Roland MC-101 Groovebox Compact Music Production Workstation (MC-101)

Algo tardado el envío desde Japón, pero es razonable. La respuesta del vendedor fue atenta y en tiempos también.

ROLAND IS THE BEST!!!

The MC-101 is absolutely amazing as a way to get access to thousands of sounds and make beats. It made me love my SP-404 again because I was running out of sounds/grooves to load into it and it was a chore to make beats from scratch on the SP. But, together the MC-101 and SP-404 are a dream team. I create clips with the MC-101, and instead of using scenes on the MC I just put my clips on my SP and then I launch them that way. I can also add vocals via the SP. Good stuff Roland you guys are incredible!!

I have used Roland equipment since the 90's and this piece is geared up for Dj style performance. IT can do a lot if you take the time to learn how to navigate it. I sent it back due to the fact that you cannot store songs in the machine. They promised it would come in a future update though. The plus is; it is easy to compose on the thing if you are not writing complex patterns. Dance music or hip hop is done with great ease. It is very versatile in accomplishing about anything. Downfall; it cannot store songs and it was a pain in the butt to learn the language of the piece. I wish Roland would grow off of their previous machines instead of inventing new ones all the time.

Much better than I expected. I bought this to use it as a sound module, but I really like the workflow. I toght that having only 4 channels will make it limited, but its actually enought!Pros:- Sounds great!- The preset library is HUGE, it has all kind of sounds, making the instrument very versatile.- Really fun and intuitive workflow- Battery and USB powered, which makes it possible to bring anywhere- Midi In can be also set as Thru making it super easy to add to a hardware setupCons:- Only 8 scenes (I think at least can be doubled)- Pads are not velocity sensitive- No program change- Switching between projects takes time, so hard to perform several songs without interruption

the Roland mc707 is a nice tool for the amateur if they wish to sound professional with as few tools and as little experience as possible. I was one of such of these and enjoyed it for a weekend. some context: I used to produce electronic music as a hobby but I wasn’t that good at it, but thanks to this machine I now realize that my workflow was not properly suited to my producing style.I did run into a few problems that have motivated my motion for a return. first, the text documentation is insufficient and the recommendation is to simply watch the several hours of video documentation. it’s peculiar but the paper manual insert included with the package refers you to the pdf online for more information, and the pdf online is a pdf copy of the paper manual which also refers to the same pdf. somewhat of an self-referential, uninformative ouroboros.second, the video tutorials are excessively long-winded and should be concisely written out of respect for the customer. I like the beginning of the video tutorial where the MC says here you can create the tracks you want to create without defining any of them or what they do; a nice preview of what is to come. his improvised explanations are a little roundabout - writing it down would alleviate this frustration. since the only meaningful information you can acquire is through the video tutorials on YouTube one might think that they would organize them a little bit better instead of in three movie-length parts. I don’t know, perhaps if they made a coherent playlist it would be more considerate. or perhaps if they organized topics within each video using timestamps since it's been possible to do that on YouTube for a while now. bon voyage on your journey, clicking around to different sections that they outline at the beginning of the video praying that you find what you are looking for by random chance. yes the astute reader will surmise that one becomes impossibly irritated if they happen to forget how to do something they saw in the videos.the customer support isn’t bad, but Marco Rebillet has some reservations about calling them on the phone because he abused the privilege.another problem is that the machine is actually more of a synth than a production suite. it is actually presented as such in the extensive video tutorial, but I think I had the wrong idea because of the marketing. moreover, the option of attaching an external midi controller or synth is essentially glossed over. I had a fun time looking at the manual trying to figure out how to record a ‘looper track’ without actually knowing what a looper track is in their programmer lingo. I mistakenly thought that any of the tracks can be a ‘looper track,’ that is to say recorded to by an external audio source. I was trying to record an external source to a regular track and it took me an embarrassing amount of exploration to realize that you have to create a ‘looper track’ first and then record to it.in the tutorial they don’t even showcase the looper function, which is the primary reason I wanted the machine. they do use an external device (one of their synths) but it is to resample something and the workflow was disastrous, though admittedly you can do a ridiculous amount of processing at your fingertips. again, more of a synth than a production suite. however, the resample triggers are laggy to a comical degree and you can’t input them on the controller in perfect time using the buttons - something horrible happens if you try. I tried to play a few hits using their midi layout and ended up with my signature spiders. plus clips with the resampled sound cannot be recorded over, you have to delete the clip entirely (a common problem) and resample from scratch. with this headache it makes sense that they only recorded a drone in the video.the clunky interface is not as clunky as one might expect for a machine with such a tiny lcd but it is clunky nonetheless. the knobs are annoying and inconsistently assigned with respect to system navigation. the fx game leaves much to be desired and the user has no control over the filters other than frequency which is woefully insufficient. and for some reason they label the top knobs filters although the filters are only assignable to the first few tracks? the remaining fx were worthless to me and if anything I ran into trouble because it sometimes automatically pitched my recordings because of the stock fx assignments. my solution was to disable all of them, and this is something I had to do for each project because you can’t load presets.lastly, you cannot record more than four or so concurrent loops per project as dependent on the length of the recording. I would say about four loops total if each is recorded for 4 measures. if you exceed that limit the unit says there is not enough memory. a confusing message, since there is an SD card behind a screwed-in shield that can hold countless projects. this last part is the actual reason I’m returning the machine in favor of a stand-alone looping machine. unlike other users I don’t so much mind that there are only eight parallel tracks but I do mind the bad programming that doesn’t allow you to have more than four 4-measure recorded loops in the entire project arrangement. in case this isn't clear, you can only record four of these, for an entire project. that's it. it's egregious. there is a lot of long term memory but all recorded clips and arrangement information are assigned to short term memory when those clips are not playing. this is incompetence but mostly laziness - I’m a programmer.but hey at least we know the guy in the video is pretty talented

Getting to some options requires remembering where to find them but thats the price you pay for mobility. I do not wish to buy the bigger model, i wish to own bothI highly recommend this to first-time-sequencer-buyers like myself

The moment I had this thing in my hands I knew I was going to return it. It feels shockingly cheap, like a toy. I've owned inexpensive synthesizers, like the Korg Vocla series that felt better constructed than this at a fraction of the cost. This was the first Roland device I've purchased and expected much better build quality. The "drum pads" are soft and wobbly, with a lot of side to side movement. Worse feeling pads I've ever used. The knobs feel cheap and I felt like I could literally crush the thing with my hands. For $500 this was not at all what I expected. For comparison, I own the Novation Circuit Tracks, which cost considerably less ($350) while also being all plastic it feels rock-solid and has very high quality pads and knobs. After returning the MC-101, I ended up purchasing a used Akai MPC One + for $550 and it is a much more capable device with an amazing build quality compared to the MC-101. Anyone looking at purchasing a groovebox in this price range would do well to avoid the MC-101 and look at the Circuit Tracks, for a really fun device and if they want more depth, consider a used MPC One. Just my two cents!