Just wanted to say I love your videos. Your down-to-earth presentation is perfect, diction is easy to understand and the passion for making music is infectious. Thank you.
Thank you for the great feedback on the 707. Glad you got it because I have enjoyed the journey you've taken us on with your works. Can't wait to get your valuable feedback on the Hydrasynth also. I like the balance you maintain relative to the pros and cons of your gear. Looking forward to your exploration of the HyrdaSynth. I don't own either, but do have a Novation Peak which I really enjoy. Gratefully.
I just got mine a week ago, I'm loving it! It's extremely versatile, and I am one of those people that was happy to see realistic instruments on there. The pianos, strings, brass and all the orchestral stuff really are all pretty good. The guitars, harmonica, accordion... Those are almost never good on any synth. Some features I would REALLY love to see added, giving tone tracks a sub step feature, allowing each of the drum sounds to have their own sequencer length, play direction, and clock division, and a velocity feature to the encoders so when you spin it faster you get larger steps. Tweaking EQs on that thing is kind of a nightmare
Yeah, changing EQ frequencies is definitely tedious still. Don't forget you can hold Shift while doing it, it's still a lot of twists, but at least a litle better.
Great review. Agree with your complaints (saves take forever 😬) and that the still - the 707 is a great groovebox. Hope Roland keeps updating firmware and listening to customer feedback, like they’re doing so far 🤞
Tnx @Tarekith! It's surprising how badly the save/load/soundpack handling is implemented. Especially for something that has "Zen Core" inside, if they want to sell soundpacks and presets the handling should be much better integrated, transferring over USB, and previewing should be added at least imho.
Saving is indeed like the 90s , it’s crazy really. I love the deeper sound editing features , it’s not very fun but relatively logical and straight forward. Again it’s like editing in the 90s but kinda fun in a g33ky way. Roland really need some younger software designers though. Search function is needed as well, like you say , they made a super intuitive interface , but saving or getting to things is the bottle neck.
I dunno I find most of what people complain about really nice. Saving and recalling presets and tones can be easily done by having master projects to keep clips in and then import clips into new projects to recall the previously made settings. 🤷♂️ I’m a product of the 90s and came from older Roland machines so really just love the 707
I should preface that I don’t have massive amount of samples saved so it’s pretty quick. Watching your save speed is very slow compared to my experience 😢
Good review - I almost returned mine this past weekend but started doing 707 versions/covers of my songs and found more joy out of that. If you've already been producing music with a DAW and are very used to doing things that way, I think it will be difficult to make 707 your go to for creating new songs (especially when you have countless projects that aren't finished on your DAW) thus making it hard to justify the price. But for me personally, the 707 is a rock solid live center piece for electronic musicians, especially paired with the VT4. Thanks for the review!
I'm a guitarist / drummer that's getting into hardware / software synthesis very recently. Would you say this 707 is more inspirational for creating electronic parts or is a DAW with pluggins more?
@@levijessegonzalez3629 If you're used to sitting at a computer and using computer programs, I think a DAW is nice and really versatile for getting calculated results. I think the great thing about the MC 707 (or any hardware for that matter) is just being able to tweak sounds with knobs and faders on the fly. It is very satisfying. You don't get that with a DAW unless you have a MIDI keyboard that's very integrated with your virtual instruments.
Cool review! I'm not sure if you've ever used an MC-808 before but if you have, how do they compare? I have a few grooveboxes from the MC-808 and Korg EMX-1 to the OP-1 and MPC Live. I'm a big fan of grooveboxes and I'd say I'm interested in this one, your video has only made me even more interested in it. Anyway, thanks again for the review, love your videos.
One question I have about the device is if it has any synthesis built in. The 808 can do synthesis and that was a huge + for me, I feel like it'd be unfortunate if the 707 was limited to only samples.
@@CaidicusProductions It sure has! Really good engine, and super-deep editing. It is still a pain to use tho imo. But if you spend enuff time with it to gain some muscle memory I'm sure it could be worth the hassle! Imo, I think it sounds awesome. Has a great dynamic range, fx and lots of possibilities. But it is cumbersome to work with.. Waaaay to many presets etc. I had one for 1,5 years and probably used it only 50hrs or so. Selling it to get the maschine+ rather. Hope it will play nicely with my elektron devices..
Loading sound packs and saving projects seems a LOT faster on my unit than I see in your video. Could be an issue with your unit or the SD card, although you mention you have tried multiple cards?
This was fixed a little bit in OS update 1.50. Also, it seems like the more samples you use in your project the slower the loading is as well. But yes, I did try numerous SD cards with no discernible difference in speed.
I love the "realistic" sounds. I see the synth sounds as a waste of space because I can program synths on my own. The extra sample based oscillators are more interesting to me as a sound designer.
I’d also be interested in hearing more about the realistic instruments. Even if not fantastic, I find those types of sounds that might fail at sounding authentic to sound more interesting than most synth sounds. At this point, you get tired of filter sweeps and the same ol sounds everyone is using. A broken sounding harpsichord sounds much more interesting than another synth stab or warm pad IMO. Great video.
Licinius Varrus Sounds good to me. If the sound set is well done, and the sampler and sequencer work adequately this would be a very useful machine in my setup. I do like a lot of Roland’s sounds.
I was going to buy some behringer 808 / 707 and 909 clones but I'm wondering if I should just get this bad boy. How close to the vintage sounds does this thing get? I love the sounds of the MC303 as well. can this get old school groovebox tones too? And as far as creative inspiration...would you say creating parts with this thing is more inspiring than messing with synth plugins and drum machine Pluggins on the DAW?
It would be helpful if Roland implemented arpeggiator functionality: maybe similar to the Elektron Octatrack MK2, Digitakt, and Digitone.. Please :-) I and others would rather do it within the MC-707, rather than having to send arp messages from external gear via midi.
Wow! Tarekith! I remember you back in the old days of mc505 or was it rebirth?! Anyhow, i got an mc707 and haven't got too much into it yet but I absolutely love the pads. They are very expressive. Used to have the mpc live but sold for the mc707. I think I made the right choice.
For something like this, considering how big a project can get, it will be always limited by bandwidth of memory. It's a it like, "I wish I could make this car lighter" when it weighs zero points, but you need fuel to run it, so it weighs as much as the fuel loaded into it. It's just a thing you have to deal with. And I also have an RS7K...this is lightspeed compared to that machine. Be thankful.
Thnx man! I m using 707 since ten days and i feel very good. But there s a thing i don t like in performing with scenes: when i store a scene iit recalls only the active clips, the stopped clips stay the last played in the previously scene so i have to change manually stopped clips before unmute /start its in the new scene! What do you think about it?
Are there any sort of acoustic (realistic) drum beats included, or is it mostly 808/909 type stuff? I'm thinking for 90s Crystal Method/Prodigy type music, as well as rock..
Guys this machine is any good for live performance? I’m into looping and looking for something with a great sound quality and more tracks to store and trigger live my own samples(synth,drums,guitar loops) while i sing as I have being doing with the Boss Rc505mk2, I guess I could save some clips on the pads and build up some live the scenes and the parts of the song and as it has 8 tracks would be perfect but my biggest concern after watch this video is about time to change between one song and another on a live situation. Do you get what I mean and this device would be good to replace the Rc505 looper? Something that I truly wish for as it will make my live much east 😅please help🙏🏽❤️
As always, we all appreciate the great work you do sharing insights and performance, you do an amazing job of it! Responding to your thoughts about saving work, I used to live in the MV-8800 and before that the Boss BR-1180 and BR-1600, call me biased but that experience is why I don't mind the speed of the 707 so much, it is much faster! Most of all what i've come to rely on is this .... the MC-707 doesn't freeze up like other Roland machines have, so I resist the urge to save so much and it seems to reduce the agony. Hope it helps :)
Is there a limit to the number of projects saved to the unit? Or is the 707 more limited by the sample size and/or SD card size? Hope that question makes sense. I use the OP-Z and my main complaint is being limited to 10 Projects. Thanks for your time and your reviews!
@@tarekith Thanks! The layout on the 707 is exactly what I would want for live performance, but I'm not sold yet on the workflow. I see you're sequencing with the OP-Z...seems like a great companion to the 707. Would love to see how these work together!
regarding the list of 3000 sounds some of which are 'not for you' like the realistic sounds... well depends who buys the MC707 i see it as a musical tool which isn't genre specific or exclusive. For example i have a MPC One which sure get's labelled as a hip hop machine but i use it as a 'sampler and sequencer and my latest song is defo NOT hip hop! czcams.com/video/gitlV1h086Y/video.html same can be said of the MC707 it's a ZENcore engined synth/sampler plus a sequencer.
@cresshead hello, I'm a newbie although I do have a X7, OPZ and a po33. Wanting to get either the MPC One or 707. It's it right you can't compose a while song on the 707? It's rather a collection of tracks and clips you live perform with?
@@steveedwards4495 mc707 doesn't have a song mode, it does have scenes and clips and there is a clip arranger but it looks to be a bit of a nightmare to program..i dont' see anyone doing that for a decent sized project ever on the mc707. If you write songs youre gonna be annoyed.. maybe get a MV1 verselab which does have song mode.
I was looking at all those extra sounds thinking yes! I don't want to use tired sounds that everyone uses, hell the Mandalorian soundtrack uses recorders as the main instrument
Great review, thanks. Im wondering if the mc707 lets allow/assign a single effect (from the drumtrack with all drum sounds) been played lets say the hihat with reverb. Or do the fx work only on track/master basis?
You have individual level control for main effects (reverb, echo or whatever you choose) per pad in the drumkits. The per channel effects seem to be only on or off unless I've missed a setting somewhere.
Thanks for the follow up. My only remark would be the quality of the effects. Delay, EQ and Compression are decent, but Chorus, Distortion and basically anything that colors sound is pretty useless imo. Otherwise, the workstation is extremely versatile, easy to use and designed in a clever way. I can't think of anything better on the market. I am so happy that I bought it.
Roland effects aren't the best in their other instruments either, I like Korg effects better in general. What hardware has really great effects? Ignoring effects processing units and pedals.
@@Jason75913 I agree, I am maybe asking too much from a digital workstation. I haven't tested it myself, but from YT videos MPC Air effects sounds much better. But yes, for natural "analogue" sound, you'll definitely need to go with external effects. I have built a bigger pedal board for that, and I am very grateful that 707 has excellent converters and overall amazing sound. Besides natural workflow, the sound quality is why I like 707 so much.
@@vitanovision MPC, eh? I've been considering the Force and MPC Live, but I figure that they will be tedious for me when I am used to programming my own synth patches and those Akai workstations are more about sample manipulation, so I'd have to convert all my sounds to samples to mess with in those workstations, plus I'm not sure if all my LFO action in my patches will be able to fully carry over, too, it just looks like a hassle for me neat trick for Roland synths: the pitch EG, if not being used for anything, can be set to max EG Depth, 2 Attack Time, zero Sustain and Decay Times, then -63 Attack Level and Release Level, zero Decay and Sustain Levels, and then you get analogue-like depth and nuance as long as the sound is short, like pluck synths or arps, but Release Time will have to be tailored on a per-patch basis to avoid a pitch drop effect (unless you end up liking that) this goes great on the kick patches within Roland's drum kits for proper techno kicks, and on any of their romplers to boot, not just the 707
@@vitanovision I'm getting clues about the sound circuitry design now as I look at the PCBs to remove flux residues (preventative maintenance I do to everything I own) left behind by the factory: quality AKM converters (well, they've been dominating the market for some time now anyway), and the output stages use modern TI op-amps instead of the ancient, opaque-ish-sounding, omnipresent NJM 4580 and 5534, plus a high-grade TPS series PSU from TI. Some great chips coupled with good design and clean power will render fine sound indeed, I'm still on headphones only while I learn to use the groovebox. I don't see physical reinforcement of the 16 drum/note/clip pads' PCB inside, so they definitely need to be configured for high sensitivity and we need to get used to not hitting them too hard to avoid killing their PCB over time. This is a non-issue with my M-Audio Axiom 61 and 25 controllers, for example, as they are built with reinforced drum pads. The Axiom drum pad sensitivity curves aren't as good as the MC-707's, though.
Good question, I'm not sure. If you look in the manual and see Sample Start listed as an option in the mod matrix, then you could assign one of the SysCTRL mod sources to it, which means you can control it with a knob, which means it's something you can record in the sequencer. It would be a long winded way of doing it though, if it works.
@@tarekith yeah feels bit convoluted.. anyway, i pulled the plug on 707 too.. only thing thats really bugging me i wish there were more than 16 rows of clips:/ maybe with future update? shouldnt be that much of a hit to memory...
You mentioned the UX is better for performance than sound design. We know it has the same deep zen core sound engine - can you do a chenc/ dataline style performance?
I hope they will make it compatible with their Zen core synth platform, but not holding my breath. Would be way better to be able to edit syth with a vst and then load the synth patch like a sample...
As far as I know, according to the documentation, this is already the case. I haven’t tried it myself, but it seems to be possible, for example, to edit a sound on a Fantom, and then load it into the MC707 or MC101. (The other way around doesn’t seem possible, though.)
GREAT VID! One question tho. So if I tried to play this live with vocal samples loaded into my tracks then I would have to wait around 30 seconds to a minute for the project to load? Is there a workaround for that? Subscribed btw
Correct, there's a 30+ second load time if you have a lot of samples. They did make it a little better in recent update, but it's still not "fast" unfortunately. No way around it.
Can someone tell me whats the character of the sound does 707 have? Is it strong, cold and clean like in MC-909 (with great lo fi filter effect) or more delicate, subtle and crisp like in MC-808? Acoustic drums sounds like shit in 808. And what is the quality of the reverb and sound effects? I loved reverb in 909 and I dont feel it in 808. Also, I dont feel the reverb in my SP-606 no matter how much I add it. Thank you.
Licinius Varrus they could sure, but for me there was too much overlap and I ended up selling the TR. it's a great drum machine, I just like the 707 better.
Thanks for ya Review! Got my 707 Yesterday and for me, the 101 has the better (faster) Workflow - bought the 707 because I needed the Sample-Record Function, which works great after losing my mind after 2h hours of gainstaiging and learning what to setup till the Loop plays like it should haha
The pads are the best I had so far. The ones on my Fantom G are not good and my Circuit has pads that are a bit too soft. Roland always uses outdated interfaces even for their newest machines. USB is also a problem with my Fantom G6. It's sooooo slow to load samples. I was shocked that the MC-707 isn't any faster. The SD-Card reader is old trash like the USB 2.0 interface. No wonder there isn't much RAM inside either.
@@tarekith it’s just for ambient electronic music with sampling capabilities. Is the Aaki force anygood for this? Sorry to bother you. And thanks for your replies. I’ll have a look at the Roland verse.
I'll just note that the MC-707, while a great instrument, it is also a VERY unfinished instrument at present. For instance, as of September 2020, sound patches on the MC-707 can not be truly saved OR exported. Most of the synth engine architecture is also not covered by MIDI. There's a number of other issues. It is a GREAT instrument, it's just a very unfinished instrument. (the same goes for much of the Roland's current "Zen-Core" engine line) There's a review I did covering many of the lesser spoken of issues with the MC-707 available here friendica.feneas.org/display/76158462-875f-6530-4039-5b1907924221 and alternately joindiaspora.com/posts/76158462-875f-6530-4039-5b1907924221
@@levijessegonzalez3629 yeah, it's a bit of an annoyance to say the least. There was a firmware update just issued (version 1.6) and oddly, before addressing the issue of being unable to formally save (much more export) patches Roland went ahead and added a random patch generation function on to the MC-707. Also, an appregiator was added with the update BUT the appregiator does not quantize it's play back in relation to where where things are when it's hit AND the appregiator only responds to be being played from the pads locally on the MC-707 (meaning there's no way to do something like use the appregiator when using a connected MIDI keyboard). If one is just sort of scratching the surface of the MC-707 as it were, the instrument might seem like something that's considerably more rounded out than it actually is. There's a lot of good to it, it's just that it's overly obvious that it was rolled out to public as a very incomplete instrument (as seems to be the case with basically all the new Roland "Zen-Core" engine instruments to current). In the past year alone there's been 5 updates issued for the MC-707 (and most other Zen-Core instruments) as Roland looks to getting them to more truly matching their espoused capability sets. I'm really not sure how/why there's so many videos on the MC-707 and yet next to none of this seems to get mentioned. My guess would be that a lot of it is that the users just aren't going at all that deep with it, because not only are the issues numerous, but they're often as basic as "There's no ability to formally save patches". Roland seems to be issuing updates roughly 3 months in a sprint to get the thing completed.... so my hope is that by December or 1st quarter 2021 the MC-707 (and rest of the Zen-Core instrument line) is finally coming into more of a complete being (but one shouldn't be too shocked if it takes longer).
Neila Spare This sounds interesting. So what is the problem when trying to save patches? Is it the same structure as in the MC-505 or 909, combining up to four (stereo or mono) waves each with their own parameter set? I imagine if you tried to write patches consisting of internal waves and samples this could be a problem. It would require flash rom memory storage for instant recall which I think isn't present in the MC-707. About the arpeggiator - in the MC-505 it can be played with an external keyboard only on its dedicated MIDI channel (16) which is often overlooked. Could it be the same in the MC-707? Would be very interesting to find out more on these issues, thanks in advance!
Just wanted to say I love your videos. Your down-to-earth presentation is perfect, diction is easy to understand and the passion for making music is infectious. Thank you.
Thank you for the great feedback on the 707. Glad you got it because I have enjoyed the journey you've taken us on with your works. Can't wait to get your valuable feedback on the Hydrasynth also. I like the balance you maintain relative to the pros and cons of your gear. Looking forward to your exploration of the HyrdaSynth. I don't own either, but do have a Novation Peak which I really enjoy. Gratefully.
Alt V7 thanks for following along on my music adventures.
Ended up buying a second one.
The audio insert function made it a killer tool.
I just got mine a week ago, I'm loving it! It's extremely versatile, and I am one of those people that was happy to see realistic instruments on there. The pianos, strings, brass and all the orchestral stuff really are all pretty good. The guitars, harmonica, accordion... Those are almost never good on any synth. Some features I would REALLY love to see added, giving tone tracks a sub step feature, allowing each of the drum sounds to have their own sequencer length, play direction, and clock division, and a velocity feature to the encoders so when you spin it faster you get larger steps. Tweaking EQs on that thing is kind of a nightmare
Yeah, changing EQ frequencies is definitely tedious still. Don't forget you can hold Shift while doing it, it's still a lot of twists, but at least a litle better.
Great review. Agree with your complaints (saves take forever 😬) and that the still - the 707 is a great groovebox. Hope Roland keeps updating firmware and listening to customer feedback, like they’re doing so far 🤞
Still a way underrated channel here, great review - thanks!
Tnx @Tarekith! It's surprising how badly the save/load/soundpack handling is implemented. Especially for something that has "Zen Core" inside, if they want to sell soundpacks and presets the handling should be much better integrated, transferring over USB, and previewing should be added at least imho.
Saving is indeed like the 90s , it’s crazy really. I love the deeper sound editing features , it’s not very fun but relatively logical and straight forward. Again it’s like editing in the 90s but kinda fun in a g33ky way. Roland really need some younger software designers though.
Search function is needed as well, like you say , they made a super intuitive interface , but saving or getting to things is the bottle neck.
Younger designers? 💯💯💯
I dunno I find most of what people complain about really nice. Saving and recalling presets and tones can be easily done by having master projects to keep clips in and then import clips into new projects to recall the previously made settings. 🤷♂️ I’m a product of the 90s and came from older Roland machines so really just love the 707
I should preface that I don’t have massive amount of samples saved so it’s pretty quick. Watching your save speed is very slow compared to my experience 😢
Another work around for saving to use as an undo would be to restore clips individually
Just picked up used for $600. thanks for your vids!
you are the best reviewer. wish you would review and compare it to the maschine+
Display should have been OLED. Roland said more updates to come for the MC-707. They plan to provide compatibility between their ZEN core instruments.
Good review - I almost returned mine this past weekend but started doing 707 versions/covers of my songs and found more joy out of that. If you've already been producing music with a DAW and are very used to doing things that way, I think it will be difficult to make 707 your go to for creating new songs (especially when you have countless projects that aren't finished on your DAW) thus making it hard to justify the price. But for me personally, the 707 is a rock solid live center piece for electronic musicians, especially paired with the VT4. Thanks for the review!
I'm a guitarist / drummer that's getting into hardware / software synthesis very recently.
Would you say this 707 is more inspirational for creating electronic parts or is a DAW with pluggins more?
@@levijessegonzalez3629 If you're used to sitting at a computer and using computer programs, I think a DAW is nice and really versatile for getting calculated results. I think the great thing about the MC 707 (or any hardware for that matter) is just being able to tweak sounds with knobs and faders on the fly. It is very satisfying. You don't get that with a DAW unless you have a MIDI keyboard that's very integrated with your virtual instruments.
I went from daw to hardware. I feel that I’m way more in touch with the creation process on the 707. Don’t ever want to go back to a computer
Cool review! I'm not sure if you've ever used an MC-808 before but if you have, how do they compare? I have a few grooveboxes from the MC-808 and Korg EMX-1 to the OP-1 and MPC Live. I'm a big fan of grooveboxes and I'd say I'm interested in this one, your video has only made me even more interested in it.
Anyway, thanks again for the review, love your videos.
One question I have about the device is if it has any synthesis built in. The 808 can do synthesis and that was a huge + for me, I feel like it'd be unfortunate if the 707 was limited to only samples.
@@CaidicusProductions It sure has! Really good engine, and super-deep editing. It is still a pain to use tho imo. But if you spend enuff time with it to gain some muscle memory I'm sure it could be worth the hassle! Imo, I think it sounds awesome. Has a great dynamic range, fx and lots of possibilities. But it is cumbersome to work with.. Waaaay to many presets etc. I had one for 1,5 years and probably used it only 50hrs or so. Selling it to get the maschine+ rather. Hope it will play nicely with my elektron devices..
Awesome detailed review, many thanks
I have an mpc live. Just got this for percussion chops. I feel as if this mapped with an mpc live will be the dynamic duo.
How'd it work out for you?
Loading sound packs and saving projects seems a LOT faster on my unit than I see in your video. Could be an issue with your unit or the SD card, although you mention you have tried multiple cards?
This was fixed a little bit in OS update 1.50. Also, it seems like the more samples you use in your project the slower the loading is as well. But yes, I did try numerous SD cards with no discernible difference in speed.
I love the "realistic" sounds. I see the synth sounds as a waste of space because I can program synths on my own. The extra sample based oscillators are more interesting to me as a sound designer.
gavin peters fair enough, I can totally understand that point of view too. Thanks for the reminder.
Is there nudge function like on TR8S. Need to know this as need that feature to beatmatch maschine for the dj set
Good question! I don't think so actually, but I'll double check next time I play with the 707.
@@tarekith Thanks!
Same question here. Otherwise I will go for the Tr8S. But having full synths in an AIO is just tempting
Thanks for an excellent review! I totally agree with your beefs.
I’d also be interested in hearing more about the realistic instruments. Even if not fantastic, I find those types of sounds that might fail at sounding authentic to sound more interesting than most synth sounds. At this point, you get tired of filter sweeps and the same ol sounds everyone is using. A broken sounding harpsichord sounds much more interesting than another synth stab or warm pad IMO. Great video.
and by being a rompler, you can combine those acoustic waveforms with synth waveforms in the 707 for some interesting sounds, too
Licinius Varrus Sounds good to me. If the sound set is well done, and the sampler and sequencer work adequately this would be a very useful machine in my setup. I do like a lot of Roland’s sounds.
Good review , i was wondering does it have all the tr-8s drum kits built in ?
I don't think so, they are totally different drum engines. Only samples in the 707, while the TR-8S has ACB.
@@tarekith Ok thanks
I was going to buy some behringer 808 / 707 and 909 clones but I'm wondering if I should just get this bad boy.
How close to the vintage sounds does this thing get? I love the sounds of the MC303 as well. can this get old school groovebox tones too?
And as far as creative inspiration...would you say creating parts with this thing is more inspiring than messing with synth plugins and drum machine Pluggins on the DAW?
Levi Jesse for sure, way more fun than using a computer. Does good old school sounds as well.
Ordered a Roland Verselab. Hope you do a review on it at some point.
It would be helpful if Roland implemented arpeggiator functionality: maybe similar to the Elektron Octatrack MK2, Digitakt, and Digitone.. Please :-) I and others would rather do it within the MC-707, rather than having to send arp messages from external gear via midi.
No arp on the elektron digitakt or octatrack
The Wonderful World of Jake I have both the Octatrack MK2 and a Digitone, and they both have arp functionality
Wow! Tarekith! I remember you back in the old days of mc505 or was it rebirth?! Anyhow, i got an mc707 and haven't got too much into it yet but I absolutely love the pads. They are very expressive. Used to have the mpc live but sold for the mc707. I think I made the right choice.
Does this synth allow you to add swing on a per track and/or global basis?
Per track
A concern from the Jupiter X/m is that knobs send sysex not the traditional Cc / what about the 707?
It's CC
For something like this, considering how big a project can get, it will be always limited by bandwidth of memory. It's a it like, "I wish I could make this car lighter" when it weighs zero points, but you need fuel to run it, so it weighs as much as the fuel loaded into it. It's just a thing you have to deal with. And I also have an RS7K...this is lightspeed compared to that machine. Be thankful.
I just got mine ..........to go with my MPC Live II the 1.6 update is Fire🚀🚀🔥 I use it to create loops
Thnx man! I m using 707 since ten days and i feel very good.
But there s a thing i don t like in performing with scenes: when i store a scene iit recalls only the active clips, the stopped clips stay the last played in the previously scene so i have to change manually stopped clips before unmute /start its in the new scene! What do you think about it?
Are there any sort of acoustic (realistic) drum beats included, or is it mostly 808/909 type stuff? I'm thinking for 90s Crystal Method/Prodigy type music, as well as rock..
Yep, there’s a wide variety of drum sounds included.
@@tarekith I ordered one tonight! I have had a 303, 505, 909 over the years... and always had fun.
Guys this machine is any good for live performance? I’m into looping and looking for something with a great sound quality and more tracks to store and trigger live my own samples(synth,drums,guitar loops) while i sing as I have being doing with the Boss Rc505mk2, I guess I could save some clips on the pads and build up some live the scenes and the parts of the song and as it has 8 tracks would be perfect but my biggest concern after watch this video is about time to change between one song and another on a live situation. Do you get what I mean and this device would be good to replace the Rc505 looper? Something that I truly wish for as it will make my live much east 😅please help🙏🏽❤️
Should I get it or should I wait and see if there is a new version coming in 2021-2022? hmm...
As always, we all appreciate the great work you do sharing insights and performance, you do an amazing job of it!
Responding to your thoughts about saving work, I used to live in the MV-8800 and before that the Boss BR-1180 and BR-1600, call me biased but that experience is why I don't mind the speed of the 707 so much, it is much faster!
Most of all what i've come to rely on is this .... the MC-707 doesn't freeze up like other Roland machines have, so I resist the urge to save so much and it seems to reduce the agony.
Hope it helps :)
That's a good point. The MC707 has never locked up on me or glitched out at all, it just works like it should. If a little slow at times 😉
like other Roland machines?
my JD-Xi, D-05, FA-06, and Juno-DS sure don't give me trouble, either
Is there a limit to the number of projects saved to the unit? Or is the 707 more limited by the sample size and/or SD card size? Hope that question makes sense. I use the OP-Z and my main complaint is being limited to 10 Projects. Thanks for your time and your reviews!
As far as I know there's no limit to the number of projects you can store on the card.
@@tarekith Thanks! The layout on the 707 is exactly what I would want for live performance, but I'm not sold yet on the workflow. I see you're sequencing with the OP-Z...seems like a great companion to the 707. Would love to see how these work together!
regarding the list of 3000 sounds some of which are 'not for you' like the realistic sounds... well depends who buys the MC707
i see it as a musical tool which isn't genre specific or exclusive.
For example i have a MPC One which sure get's labelled as a hip hop machine but i use it as a 'sampler and sequencer and my latest song is defo NOT hip hop! czcams.com/video/gitlV1h086Y/video.html same can be said of the MC707 it's a ZENcore engined synth/sampler plus a sequencer.
@cresshead hello, I'm a newbie although I do have a X7, OPZ and a po33. Wanting to get either the MPC One or 707. It's it right you can't compose a while song on the 707? It's rather a collection of tracks and clips you live perform with?
@@steveedwards4495 mc707 doesn't have a song mode, it does have scenes and clips and there is a clip arranger but it looks to be a bit of a nightmare to program..i dont' see anyone doing that for a decent sized project ever on the mc707. If you write songs youre gonna be annoyed.. maybe get a MV1 verselab which does have song mode.
I was looking at all those extra sounds thinking yes! I don't want to use tired sounds that everyone uses, hell the Mandalorian soundtrack uses recorders as the main instrument
Great review, thanks. Im wondering if the mc707 lets allow/assign a single effect (from the drumtrack with all drum sounds) been played lets say the hihat with reverb. Or do the fx work only on track/master basis?
You have individual level control for main effects (reverb, echo or whatever you choose) per pad in the drumkits. The per channel effects seem to be only on or off unless I've missed a setting somewhere.
Thanks for the follow up. My only remark would be the quality of the effects. Delay, EQ and Compression are decent, but Chorus, Distortion and basically anything that colors sound is pretty useless imo.
Otherwise, the workstation is extremely versatile, easy to use and designed in a clever way. I can't think of anything better on the market. I am so happy that I bought it.
Roland effects aren't the best in their other instruments either, I like Korg effects better in general.
What hardware has really great effects? Ignoring effects processing units and pedals.
@@Jason75913 I agree, I am maybe asking too much from a digital workstation. I haven't tested it myself, but from YT videos MPC Air effects sounds much better. But yes, for natural "analogue" sound, you'll definitely need to go with external effects. I have built a bigger pedal board for that, and I am very grateful that 707 has excellent converters and overall amazing sound. Besides natural workflow, the sound quality is why I like 707 so much.
@@vitanovision MPC, eh? I've been considering the Force and MPC Live, but I figure that they will be tedious for me when I am used to programming my own synth patches and those Akai workstations are more about sample manipulation, so I'd have to convert all my sounds to samples to mess with in those workstations, plus I'm not sure if all my LFO action in my patches will be able to fully carry over, too, it just looks like a hassle for me
neat trick for Roland synths: the pitch EG, if not being used for anything, can be set to max EG Depth, 2 Attack Time, zero Sustain and Decay Times, then -63 Attack Level and Release Level, zero Decay and Sustain Levels, and then you get analogue-like depth and nuance as long as the sound is short, like pluck synths or arps, but Release Time will have to be tailored on a per-patch basis to avoid a pitch drop effect (unless you end up liking that)
this goes great on the kick patches within Roland's drum kits for proper techno kicks, and on any of their romplers to boot, not just the 707
Licinius Varrus makes sense, thanka for the tips man
@@vitanovision I'm getting clues about the sound circuitry design now as I look at the PCBs to remove flux residues (preventative maintenance I do to everything I own) left behind by the factory: quality AKM converters (well, they've been dominating the market for some time now anyway), and the output stages use modern TI op-amps instead of the ancient, opaque-ish-sounding, omnipresent NJM 4580 and 5534, plus a high-grade TPS series PSU from TI. Some great chips coupled with good design and clean power will render fine sound indeed, I'm still on headphones only while I learn to use the groovebox.
I don't see physical reinforcement of the 16 drum/note/clip pads' PCB inside, so they definitely need to be configured for high sensitivity and we need to get used to not hitting them too hard to avoid killing their PCB over time. This is a non-issue with my M-Audio Axiom 61 and 25 controllers, for example, as they are built with reinforced drum pads. The Axiom drum pad sensitivity curves aren't as good as the MC-707's, though.
the number of sounds is what is putting me off buying this.
The 1.6 update from September 2020 (after this video) says: "The time required to save a project has been reduced". Any good?
Yes, it's DRASTICALLY better now than it was in my long term review thankfully!
Can in export multitrack midi sequence FILES to ableton?
NO.
tarekith thanks!
@tarekith is it possible to sequence the startpoint of a long-sample?
Good question, I'm not sure. If you look in the manual and see Sample Start listed as an option in the mod matrix, then you could assign one of the SysCTRL mod sources to it, which means you can control it with a knob, which means it's something you can record in the sequencer. It would be a long winded way of doing it though, if it works.
did you look at akai force? what you think about it?
No, I'm not really a fan of the UI on modern Akai gear.
@@tarekith yeah feels bit convoluted..
anyway, i pulled the plug on 707 too.. only thing thats really bugging me i wish there were more than 16 rows of clips:/ maybe with future update? shouldnt be that much of a hit to memory...
You mentioned the UX is better for performance than sound design. We know it has the same deep zen core sound engine - can you do a chenc/ dataline style performance?
Pretty sure only Cenk can do Cenk performances. And he does those performances on Elektron boxes not Roland. Weird request.
I hope they will make it compatible with their Zen core synth platform, but not holding my breath. Would be way better to be able to edit syth with a vst and then load the synth patch like a sample...
As far as I know, according to the documentation, this is already the case. I haven’t tried it myself, but it seems to be possible, for example, to edit a sound on a Fantom, and then load it into the MC707 or MC101. (The other way around doesn’t seem possible, though.)
I just got mine, gotta figure out how to load a synth patch from a saved vst preset now...
GREAT VID! One question tho. So if I tried to play this live with vocal samples loaded into my tracks then I would have to wait around 30 seconds to a minute for the project to load? Is there a workaround for that? Subscribed btw
Correct, there's a 30+ second load time if you have a lot of samples. They did make it a little better in recent update, but it's still not "fast" unfortunately. No way around it.
Can someone tell me whats the character of the sound does 707 have? Is it strong, cold and clean like in MC-909 (with great lo fi filter effect) or more delicate, subtle and crisp like in MC-808? Acoustic drums sounds like shit in 808.
And what is the quality of the reverb and sound effects? I loved reverb in 909 and I dont feel it in 808. Also, I dont feel the reverb in my SP-606 no matter how much I add it.
Thank you.
You can listen for yourself: czcams.com/video/tIrEYegYIL0/video.html
Do you feel that the MC-707 and TR8S go together really well?
Licinius Varrus they could sure, but for me there was too much overlap and I ended up selling the TR. it's a great drum machine, I just like the 707 better.
can you do fm with that machine?
Thanks for ya Review! Got my 707 Yesterday and for me, the 101 has the better (faster) Workflow - bought the 707 because I needed the Sample-Record Function, which works great after losing my mind after 2h hours of gainstaiging and learning what to setup till the Loop plays like it should haha
101 is faster to work with? really? I just ordered a 707 😕
@@Jason75913 yeah but dont worry, the 707 has so much more Power!
@@errorkit but how is the 101 faster? it looks like it should be slower due to the more watered down interface
@@Jason75913 less functions, less pages in the menu - I need more clicks with the 707 and have to hit enter instead of clicking the scroll wheel
@@Jason75913 once you learn the functions, it really is pretty fast to use
When plugged into computer with DAW, can you record each track individually?
David Bailey yes, as long as you install the Roland drivers first.
tarekith thanks!
Have you considered or tried the Akai Force?
krakou2 no, the Akai UI really doesn't do it for me, just not interested in their current gear.
The pads are the best I had so far. The ones on my Fantom G are not good and my Circuit has pads that are a bit too soft.
Roland always uses outdated interfaces even for their newest machines. USB is also a problem with my Fantom G6. It's sooooo slow to load samples. I was shocked that the MC-707 isn't any faster. The SD-Card reader is old trash like the USB 2.0 interface. No wonder there isn't much RAM inside either.
what is the largest sd card size it can handle?
I believe 64GB if I remember right.
Great machine. Thank you Roland!
Hey Tarekith. Do you know if it’s possible to load any sound from the Zenology VST to the 707 or can you only load specific sound packs? Thanks
At the moment it's only the 20 or so soundpacks they are selling specifically for the 707.
Thinking of buying one of these. How easy is it to make a song say 5 minutes long and what’s the maximum song length you can produce.
There is no built in "song mode" per se on the MC707, you'd have to manually switch patterns on the fly to create the song structure.
@@tarekith Ok. Thanks for that. Do you know of anything similar that I could write and produce a complete song on from start to finish.
@@harrycallaghan22 The new Roland Verselab sounds perfect for that.
@@tarekith it’s just for ambient electronic music with sampling capabilities. Is the Aaki force anygood for this? Sorry to bother you. And thanks for your replies. I’ll have a look at the Roland verse.
@@harrycallaghan22 check out Akai mpc one 👍
The top is not metal its plastic.
I'll just note that the MC-707, while a great instrument, it is also a VERY unfinished instrument at present.
For instance, as of September 2020, sound patches on the MC-707 can not be truly saved OR exported.
Most of the synth engine architecture is also not covered by MIDI.
There's a number of other issues.
It is a GREAT instrument, it's just a very unfinished instrument. (the same goes for much of the Roland's current "Zen-Core" engine line)
There's a review I did covering many of the lesser spoken of issues with the MC-707 available here
friendica.feneas.org/display/76158462-875f-6530-4039-5b1907924221
and alternately
joindiaspora.com/posts/76158462-875f-6530-4039-5b1907924221
Wait....you can save sound patches? Wtf?! What is this 1978?
@@levijessegonzalez3629 yeah, it's a bit of an annoyance to say the least. There was a firmware update just issued (version 1.6) and oddly, before addressing the issue of being unable to formally save (much more export) patches Roland went ahead and added a random patch generation function on to the MC-707.
Also, an appregiator was added with the update BUT the appregiator does not quantize it's play back in relation to where where things are when it's hit AND the appregiator only responds to be being played from the pads locally on the MC-707 (meaning there's no way to do something like use the appregiator when using a connected MIDI keyboard).
If one is just sort of scratching the surface of the MC-707 as it were, the instrument might seem like something that's considerably more rounded out than it actually is. There's a lot of good to it, it's just that it's overly obvious that it was rolled out to public as a very incomplete instrument (as seems to be the case with basically all the new Roland "Zen-Core" engine instruments to current). In the past year alone there's been 5 updates issued for the MC-707 (and most other Zen-Core instruments) as Roland looks to getting them to more truly matching their espoused capability sets.
I'm really not sure how/why there's so many videos on the MC-707 and yet next to none of this seems to get mentioned. My guess would be that a lot of it is that the users just aren't going at all that deep with it, because not only are the issues numerous, but they're often as basic as "There's no ability to formally save patches".
Roland seems to be issuing updates roughly 3 months in a sprint to get the thing completed.... so my hope is that by December or 1st quarter 2021 the MC-707 (and rest of the Zen-Core instrument line) is finally coming into more of a complete being (but one shouldn't be too shocked if it takes longer).
Neila Spare This sounds interesting. So what is the problem when trying to save patches? Is it the same structure as in the MC-505 or 909, combining up to four (stereo or mono) waves each with their own parameter set? I imagine if you tried to write patches consisting of internal waves and samples this could be a problem. It would require flash rom memory storage for instant recall which I think isn't present in the MC-707. About the arpeggiator - in the MC-505 it can be played with an external keyboard only on its dedicated MIDI channel (16) which is often overlooked. Could it be the same in the MC-707? Would be very interesting to find out more on these issues, thanks in advance!
You talk too fast bro but thanks for sharing video