Roland MC-505

When I first got it, I tried and set my focus on reading the manual, but couldnt get though more than 2 pages without putting it down to play. I only used it now and then after that.

BTW this is where I got my maual,and some other stuff http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/groovalicious/

Preset pattens suck so bad they make me want to choke whoever programed them. I wish we couldg get rid of them! I mean, thnk of all that memory being used by such awful crap!

I love my groovebox because it's so simple to just get patterns going. After using the 505 for about 6 months I went and bought 909 and after a week of using it I went right back home to the 505. It's just simpler. I love the fact that you dont have to deal with a complicated or complex interface to do the things you want.

effects are alright. Not very extensive, but I use this for vintage style beats so thats not really a problem for me, but if I wanted really modern sounds I don't think these effects would do much.

expansion sucks. Smart cards arnt smart. But I have heard that you can use digital camera memory cards (not sure what kind)

Midi- An external keyboard is a must, although if it isn't velocity sensitive it sounds really quiet, and I HATE that because I HATE velocity sensitivity! Jest let me play without havig to pound.

Sequencesr is the best! It's fun and simple to program.

The instruments for the most part sound really lame. I hate almost all of the preset parches, and they all start to sound the same really quick.

I have heard from so many people about how great it is once you edit the patches and make your own, but honestly I don't get it. I have tried and it still sounds like the same crap layered on the same crap. I REALLY hate how all the tones that make up the patch don't sound like they are working together....they sound like a high pitched squeel layered on a low pitched buzz.

If anyone has any tips on editing patches PLEASE give me some airikwithana@hotmail.com

Never had any problems, although a line on the lcd is going out so I am guessing that the screen will go soon.

I tried to move on to the mc-909, and now i have both. I need to get rid of one of them, but I am on the fence because I love using the 505 waay more than the 909, but the patches and even tomnes to edit with sound soooooo horrable that it may not be worth it.
The 909 gives you so much better of a sound library to work with, weather editing or not.
The other thing abot the 505 that has my heart is it's size. I take it everywhere. It's my sidekick. I write on it in bed, sit on the floor, take it to parties... anything. The 909 is alot bigger AND more expensive so its not something I can walk down the street with the same way.
Overall the mc-505 is a great, fun, and usefull place to make music, but be aware that the patches are BAD (VERY VERY BAD), and unless you can figure out or learn how to make your own good ones using their limited tones, your gunna be frusterated.

mc 505 .
the presets suck u already know this, but tgere is like 10 good presets.

u kan make and edit your own.. if u have absolutly no experince with anything this machine will just piss u off because only techno will come out. i use it for hiphop and i hate the preset songs and patches, i have it reprogrammed nicely so it sounds dope. sumtime s like a tb 303 sumtimes like absynth sumtimes like reason it s a great machine hidden behinfd a lot of techno garbage so beware.

no velocity sensitivity on the the chicklets bummer.
if your midi remote keyboard is not velocity sensitive y'it will be very quiet compared to your chicklets. not many good midi features either in out and slave .

alot of features i figured out quite quickly . the best being the apregrator i think maybe the step sequencer for drums and the step editor for velicoty shifting drums for sick rolls and what not, its a great machine if there was a sampler it would be the best in the world to bad a mc 909 is so much money..

D BEAM , biggest waste of time ever . dont even bother i think imine is broken anyway . ha what a joke .. like everyone else says here its wack . ive used it to play invisible drums but i dropped my mc 505 when i was drunk so thank god the D BEAM is broken . it has alot alot of features but most are useless and the reverb sucks moose balls . the 4 band EQ AND distortion is prett good .
but all the effects can easily ruin your song if over done . ya know .

its alright if u want a RAW club sound the drums are alright a lil technoish nice kits , i do wish you could use more then one rhythm pack at wonce tho it would be nice im shure theres a way i just owned mine for a few months and figured the whole thing out without the manual so ya kno.. after a while it gets boring and the sounds start sound the same because u are limited to waveforms but that is no excuse a truly talented musiacn can find new way to make it sound dope .

like i read earlier and i agree f ully . IF YOU ARE TRULY TALENTED msuican YYOU WILL MAKE THE BEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD WITH THIS intrument.
i heard sumwhere sampling is for talentless people and i didnt beleive that till i owned a nd played a 505 because synthesizing is funner and more original but hiphiop is a sample based collective .

yea rock solid hard core got i t second hand and it rocks .. pixels are going tho makin me sad ,

never tried

if it were stolen i would get a mc 909.
i have been writing and composing music my whole life.
i own a yamaha psr 75 , casio mt 240 behringer eurorack ub 1220, and much more i dotn want to list.

i love that its a synthesizer that hides behind the worst techno in the world but if you figure it out its fucken GREAT . I hate the techno, really its so horrible it makes me want to die when it playys.
i wish i had a mc 909 groove box..

but a mc 505 and a dr sample 303
would be the same as a 909 2 gear is better then one ..
it helps me because i dont sample anymore i just use the sounds from my 505 .

i jerk off daily

Come on now. A little practice and you can wiz around on this thing. Manual is about as good as I've come across.

The 505 contains 3 features which make it so indespensable that I've come back to buy it 3 times. 1-Slicer. You can mess with gates all day long or use this effect in 2 seconds. A must have for trance. 2-Arpeggiator. I've had a half dozen synths and this is still my favorite. 3 or 4 patterns I've used exhaustively. 3-Megamix. Years ahead of its time and Roland leave it off the 909. Are you kidding me. I believe it is what inspired Ableton to make 'LIVE' which is essentially the same thing aonly with a graphical interface. If you've used it, then you know that 'Live' is a must have. Back in the day, I used megamix to play entire set's non-stop mixing progressively through my tracks. Awesome feature.

Old school. Sound cheesy next to a Virus. Still a number of usable preset patchs however, and a lot more if you program it yourself.

Great Brand new. Be wary of used units.

n/a

Hey, I've bought it 3 times and will not sell it again.

Could be easier - a knob doesn't do what it says on it. Firstly, you need learn to reassign knobs to their corresponding functions and that made even me reach for the manual. This thing is too configurable. Perhaps some 'assignable' knobs would have sufficed.

This thing has everything except a sampler - a minus these days but perhaps not back '98.

Typical techno sound is expected to be a little bit machine-like

Not broken yet but I have repaired it beforehand, though. <P>The potentiometers tend to become wobbly along with age. I recommend that all wobblers just open their MC-505s (on your own responsibility). Find the points of liberation and thus glue the potentiometers around the axis and the seams as well and add some tin (solder) to the solder sides of pots, too. If you glue the pots, please glue with Super Epoxy like I did. The glue takes only 5 minutes to solidify, which is enough time to fill and stabilize the seams but not long enough to get into the core of pots which would be a bad thing.<P>Another problem is the LCD display unit which may lose pixels with age. A new one (with everything, even a cord to the motherboard) only sets you back $35 and is easy enough to upgrade along with the ALPS potentiometers at $3 US each.<P>Once I did these unnecessary upgrades, mine was as new again. <P>Note: don't glue these potentiometers into the PCB board as it may cause the surface mounted components to come loose as you turn pots more heavily or bump the device. Also, making an illustration of MC-505 on paper and putting all the 40 or so screws on that illustration enables you to do the reassembly, too. <P>And I wouldn't gig with at all, because I just don't do that.

The customer support at least here in Roland Scandinavia is tops, and I would recommend contacting them to anybody here. Most parts are still available, LCDs, all ALPS pots, even free advices in self repairing the device.

I have to agree with those who say that it's too configurable. Perhaps 4-5 user configurable pots would have been enough for most special effects. Now I have to guess if resonance or cutoff might be working in each mode/song. Perhaps not everything needs to be user configurable. Sometimes it's like '9' on mobile phone's screen when you just wanted to suspend, go 'On hook'. <P>Of course, a sampler is missing but back at '97 memory & processing power was more expensive than now.<P>For a good effort and Roland's design crew (musically) ahead of its time I have to give a good grade. It's a good idea to hire the best musicians to work at the factory so everyone can play like a pro.

It's pretty obvious, but a manual can comme in handy sometimes

Loads of stuff

Some patches sound really old, but others don't so stop whining and use the good ones!

Everything works (and it had about 2 or 3 users before me). Beiing carefull never killed anyone.

no experience

I totally love it, it is a good investment if you have an electric piano or a keyboard. If can't work with a microwave don't buy it, but if you love electronics and making music, go and get it (it's not that expensice any more)

Ron sounds like he is having the same problem with his 505 that I did when I bought it (second hand $500 US dollars).

The problem was that random stuff would be inserted all over the place during step write, making it impossible to record anything with this method.

I documented the problem and sent my 505 away to the repair guys. They fixed it in about 1 day and returned it.
The problem was a faulty knob on the 505, I think it was dust related.

Anyway the customer support was fantastic, the guy even called me on my cell phone to explain the cause of the problem and how they fixed it. Note: I am in New Zealand.

I now use an Evolution USB keyboard and software synths for my producing. The MC-505 is good for messing around when doing live stuff.
I used to have a mc-303 but sold it. The MC-303 was crap until roland fixed all the bugs in the firmware. After that it was great. Much easier to learn and play (live) than the MC-505.
I could still easily lay down some cool freaky ambient stuff on the 303 even when I was completely off my tits. (just slow the bmp right down to 20)

The 505 is a great tool if you are not desiring a groovebox to use independently of other instruments. It is not a stand-alone synth, however, it is relatively easy to use and the manual is highly informative(I would say almost necessary). The presets are typical and I rarely use them. The editing patches are laborious to learn to use but once learned it is a worthwhile tool. I stronlgy urge that this is not a synth you could use to DJ a show without combining a keyboard (MIDI) or a backing live band. A much better stand-alone synth/groovebox is the Yamaha RM1x which can do virtually everything. You should look into the Yamaha RM1x(or higher Yamaha version grooveboxes) before purchasing a Roland product.

The features are cool but require patience and exploration in order to use. The effects are interesting but typical and tend to have the Roland-esque quality of misapplying themselves on a regular basis. MIDI is great and highly effective. The sequencer is much more rigid than that of Yamaha or Dave Smith products. The keyboard is buttons as opposed to keys, and that kind of sucks. It makes chords laborious work that has to be patched and sequenced together.

The instrument sounds are good, but tend to hover at a preset level of volume. It is a good groovebox for all music types as long as there is some accompaniment.

It's not very reliable and the memory cards are archaic and difficult to finds. Mine has begun to fall apart, not a good thing for such an expensive instrument.

Support is slow and ambiguous.

Anyone wanting to purchase A Roland synth/groovebox, should look into Yamaha and Dave Smith products first. They are much better in every aspect.

Hi. I'm Thomas...bla bla
I just solved a problem on my 505 and I wish to share my new knowlege.
It started sending corrupted midi knob messages (sending data in ''chunks'' ...not very smooth.8 values or so instead of 127).So i started to move settings around to see if it would unjam it and it worked...i set the local tx switch back to ''Both'' on all channels and now it's fine....

Musicians Unite against record companies!

I purchased the unit used on ebay back in 2000. I was fortunate to recieve a manual. At first i found the 505 fairly difficult and rather challenging to use. As far as the operation learning curve, i toughed it out and learned how to use it well. I feel that the manual is well written and very applicable. As far as the presets ( patterns ), i have no use for them. The patch editor is great but rather confusing if your editing a drum set and you want to change just for example: a bass drum's volume instead of the whole kit. On the whole I like it, and ive made some pretty wicked tracks.

The keybord action is great for laying down the beats, however because the keys are buttons its harder to do piano chords. ( I just piece together the chords.) Another interesting thing is that, when i lay down chords using certain instruments, i find that i have to lay the melody down starting at the third measure, then use the delete measure function to delete the first 2 measures thus placing the information i put at the 3rd measure to the first in order eliminate the phenomena of missing notes at the first measure. As far as midi goes, the 505 is the sequencer (brains) of my music operation. Its great when everything works ok. The onboard keys are not really pressure sensitve, however if you hook-up a keyboard to the 505 midi in port and and use the keyboard to play the 505 notes, then you can get pressure sensitive keys.

As far as the onboard instruments, the patches ( i only use a select few ). The Drums are great. I find it best when i make my own kits. The onboard effects are totally applicable to what i do. As far as reacting to my playing, I ofted change to different levels of quantitization to capture my accents. I mostly use the mc-505 to play its own sounds in combination with other drum machines and keyboards. The beauty of electronic music creation to me is the usage of several decient quality sounding machines to achieve an excellent track. I make some rock, Breaks, guitar instrumentals, and some really interesting music that you would find in a sci-fi flick.

Over the time since i first acquired the 505, ive filled it up with all kinds of data ( patterns, kits, edited voices ). The reliability factor has fallen. The unit changes voices on me when i change patterns. and the problem has gotten worse to the point where i cant make my tracks the way i want to with rhythm changes & all. (very important ). I've read somewhere that doing a factory reset / cleanout of user patterns would probably help me. I currently have 3 memory card that i use for the unit, im considering acquiring a 4th one or deleting one of the 3. My overall goal is to operate the unit with a clean user memory. I thing that since all my user memory is full, its causing me undesired operation.

Never tried it.

If it were lost or stolen, i would have no choice but to get another one. Reason being is that Creating music is my emotional/creative outlet, my retreat from the worlds bs. Also i know the 505 like the back of my hand, and its kinda the brains behind my whole music operation. The things i hate are the technical glitches that i ve encountered such as unexpected kit changes. All & All the 505 is a fine machine. Other gear that i own, SP808, Boss Dr 202, Alesis SR16, Yamaha psr 330, zoom 606 guitar effects pedal, boss guitar pedal, Fruity loops 3.4, wavlab, Yamaha 8-tr, Dell Laptop. Overall I helps me to accomplish the task of making music. I cant really compare the 505 to anything else right now. I hope to aquire the yamaha rm1x and have a kinda co-sequence setup for the composition of more sounds to a track and the combined 8track seq (505) andthe 16tr(rm1x) for a total of 24 sequenced tracks. thats about it for now.

Preset sound like preset
i'm not a preset user
Editing patche is easy
Would have prefered a more friendly
interface for live playing and editing...
(something like
the korg electribe)

Funny little machine to carry arround
and have fun
Use it to jam with friend (bass guitar...)
or to sequence other machine but the transpose fonction
on the 505 does not transpose the midi out???
the d-beam is cool
The realtime quantize is great for playing
with various groove

Preset sound like preset
but with it you can create nice sounds (layered sound)
and with a bit of work a good drum kit
Effect... i usualy play dry
dont like fx

Broke 2 knobs (reso -cutoff) put some carboard around the shaft
to stabilize them
Had some problem with the display screen
it died after loosing some lines
had to replace

Send the machine to Roland Us
took 4 to 5 weeks to repair (change)
the screen and change couple of knobs (pot)

It a multi purpose
PCM synth groovebox
depending what you are doing with it
it is great for creating groove and jamming

It is a fun machine...