The Strangest Most Frustrating Music Machine Of The 90's Roland PMA-5
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- čas přidán 28. 01. 2020
- TBH it is pretty awesome! The #Weirdest midi #synthesizer sequencer of the 1990's its oddness needed a video!
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Always looking for old gear! to mod or conserve in the "museum of everything else" one day
www.lookmumnocomputer.com/don... - Hudba
Awesome, i learnt sequencing with the PMA 5, i used to sit in class and make music with it. The teacher found out, took me to the principal, the principal heard my music and told me to make the national song music for morning school assembly. I made the music and all the kids started singing the national song to my music every morning 😄
What a great plot twist! 👍
A good princiPal!
I randomly remembered this comment after three years and had to come back to make sure I wasn’t just making up a story about this machine… idk…
I was a product specialist for Roland UK in the 90's. We all tried to avoid demonstrating the PDA-5 because it was so frustrating to use and sounded truly awful! Thanks for the painful memories! ;) xx
Did you ever get any insight into what it was about Roland that make them design this thing in this way?
@@JaceCavacini Everyone wanted a "PalmPilot" PDA so why not try to sell something with this trend : )
another idiot
:-) ha ha ha ha...
I thought it was ingenious. Super-quick to compose on …but yeah I had to really study’s that manual. Know it thoroughly now and still use it occasionally :)
This is the perfect tool for composing the soundtrack to a VHS tape explaining all the awesome new features of OS/2 Warp.
After 30 years Roland finally sold one of these!
hahahahahahaha
@@THISMUSEUMISNOTOBSOLETE I love that you are replying under your different account.
@@theothertonydutch which account depends which internet browser I open up loll
@@THISMUSEUMISNOTOBSOLETE Story of my life, man!
Lol hahahhah oh boy, I just took a sip of cola and I came out of my nose reading this! Oh man! Hilarious!
Bro, this is one of my best kept secrets. I purchased mine back in the 90's and won't sell it today! You wouldn't believe it but this thing has some of the same sounds as Roland's JV series. It's portable enough to take with you on sessions as a MIDI rack because it's multi timbrel. It's also a great writing tool. I think it has 808 sounds as well. Brilliant!
@ShinDig Listener No. The contrast can be adjusted
ShinDig Listener mine looks good
@ShinDig Listener I do have one that is slightly more faint than my other two.
Yep it’s still in my top 5. A keeper for sure :)
This thing is amazing, quite futuristic for the 90s. Touchscreen, tons of functions and facebook notifications
hahahaha classic
LOL.
I read this comment and then heard the Facebook notifications in the background.
spugintrntl sames 🤣🤣🤣
👍 *Mark Zuckerberg likes this.*
autechre wrote "maphive 6.1" from ep7 on one of these apparently
czcams.com/video/RrcUBgzcNT0/video.html
I got one when they came out - used to make little jams with the stylus while stuck in the server room babysitting updates, etc.
it's basically a portable Roland Sound Canvas and with real MIDI jacks I used to use it at home as a general MIDI box
there is a standalone mode which makes it great for MT-32 like sound and music box for old Sierra PC/Mac games :-)
the demos were impressive out of the box
adjust your contrast in the soft menu!
Autechre wrote Maphive 6.1 on one of these handhelds. I did not realize it was that difficult to use, because that song is pretty damn majestic considering its source.
There was one of these on my local Craigslist for a long time. Probably could have picked it up for peanuts but it just *looked* frustrating. Thanks for confirming.
Actually it isn't as frustrating as one would think. You have to remember we are in a different time now and navigating things seems more intuitive but that's because we are so use to what we are using today. Think of it like this; Give someone who's only used Windows '95 all this time, Windows 10. They would think that it's rocket science. The Roland's functions are close to the sequencers of that era such as Alesis MMT-8
Has no knobs == no good.
Greg K agreed. But it does have a volume knob!
pervert
That era was like.. LOOKS LIKE A PDA == KEWL
czcams.com/video/RIbaZh-zzbA/video.html
@@snaawflake then you figure out how to flick it.
Killer little machine! I have one, and love it!! I even modded it myself to have a backlight. It is kind of the predecessor of the MC grooveboxes (pattern mode and song mode, channel mutes, mixer,etc) but besides adding reverb or chorus, you can´t edit the sounds externally unless you use it as a sound module (16 voice multitimbral - but you lose the sequence capability). Soundwise is an extended GM/GS module, with a couple nice synth sounds and lovely drumkits (has 808 and 909 sounds). You can sequence external modules with it via MIDI, you need to enter the MIDI function (top right corner) and set the midi tx channel for each part and that´s it (you get 4 parts in style mode and 8 in song mode). Great for sequencing volcas and similar, since each user style can be 8 measures long and there is 200 slots!!! And then you can jump from style to style seamessly or arrange several on a song that can be 999 measures long. Oh, and you can upload standard midi files to it and download patterns and songs to your computer with the PC editor (Mac/ Win XP though). Nice as a drum machine + sequencer in a DAWless setup. Vince Clark of Erasure used to play a whole song live using nothing but this lil´ fellow.
Tip: Remember to calibrate the touchscreen once in a while!
Can you provide any more detail on the backlight modification? I’d love to be able to see my touch screen better. Thanks!
Backlight mod, how? Please tell us the secret.. :)
I remember seeing pictures of Vince Clarke from "Erasure" playing the thing live.
I instantly went on ebay and bought this for $75. as soon as it has midi out, I needed it
"Oh, it's so awful!" he says with joy.
Sometimes frustration can be painful. Forward, ever!
OMG!! Soooo, THIS is what My best friend's neighbor used to have growing up! Now that I am recently into producing my own "sounds" about a year ago, I been racking my brain/diving me crazy trying to remember even just what it looked like exactly. And not knowing what to call it/type I couldn't even come up with a place to start my search to find it. You have MADE MY DAY and brang back soooo many memory's! Back in like 1998 this V thing blew my mind hearing what that dude could make ONLY using this box!
Now since you made this video I bet the prices have skyrocketed!?!? Something I'm sure no one really wanted. But now everybody wants, lol. All because of you making this video! LOL
So glad you got one! Autechre used this for a track once and I’ve been kinda fascinated with them ever since I find that out haha
a_quiet_place Maphive7.1 off ep7, and Ae said it was a frustrating, battery chomping pos
John Archer yes! That’s the one! After watching this video I appreciate the amount of work they put into that track even more.
Think there's a track on Peel Sessions 2 as well unless I'm mistaken
Nice! I picked up one of these a couple years ago for $35.. worth every penny for those fantastic 90’s Roland sounds.
Music LabMN oh you get on with it? Cool!
I used this when it first came out and played shows all over the world and people were always asking me what was I writing on stage 😂 And to this day I'm still asked about this bizarre little instrument!
nice! you used it as a sequencer??
@@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER Both as a sequencer to drive a Yamaha SY22 sampler, as well as using the percussion on there and playing it live! Limited options regarding sounds but you'll have to remember this was a time when there were no iPads and all synths were giant expensive monsters!
@@RobinRimbaudScanner this is amazing. I would only ever get it for those horrible internal sounds though.
@@inthefade 😂
This thing is literally just all the downsides of making music on a computer.
That perfectly sums it up.
hahahaha except portability. but i guess laptops have got a lot smaller in the last 20 years. i wouldnt know ;)
@@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER it must take bloody ages to upload video from your Commodore PET ;)
In the 90s, the computer WAS the down side. Windows 95 bootcycled if you tried to run it with a MTAV and a network card. Microsoft driver bug that never got fixed. Sending too much MTC to your MPU401 could make it crash too. You can fit about one weekend's worth of sessions on a hard drive before you had to spend 4 hours backing up to exabytes or CDROMs. And it takes about 5 seconds for an ADAT-XT to turn on, but if Cakewalk crashed, you'd send your session guys out for a breather, because with 16M of RAM in a 40MHz machine, you're gonna be booting for a while.
Definitely something good to tinker with on a loooooooong train journey. Also the fact it looks like a book seems to cater exactly to that use case.
Hi Sam. I had one of those in the 90s, very awkward machine to use but I made several tracks while travelling around on the underground. Nice to see one again.
"Oh Baby, Baby" is my new favorite song.
maybe i should just quit music and just copy and paste these "baby" jams and release em instead
@@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER Nah, man... that 'IS' music.
I'm sure I heard wrong, but what I heard was "Oh baby, baby! I'm mister baby!"
This sounds like the entirety of the Spyro soundtrack was made on this
Brilliant man thanks for showing us pma5 keep the good work up ✌🏻👍🏻
This is giving me flashbacks of 20ish years ago after I finished a few allnighters in a row making 2 opposing armies of over 100 plastic lunar festival toys hanging under a mirror perspex archway into the Big Day Out music Festival in Oz. They were triggered by a midi sequence to go off in waves. The nature army was led by the monkey king and had flapping dragonflies, weird dragons and bubble blowing flowers, and the machine army led by spiderman had tanks, spinning propeller planes and odd war toys. All pearlescent bright colours with flashing lights inside and all with super noisy sound effects and tinny music, they were so annoying, the punters going into the festival jumped up about 3 metres and trashed the lot after only a few hours. Madness! I love the relay setup and just the sheer absurdity of them all together waving in turn. Great work Sam :)
This is like every soundtrack to kid comedy/adventure films of the 90s. Huge bowl cuts, uptight nagging parents and chimps with baseball caps come to mind.
8:14 "oh baby baby"...LMAO in Wisconsin "Hard hittin' jam" this is why I watch these videos
Please do MIDI-out from this device into your modulars, and play one of those cheesy demos on your modular-setup. Maybe even add the Gameboy synth.
yes the gameboy synth with this good idea
LMAO that bit at around 3:20 reminds me of those Star Trek: The Next Generation handheld bio scanners, the ones everyone used to examine foreign environments.
Dude your personality is awesome on screen. I can't stop watching haha. Plus interesting gear you use. it's great
This is like some executive from Roland time-traveled to 2020, tried an OP-1, came back and then tried to kitbash his PDA into it
I have one of these in mint condition with all of the original paperwork and inserts, even a VHS tape instructional video that originally came with it! I don't use it often, but it's such an oddity I can't imagine getting rid of it!
I was looking at the bokeh background while the focus was on the Roland, and was going to make a smart comment thinking that it looked like rows and rows of translucent Game Boys, then carried on to the end - yep, rows and rows of translucent Game Boys…
If memory serves, there was an X-Files marketing crossover when this launched....
on that alone it makes me want one? lol
I'm imagining Mulder using one of these on Scully.
Haha I need to see that advert
Maybe used as a portable synth for occasional alien first contacts?
It's probably got the flute sound for activating Engineer ships.
I've always had mad respect for Roland for having the balls to release this very forward thinking device when they did. The PMA-5 has a lot of capability for such a small device! A friend of mine used to make convincing (at the time) backing tracks for his one-man-black-metal project.
any chance those songs are online anywhere? probably kinda awesome lol
Roland .... Breaking trends accidently .. making the future of music accidently..... The most ridiculously idiotic user interfaces for programming ever intentionally
Thank God Korg came along ..
Probably an executive bought a PDA on Thursday or Friday and went to work on Monday saying we need a music version!
Korg is worse than this. The Kronos UI is still the same as the Triton with some minor updates. Korg knows no workflow only parameter digging.
The worst part of this is that it's actually quite capable for a such little screen.
But the little screen doesn't help much, now does it?
@@pcuimac parameter digging like their x-y pads?
So I am completely new to the world of synthesizers but now I am convinced that they have to be the coolest instrument ever. No argument. Thanks Mr. LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER I think your channel is really cool. Keep up the stellar work man I wish you the absolute best from the bottom of my heart.
P.S. I've been watching these videos since 10 this morning I am in love.
I am amazed, never seen this before! So cool! Roland makes soooo many products and this cool thing sure has gone under the radar.
I love this channel, you're definitely a mad scientist. The world needs more of people like you bruv
I got one of these from my uncle recently and I’ve been getting lots of use out of it as a sound module playing mouse composed midi or played with a midi keyboard. The midi ports are super finicky tho. It’s also fun to record little patterns on a long trip
I have one of those. I used it a bit in the late nineties for recordings on a 4 track cassette recorder.
I'd love to have one of these. I mean it's literally turns a musician into a Operator with a Pocketcalculator. Damn that onboard MIDI Wavetable sounds MASSIVE. If Roland actually cared they could work this out again, give that lil bugger a colour touch LCD, making it easier to use, giving it a USB connection and sell it it like hot cakes. If the price is right. Nice to play the MIDI instruments almost like a Stylophone.
Exact!y, put a current DAW on one and have it be a portable multitrack with built in effects and whatnot.
cool little box for the time, I like the sounds you got out of it, it is a tribute to Roland the company, they are still in business while so many others have bit the dust.
I actually LOVED this machine. The thing with these beasts, once you get past the learning curve, the workflow actually feels more natural and gets into your creative side faster. I've made quite numbers of song and demos with just this gear, most of it made only in minutes. I just wish there is a PC software version of this music making method.
I've got one of these, had it for years, while it's tedious as all hell and time consuming to program, it's actually quite fun to jot ideas down on!
I still have my PMA-5 I got on clearance back in the day. I actually wrote some songs on that thing! Now I'm going to have to dig it up and see what's still on it.
flintsteel7 nice!
It might be fun to have a PMA-5 songwriting challenge...
Please show us if you find it
I did just that and mine is still working perfectlay. It is like traveling back when I tought music was better with to many notes and syncopated beats... I gess I was trying to make up the best I could dealing with the lack fo interesting sounds... Tho I did pick up one very good stilish melody I did back then.
I've got two of them! I think they're great and used them as sequencers and sound modules. Really easy to use.
I used it as a secondary sequencer storage with it's nice bank of sounds, used it as a midi sound module on stage, and now use it as a midi controlled sound module in the studio.
such a gorgeous little beast, amazing patches on it :)
This was a collaboration with Palm Pilot. When Bonno from U2 threw a few hundred million into Palm Pilot, the PMA-5 was actually part of the pitch. We know what happened to Palm, yet Roland stands strong & mighty with it's Assistant #5
A verry nice find. I admire your work ! Keep those furbys purring
Dating me a little, when I was a kid, living in a house full of synths and keyboards and such, I was obsessed with getting one of these back then, right when it came out. I guess I’m glad I didn’t get one. I have an OP-Z and an OP-1 now, so I’m much better off! Great video and I commend you on taking the time to learn such an antiquated device, because YOU are now the resident EXPERT!
That "START-STOP" jack is to plug in a foot switch, so you can control the PMA-5 while playing a guitar or keyboard or something like that.
Not a fail... I watched to the end... YOU WIN!!!
God bless brother, keep looking up
That Tyree Cooper style acid house at the end was just amazing haha 😀
Love it, can't wait to se pt 2
I hear ya. I had a drum machine that was from Roland, newer 2000s and 2010s ones, I never did figure them out
I remember seeing QVC in the UK trying to sell these, while flipping through the channels on satellite TV I stumbled across QVC and saw this being flogged with a guy from Roland trying so hard to show how easy it was to create a song while on the train or plane. I thought it was a very odd product to sell, let alone on a shopping channel.
Lol
Reminds me a lot of my Yamaha QY10 and QY70. Love them both to pieces. Both take a bit of getting used to but they're both part of my DAWless setup. The QY70 has killer on board sounds. I use the QY10 to split out to 4 Korg Volcas. I loved it so much I wrote a whole blog post on it titled "How to Use The Yamaha QY10 as a Hardware Sequencer." Catchy title, I know, but I felt like more people need to know about it. It's fun to take on the bus or train and make music wherever you go. This Roland unit looks like the same idea, but the QY series at least comes with a mini keyboard. That stylus looks like a pain.
My first gear was a qy 20. Later I bought a qy70 when it appeared. In the meantime I've got 3 of it. A qy 10 was a bycatch, when I bought a Korg sr1 digital recorder from someone.
The connector at 2:05 is a proprietary, multi-purpose interface from Roland. I had a XP10 keyboard that had the same connector and remember having soldered a cable to interface it with the COM port of my computer (there was also a driver to install).
I downloaded the XP-10 service manual, and sure enough my gut feeling while watching this video was confirmed. It's basically a standard old Mac SE-era serial port. It might or might not need "null modem" wiring to swap the TX/RX to an old Mac at the other end, but it's not quite so proprietary after all.
On the other hand it might use a proprietary protocol, but if you can find the software and an old Win95 PC or OS9 Mac to run it on, you could get it to work. It would be funny if the "protocol" on that serial port was MIDI with a bunch of SysEx being thrown around.
me, like a month or two ago: haha man, this reminds me of when I used to make chiptune. subscribed!
me, while watching this video: hold on, I have to go back, I was soldering
Like, legit, I now own an AS3340 and I'm working on getting all the other components (and a 15+- power supply of some sort...) to put together that VCO module on your site. thanks for making these schematics etc public, it's been a good learning resource!
@4:47
The excited laughter.
Instantly relateable.
Techmoan and 8bitguy are great, but never seem to be as genuinely excited.
I have one. Bought it a million years ago from a music store that was going out of business. And yes, it’s a pain in the ass.
"Personal Musical Assistant...FIVE"
Does that mean 4 versions failed to get to market?
That first 32 seconds completely sums up every school morning for me, only I can never persuade my parents to bid on anything...
I used this thing all the way trough my academic music learning in the 90's. Being able to make play along on the spot was just crazy futuristic back then. I remember using it figuring out all those interlocking rythmes from cuban traditional latin jazz and jazz fusion odd key signatures... Fun times!
In 1996 I dated a girl that had one of these, my first and only impression of it was "that screen is too tiny to not become infuriating, fast"
DUDE we JUST got one of these recycled at my work today and it works! Holy hell is it tedious.
That Demo song gave me some serious music store flashbacks.💾💿🎹 midi out might be available when it’s set to GS module mode in a sub menu.
Have you tried the KORG DS 10 for Nintendo DS? This reminds me of that the way you can change the sequences while it plays, but the ds had much better screen and ability for live performance from the looks of it.
I wanted one of these so much!
I owned one back in the late 90's. It was pretty cool.
Sam, you should do lots of reviews of instruments with sarcastic voices like this. this was great. "important meetings with trust funds and such" LOL
This Cats channel is the best. Always puts me in a good mood. Much love.
Loki-LL
This is a great video, but when are you going to do the square-out of the VCO, was really looking forward to it
i did that in the documentation on my site?? sadly didnt get to a video tho!
@@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER haha cheers man ill check it out
I’m so old I remember when this pseudo PalmPilot had reviews in that catalog-masquerading-as-magazine Future Music. They always made a big to-do about Vince Clarke using it.
seems like somehting he would be into!
Curious little question: If you plug this into a synth, sequence it on a loop and then turn it off mid loop does it cause the turning off downwards drone that some old sequencers cause?
A Walkman? Nah son. Catch me on a stroll crafting a double platinum hit on my PMA-5.
Thats some next level *A E S T H E T I C* stuff
Crazy stuff. Damn i still could bite my ass for having missed your show in dresden. (in den Hintern beissen könnte ich mir).
+ I dont know if anyone suggested this already, but that faint display could be due to too low lcd-driving-voltage, which may be caused (over time) due to deteriorating capacitors in the voltage-pumps, if i recall correctly. (i am no expert, just recall to have heard that old lcd-watches can have similar problems).
Anyway, love your stuff! greetings
Oh I had one of those in the mid 90’s. I had a lot of fun with it. I think I still have the software and adapter for it
Dang, I love the drums on this thing! I wonder if there's a contrast trimpot on the inside?
Awesome! :D
Reminds me I need to extract some tracks from mine. Got a dub/reggae style track but with a dark vibe that would be awesome to revisit
A comment for YT algorithms.
Great stuff DUDE!
Hoping to see part two already!
working on it
I’ve got one with a Kraftwerk sticker on it. Glad I got one before you drove up the prices on an arguably useful piece of music tech.
The Kraftwerk sticker makes it sound better. :-)
Worked with one of those for years and still have one...taught me a lot about sequencing.
and patience!
@@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER absolutely - it's character building!
I have one! A friend gave it to me. I could never figure out midi out , but I used to use midi in to compose with it!
hahahahaha yeahg its weird like that! cool
Yamaha did the same concept with the QY70 if you're curious - I've heard that one is much better, may be more up your alley :3
its a bit lke the yamaha qy 20 i remeber getting mine back in 93 and being blown away- still have it
It's actually really good this, have two of em
Nice! This kinda reminds me of the little Boss DR-5 I had as a kid. LOL
another frustrating sequencer!!!
Same here. I put enough time on it I got good. Learning it in a few hours ?lol .. I graduated to FL Studio sometime in the early 2000s
Dude, you rock!!!!!
One day you’re gonna stumble on some forgotten heap of junk on eBay and it’s gonna be the next 303
Never had that particular machine but it reminds me of my teen years sooo much 🤟😁
I can so totally relate with you on the eBay effect but with books. Quality and entertaining video by you as always.
what kinda books. i need a new hoarding addiction now everyone is pumping up the prices of test equipment
@@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER Hi Sam! Mostly weather, trains, Star Trek and comic/comedy stuff.
They practically squashed their W-30 into a Blackberry.. nice, haha. Just missing the beautiful crunchy sampler.
One of my favourite autechre tracks Maphive 6.1 was made with it. You can hear the orchestral percussion samples from the very start.
This is so entertaining!
It's a good thing for that time (and i love Midi stuff), because it has a nice unique (midi) sound (for me).
And I'm excited what you show in the future of this Roland device 🎼.
See you Sam and have fun ;)
:) thanks!
the sounds are actually surprisingly good if cheesy(though that's also true of a lot of old ROMpler type stuff, we expect it to sound as bad as early midi soundfonts), i wouldn't mind a soundpack of it for the laugh
Oh, gosh. That first built-in demo sounded just like the "Microsoft goes to the bathroom and Joe Satriani comes out", VHS product sales brochure of the era.