry less about the flashy fader lights.
Come on yāall (big companies), why are they all short changing their customers now? Itās almost 2020, whereās the hoverboard synths and flying drum machines loaded to the gills with what has been provided in the past and improved on?
Iām not just ranting just to complain. I feel like companies are starting to cheat us. We know what they can do, so why hold back? Make this gear right, charge us for what itās worth, if itās an improvement on something already done, make it. Iām tired of having to settle in gear bc there isnāt anything being made like what theyāve done before.
Elektron is to blame too and Iāma big fan of their equipment. They all say they listen to their customers. We can tell the companies who do.
I donāt understand why Roland didnāt improve on the original mc series. Theyāre always missing the mark.
Whereās my Roland Accordion MK2 with built in scatter?
unmatching someoneās expectations or speculations about whatās possible in year 20XX does not necessarily means that vendors are cheating us.
also, i wonder how people constantly want deep synth engine, lots of effects AND no menu diving. i suspect these are mutually exclusive options, if the intention is to keep the box portable.
Iām not suggesting no menu diving, Iām only saying the tech that is available to us today should not warrant using screens the size of yesterday or the convoluted way of organizing the menus. And why limit the memory when larger sizes are abundantly available. I do understand coast to overhead and making them as inexpensive as possible for the most on their returns. But push some boundaries to where others havenāt gone, make it special in a good way.
Donāt get me wrong, the new MCās are pretty nice and a definite step in the right direction. Itās just my opinion that they are able to do so much more but for some reason they donāt.
I can agree to this on a philosophical level, but no oneās ripping us off. Weāre not obligated to buy these things. Itās a choice we make and itās reasonable to assume weāre in control of that choice, not Roland.
I donāt need a groove box that does everything, I think limitations spark creativity. If I had a box that did everything I wouldnāt have an excuses to buy all these boxes