Bran Lanen - Roland MC-303 detroit techno live performance, part 2
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- čas přidán 7. 09. 2024
- This is a session developed using only a Roland MC-303 where 2 tracks are arranged and tuned live.
Recorded directly to CD-R and put it together with video (into a video editor). There are NOT any external FX, neither process.
In 1997 I just had an MC-303, an Akai S20 sampler, an SH-101, a four track, a Zoom 1201 FX rack and a couple of guitars and BOSS pedals. It was so much fun, and I got SO much more music done then than I do now with Logic and a heap of plug-ins. And the music sounded better too...more alive and vibrant, somehow.
I started with Ableton and just now getting into live producing without a computer. It's SO much more fun with external instruments than trying to piece everything together in the software.
I started with Logic & am considering going old school. What would you say is different & is the workflow an improvement?
@@texmontana420 Going down the four track route might initially feel strange to a digital native. You're instantly forced to stop being precious about sound quality: you WILL encounter wow and flutter, drop outs and weird glitches whether you want them or not. And a tonne of hiss. On the upside, it forces you to play in the moment and redo takes from scratch if they're not to your liking. You can't do much in the way of editing. With such a limited track count you're forced to make decisions and say, 'this is finished' (rather than having hundreds of 'work in progress' two bar loops sat on your desktop). If you want chord changes etc. you basically have to plan your whole song out in advance. Which means you're forced to write a song...
It's a more physical experience...cut off sweeps are done manually. Mixing is done on the fly. It's a bit like analogue photography where you're never entirely sure what the end result is going to be until it's done. But it requires you to be less perfectionist....it's never going to sound pristine.
@@unemployablegraduate you don't know what your talking about. I've produced in studio form for years and my own Productions are superb. No hiss or anything that you mention. It must be the way I Produce I guess. Any tom dick or harry can Produce something from 'add ons' or anything similar but it takes true creativity to make Tracks from scratch on Hardware
I agree, thats weird considered we have better tech now. But like I checked comparsion of TR8 and TR909 drum machines and the way older 909 sounded more real znd alive, 909 is analog while tr8 is digital but still
this is prolly the best MC303 track ive ever heard.
ken z check Terrence Dixon's Boiler Room live with an MC-303. He's made the thing Speak!
Music is Music is Music is Music........
Hymn!!
watchin in 2015 . what a huge sound !!
Hope it remais the same at 2023!
Thanks for watching!
I sold my MC-303 years ago. Yesterday I saw one for 100€ (~120$) and got a little nostalgic - I then came to CZcams looking for 303 videos and stumbled on this one. After few seconds of listening these awesome tracks I called the guy who was selling it and bought it :)
Hope you enjoyed it!!
Whoah ! So many people have new tr8 and 3 synths and blah blah bass station, volcas etc and they make same simple tunes like this one. this box is really good. Just listen to this filter, this is a very nice sound for a groovebox... It looks good, it sounds good... With some mixing and mastering this for sure can sound as good as much more expensive and popular boxes from today. Its just good.
+LIKE YOU IAM I've owned 2 and they are ridiculously simple to navigate. I'm sorry you think they aren't any good, however it might not be for you. Every artist translates their ideas differently. I hope you find or have found your way. Best of luck.
What are you honest thoughts of the MC-303? I'm very interested and debating swapping my Volca Sample for one but need guidance...
+John Wayne I say get one and start fiddling. Thats what I did when I got my first one. You can literally make songs in minutes. Any genre. The dated sounds can always be manipulated with on board fx n filters. But its not the sounds, its the composer. Always remember that.
That I'm for sure aware of, I've just heard quarrels about the interface and am wondering about the actual sound quality itself. Need something with massive drums.
+John Wayne the drum kits are pretty awesome! Also, I used them as a stand alone drum machine as each sound and percussion voice has been spread out through the 88 key spectrum so you can build you own custom, Tuned drums. Its damn worth it. It can be the best drum machine you'll ever own. I say get one! I'll even be happy to help you get started once you acquire one.
Perfect track,mc 303 techno legend
Thanks!
Prob one of the best MC-303 vids on the tube, proving its the man not the machine for all of those who call the MC-303 a toy.
Agree, thanks for watching
Great, really enjoyed it. Thanks for uploading.
Glad you liked it!
That sounds killer! I bought an MC 303 in 1998 but was so intimidated by it that I really only played the factory loops on it & never learned what to do with it until I sold it around 2005. I recently bought an electron Digitakt & just a few min ago found a used MC 303 that I just ordered- gonna try to start over & learn some skills(syncing them up)! People forget that there was no functioning CZcams videos back in 1998 to learn stuff for free like now! I only had a Roland VHS tape with a few min worth of info & instructions. I’m excited to see what I can do👍🏼
Hope you found the richness inside the MC-303, ans so glad if I could help to do it possible!
SO sick!
Thanks for watching! :)
incredible sound quality for something like that in the 90's. 5:10: Holy SH.... YEAH... Want one of these!! :D
Agree, nice sounding for 90s and great flavour for almost 2023, hope you buyed one (cheap) when you posted this comment 8 years ago!
Great Session! Have to Grab my Old mc 303 Out right now!!
Hope you did and enjoyed!
OMG blast from the past. I bought one of the first to arrive in Marseille, and mastered this box and loved loved it. A friend still has it. Thank you for recording and posting - mano
:)
love especially second track, mc303 has limitless potential and with all it's flaws and sequencer glitches can support very musical performance techno experience
Yes, and one have to think and work so much to get "pro" results with them...
Great vid, thanks. Very inspiring. So much beat for so little money. Best bang for the buck on eBay right now...
Now in almost 2023 I have checked and still it is!
The box that rocked...
And still doing!
This is freaking awesome!!!! I have my MC303 sitting in the basement collections dust. It's time to dust it off and combing it with my new toy!!! The Numark Mixtrack Pro 2....
Hope the dust removed that days, as I will do the same now in almost 2023 and just seen your comment!
I hear so many bad reviews of the MC-909 on the Internet. This video proves to me that it's about the performer not the machine! Thanks man good performance.
Thanks to you for watching!
Good moment😊
Glad to share and you enjoyed it!
Good show man. Them grooveboxes got slated but you seem to have really gotten something unique from it. Top marks
That's the best thing about these jalopies: they are a great challenge!
Thanks for watching :)
Put this through a mixer and it would be incredible. I cut my musical teeth using one of these as my brother was a talented bassist, drummer and guitarist and I couldn't play for shit! I still had a head full of music though and this enabled me to create music in my own way as my hands wouldn't do what my head wanted!
Maybe every MC-303 user experienced what you drescribe! lol
That's why they are so lovely!
Dude, you know your stuff. Awesome jam!
Thanks!
Thanks all! I'm glad you like this...!!
This is one of the best videos of the MC 303 I've seen for video and sound quality. I can actually tell what you're doing. That's the best part of watching a 303 video!
So nice! :)
Groove For Days
The "old" days, yes... :P
This is beautiful techno! Thank you!! Awesome!!
:)
Phew, that second half sounds great and the bass sounds incredible.
808 bass, agree
Thanks for the intelligent response you have a good point about the ease of workflow with the Roland machine the Swedish and German stuff is always a cut above but your right it's way more cash and it has a much different software architecture
Agree!
Also romplers have come a long way but this is probably gonna sound dumb but a big reason I never liked the mc303 is because it says groovebox on it and I don't like the silver paint. I realize that is a silly reason but I just like my expensive professional music gear to look serious.. I always loved the way dopher and quasimidi used stainless steel cases. I have always been a big fan of Roland's drum machines mainly the r70 and r8mk2 and when the 303 came out the good old drum machines went the way of the rack mount sampler. I wish Roland had kept up a more serious product line along side there blinking flashy toys for making dance music in your bedroom
Well, now in almost 2023... Roland have done it all even worse!! I can imagine what you think about all of the plastic things they released this years!
you have talent awsum
Thanks!
dude so rad!
:)
excelenteeeee !!
Gracias!!
Very very cool!!!
:)
What a talent. Thank you for uploading this.
Thanks to you for watching!
pretty cool
:)
YES
:)
Excellent , nice work! ;)
thanks!
the mc-303 does schaffel like nobody's business. also the bass on it is phenomenal.
agree!
I just bought one of these things used off Amazon!
Hope you enjoyed it! Please tell me about! :)
Simply great!
Thanks!
...same story here. I just got a new 303 after 10 years and love it (although, I do have a 505 as well). But there is something about the form factor of the 303 that just begs you to play it, and I find it a great tool to sketch out some ideas.
:)
Class
Thanks!
best mc303 video there is online i think, nice job man!
Thanks for your words
Really really cool - and if you pause this video, anywhere, the still would make a great poster!!!!! :) thanks man!
Thanks to you for watching
A nice box with a rude arp.
Agree, but it has some kind of enchantment! :P
@akufen75 ; I have also the two electribes MX and SX (see my other videos), and I only can say that Korg machines are easier to learn "the first day" but also more limited (are not polyphoni...etc) and can't use it for every electronic genre.
The main advantage for electribes IMHO is that you can edit the step sequencer while a pattern is playing and that's very interesting for live improvisations, jam sessions...etc
You are my hero dude YES !
Cool sound
:)😊
that's right.
I recommend yamaha rm1x.
the sequencer isn't programmable in realtime neither,
but it has got many cool features you don't find in an electribe.
the rm1x is used by genious artists like legowelt and $tinkworx.
should be enough said :D
I have it too. Should I record also a video?
very good friend!!
thanks!
Dude, you so fucking nail it man!❤️❤️❤️
Thanks Andrew, your words are a good motivation for me! :)
Well, I think nobody was talking here about styles... but I think that EVERY of the korg or roland grooveboxes are able to produce almost every electronic style...
Bran Lanen Yeah the Korg’s are pretty good at it
@TheFunkApprentice
The easy way (for me) is sync turntables with the machine ...like any other beatmatching between turntables, but also you can sync the Roland with a turntable using the black button called "TAP" in the right corner.
There I have to disapprove. I have an ESX and I use it in every genre. Since the ESX is basically a sampler it's the samples you put on this machine and your imagination that define the styles you can do.
Agree
Dope
Thanks!
@LouigiVerona Sorry to butt in, but this isn't a bug, just a frustrating design characteristic. You have to dig into the menu and manually turn down the amount of delay/reverb that each channel receives. Same thing for flanger/delay except that you won't hear any unless you manually go in and turn up the amount of flanger/delay each channel receives. And my 303 might just be busted, but it doesn't seem to save these changes no matter what I do, so I just don't use the effects... ever.
That's it
Wearing earphones and @ 5:42 I was like WOOOHOOOOOOOOO!!! and I turn around and I see everyone looking at me (on a coffee in my friends flat) :D
I can live it now while reading you. So nice to know!
Thank you!!
:)
Another one advantage of Roland MC series is that they can be turned in to proper sequencer ... let say after few months you get yourself nice synth and you just need to hook it up through MIDI to your Roland and things start getting more interesting. Korg MX or SX can be only good as a master sync rather then a center piece to control other gear.
Agree!
muito bom
Obrigado!
Force + form + soul
La classe et le contrôle, mais avant tout, la VIBE, bravo
Merci
Thanks to all for your kind words! :)
brilliant!
Thanks!!
@LouigiVerona ... yes, sometimes I still use only a mc-303 added to a vinyl dj set...
bran get 2 mc303's and lets hear what you can do use the synth parts and put the drums in them and use the parameters.
really opens up the mc303's for what they are capable of
i would love to get 2 and sync them up one for drums and one for synths they are great little rolands that all the haters cant be botherd to work out how to use them.
Agree, but "keep it as simple as you can" was a motivation for me, that days and nowadays in almost 2023, for the complex things we have DAW, and other machines, full studios and etc ;)
damn, very nice session
thanks
@LouigiVerona mmm I think it's not a bug,...this Roland can only manage one effect at the same time, maybe for haven't not enough DSP abilities for being polyphonic and use chaining multiFX.... we haven't forget that it was produced 15 years ago...
Detroit to me is Mayday
I understand!
This have influences from detroit techno, maybe old dub techno, people like Robert Hood (Floorplan), Kevin Saunderson, Derrick May... M-Plant records, Chain Reaction...etc
Recorded directly to CD-R and put it together with video (into a video editor). There are NOT any Fx, neither process.
dope
Thanks for watching
@@branlanen No problem haha
it varies, envelopes are tuned live... you can see and hear that...
We used to joke about people searching these down in the future...That's a decent shit sandwich though so congrats!
Future is now! lol
This vid almost made me buy one :)
You must! lots of fun and challenge awaiting! ;)
still a good bit of kit today, good fun too!
Thanks
@LouigiVerona I think only short LFO (fast rates)... but I'm not sure if there is an option to set up for slower rates... what I'm doing if I want a slow filter sweep or something like that... is just recording the motion of the particular knobs
@TR929 : Thanks! that's just what I wanted to say when uploading this video...You had catched the message ;)
@TimSmithUploads: It's easy, you need to mute, in every pattern, the parts that you don't want to play at start... and save that "set up" just doing "SET UP W" (EDIT+15).
Etwas glatt bügeln und es ist sauber für ein Gigintro...
Interessante Sichtweise, behalte ich im Hinterkopf!
the stab pads are amazing
:)
What bank and isntruments used for chords?
I think they are bass synths, not remember well.
@branlanen I have an MC-303, but did not use it for a long time and now decided to work more on it.
A tech question, if I may - did you ever manage to get a slow LFO out of it or is it really capable only of fast LFO periods?
it is, but how much is "slow"? is you mean a few seconds, yes!
hello 2020
sorry if I have to say almost "hello 2023" lol
What is the instrument used for chord?
Was a synth bass!
Just a question of synth parts please. ¿How do you get the fat part synths? The ones that sound like woo woo. Can't figure how to do it... I have no idea about synthesis and trying to do it by myself is near imposible. Thanks man, great vids.
That are chords
How much is it ?Roland mc - 303
Hmmm maybe around 150€? I don't know, it depends on the market...
@branlanen Another thing - did you face the "bug" that you change effect (delay, reverb) on one instrument, but it gets duplicated to all of them? This one is nasty.
I think @ratface1987 explained as best
why is everybody saying that this machine is not so great ? I've just heard about it and i think it sounds amazing.. I actually thought i would cost insane prices like a 808 or 909 but it's less than 100$. Can somebody explain what is wrong with this ? Why shouldn't i buy this ??
paulin39 well this is not a classic Roland box like TR808, TR909 or TB303 from the eighties - it's rather a fully digital groovebox from 1996, some sort of modern "all in one" workstation particularly for techno music. It contains samples, effects, drums...
makes sense.. thanks
paulin39 People don't trust their ears. Mainly people choose the hype, so things like "the original"... "analog"... etc can make the prices fly.
Bran Lanen it's not hype, it's the truth. No prices fly without reason. People are not as dumb as you might think because they spend a lot of money. Good gear is in demand, that results in highter prices.
That's quite similar to say an MC-303 is the most crap someone can buy... if it cost 100€/$ ...
Maybe that's "your" truth, not mine... that's sure.
@caiazzo89 I don't remember what are exactly, all of them from bank 01, 02 and 05 (synth leads, bass and pads)
buenisimo!
Gracias
Good pattern!
thanks
my name in Bram Laman. how similair
wow, how curious
great jammin!!! im up to buying an mc303!!! did you used any external effects/mixer?
All the sound comes from only the MC303
man is that sub bass from this?! sounds heavy! or is it an 808 kick with no attack?
+Marcus Banks Yes! it is
@SwimmingLights ty
:)
it is really hard to begin with this machine ? everybody advice me to take a korg but i prefer the sound of roland .. this is my first machine what should i buy ?
It is hard but you will learn many things about producing music
@branlanen I'll buy ua mc 303 advise me to buy it!?? or not to buy it!! let me know thanks
Hope you bought!
nice
Thanks!
It's a good track but for my money I would go with a fully expanded rave-o-lution 309 the synth is virtual analog not a rompler and in my opinion the thing just sounds harder
Except the QM 309 costs double the money. I have it and yeah, it's great, but i think an MC-303 on top of that would be great to add these kind of lush chord basslines/leads. But i'm doubting (or more like pulling out my hair) between MC-303 and MC-505 (which is about the same price as QM-309 fully expanded).
Based on YT video's i think the 303 sounds better (more gritty) but the workflow is more complex whereas the 505 is the other way around (and has multiple outputs).
Of course there are lots of machines better sounding and mainly easier to program, but the MC-303 has own enchantment and is/was cheap to have one in your collection ;)
I'd just like to say, I loved this. Makes me want to pick up an MC-303. Where do you suggest I buy one? I fear that buying one from eBay would be kind of sketchy. I may end up with a unit with a bad battery or something of the like.
Maybe a cash converter or eBay