Roland MC-505

Pretty easy to use unless this is your first synth. The manual really helps and so does the video.

This synth has tons of features. ITs great to have the storage card too however the type of card it uses is an obsolete older type 5v smartmedia card. Regular readily available 3.3v smartmedia will not work at all, so you have to hunt down the 5v cards NOW before they are gone forever. You can still find them on eBay but probably not for too much longer. That is the only place to get them and when they are gone, that's it. the old 5v smartmedia cards have been out of production since 1999. So you might want to get right on it and GET SOME CARDs NOW!!
The MEGA-MIX function is really an Awesome feature of this box. You gotta play with it to fully understand, but it allows a really nice mixing of the parts of one groove into another totally different groove. pretty cool. Arpeggiator is very nice with tons of options.

The MC-505 sounds great. It has been movin people on the dance floor for almost half a decade now and it still Sounds great! Some people will tell you that the sound is dated. I think it depends on the player, ya know?

Roland is really pretty rock solidly built gear. No problem.

they are ok

Im giving this puppy a full 10 which i noramlly dont do just because it is such a great value and does so much for the price. My only gripe is the whole 5v smartmedia card thang. But at least for now, you can still get em on eBay. I just picked up 4 more cards so I can store more data for live use. Each card holds 400,000 notes. So, that will hold me for a while. ;-) This box is so much fun to play and work with that you will have a hard time putting it down. For playability and fun you simply cannot beat this machine! Get one but remember YOU WILL NEED CARDs so go get em at eBay and get that handled now before they are unavailable forever....it wont be long. ;-( This machine will become one of Roland's legendary sought after machines in the future. The price is so low on these now, that it really represents a heck of a bargain IMHO.

I have never botherd much with the presets, there seems to be plenty of scope making your own sounds etc , but my machine freaks out when things get complicated.

you definatley need a external keyboard , you cant expect much from the on board keys , they are better than nothing sometimes,I had lots of trouble untill i bought a over priced memory card which should of been built into the unit from new I think .

The sounds where impressive at first, but everthing sounds the same after a while which is to be expected i guess ,i found the more I tweaked it the more unreliable it got, for me it had enough features to keep me interested for 6 months or so ,but when you look at its portabilty and conveiance it is a pretty good package , i think some people expect to much from one peice of equipment.

My one started out OK but now it is a nightmare, half the screen is gone , it changes settings at random ,,volumes pitches etc all the time , and i end up with notes i didnt write and cant delete without losing the whole track , im scared to use it for fear of messing up good ideas,, going cheap!!!!

Havent botherd

overall ive had good entertainment from it , but if it got stolen and it was insured i would be happy ,time for a change, i could recomend it for absolute beginers,good for inpressing your friends

this is my second unit purchased 5 days ago, the reason is to control a yamaha sampler (A4000) for live and to have those powerful sounds too with the other unit.
very easy to use, just read the manual again if you cannot find any function. the presets are so so crapy, but that's why a 4 layer synth is implemented on the box wich means that you can create a very good sounds in a moment.
the editor that I have tried is harder than the own machine, it takes short time to make a new patch, easier than a soft editor (mc505ed)
manual is ok, I have it on spanich and english and both are enough

polyphony (64) is enough for me even with a complex pattern. the keyboard is bad as nothing and has no velocity, the 3 FX units do its job... but I would like to have 3 different fx units with all the presets included in the FX (instead reverb, delay and FX) the FX are simple and easy to use.
MIDI capabilities are so great and you can control other hard/soft with the 505, not like novation that sends different MIDI controls instead the standard numbers.
expansions...mmmm just the smartmedia card (5 VOLTS!!!) so, the old ones... I bought two when I purchase my first 505 and now here in spain is so difficult to find it...
secuencer is quite nice...but I had a yamaha RM1x too and kicks roland in sequencer capabilities.

presets are crapy crapy, but the engine is enough to edit a new patches and to create a very good sounds.
the rythm kits are not so good... but the hits are not so bad....no percussions like congas or bongos doing well but you can create your own DR kits very easy way.

I depend on it.... it is the center of my studio and of course in live performance it makes it very very good.
both 505 plus the yamaha sampler is the best way for a live.

no idea but I have asked sometimes to those guys in barcelone and they look friendly

I'm not gonna sell them for the moment... I bought this second unit to improve the live sets and if I have to find it any negative is about the sequencer...so so basic... I had the RM1x and really thats the machine in easy to use and sequencing...but it has no the sound of roland of course.

This thing is quite easy to use.
Editing the patches can be quite time consuming, especially when using some of the different modulation maps for the (potentially) 4 different tones.

I would like to have more knobs and levers on the front panel.
So I am building a midi controller box to do that.
EVERYTHING is controllable by MIDI controller messages , or SYSEX
The 'Pad' keyboard is not velocity sensitive, so buy a controller keyboard if that's what you want.
I use this thing as the nerve center of my setup. I have an Akai Sampler that I use to beef up the drums, and give me some flexibility. I use a JP-8000 as a controller keyboard, and for leads.
For Live work, I couldn't think of anything better.
I think the MegaMix function is really good. This is missing in the 909 I hear, so I will stick with the 505.
The Builtin effects are OK, but I also use a Pioneer EFX performance Effector, cause it gives me a lot more control over the groovebox.
the 2 extra outputs seem to de-muddy the main output, especially if you route Drums and lead (or Bass) to them.

A Lot of people seem to find this thing has no good sounds. They either haven't read the manual, or havent spent more than 15 minutes trying . (mabye they got kicked out of the shop!)
Sure, lots of the presets sound average, but the synthesis possibilities are really huge, and I am sure that a lot of these people have never really dug deep. I have, and I have got lots of nice things out of this machine. Its not gonna be all things to all people, though. Onboard Reverb is OK, but syncable Delays are great!

I am having some problems with the LCD screen at the moment. This will mean a trip to the repair shop.
I have heard of problems with corruption, but haven't experienced this yet.

If lost or stolen I would be quite annoyed.
I would probably buy this thing again, not the 909, cause of the lack of delay, and megamix in the 909.
Also, I like the way it all hangs together, and the fact that I don't need a PC to make music. (Although I do need a PC to setup the samples on the AKAI) I have found that using a PC with a setup like this to be quite counterproductive and bug-prone.
I like all of the levers, buttons and knobs, though.

It's easy to use. You can play with presets few minutes after the firts turn on.

How do the presets sound?
It's a personnal opinion. I just use a pattern preset without change (one of the Jazz ones). I use some part of others as a start point for making my own patterns.
Most sounds are good. Bassdrums could be more punchy. There's a large choice of sounds and some are very good (like pianos).
I'm not completly satisfied by bass sound presets. Had to make my own sounds.
How hard is editing patches? Does a patch editor make a big difference?
I didn't use the patch editor (easy to find free on the net). I had no time to make many sounds. Basic editing is much more than easy. More editing seems to be a little harder, but can give very personal sounds.

How is the manual (if there is one)?
Though I hade my 505 used, I'd no manual. I downloaded one on the net and it seam unperfect (table of content is strange !)
Some things seams not to be in the manual. But it's a huge thing and many thing can be found when taking time to read it carefully.

For me the bat point is midi connection. Only one in is not enough. I'd like to plug several small master keybords in and so I need a midi merger which is now had to find (except big and expensive ones).

Smartmedia card are quite easy to use, but it's now hard and expensive to find available ones. I know someone who sell several 2 Mb. Mail me.
The sequencer is quite easy to use. The only bad point is that you can't copy a part of a bar. You must copy the whole bar and handly delate / replace the part you wanna change.

Are some instruments very realistic? Bad? Easy to use?
I think sound are good. That a matter of personnal taste. The little bad point is about bassdrums.

What types of music does it work well for? Rock? Classical? Dance?
I don't think that anybody could use a Groovebox for classical music. It's available for most other styles though it's made for electronic music.

Are the onboard effects good? Very bad?Does it react to your playing, or is it static?How does it react to velocity and aftertouch?
Some are good, some are more weak. they are easy to control in realtime with tree knobs that have four fonctions.

Mine has just a matter with the pitch knob that, when turned out of zero point, acts has if I was rotating it very few and very fast.

My stop button beggin to be a little hard.
All the rest works quite good, though it's very used, mostly on stage.
It has fallen once from 1 metter hight (a drunk man dancing in a pub where I was playing !) but had no damage.

If it were lost or stolen, would you buy it again or get something else?
I don't know because I've not tried competing products.

Is it worth what you paid?
More than this. But I paid it a tiny good price !

How long have you been playing?
I use it for a year. And vary much.

what do you love about it? What do you hate?
It's made for live playing. That's realy great.
I don't realy hate something.
Did you compare it to other products? Which ones? Why did you choose this one?Anything you wish it had?Does it help you make music, or does it get in the way?Anything else you'd like to share?

Presets sound Terrible (still do)

lots of features - that will be made obsolete with the next one that is coming in January 2003, Hey! everybody who's got an MC505 just get rid of it - get the new MC909 instead, it looks set to be one hot box, 16-part sequencer, sampler (SP-202) onboard, twin D-Beams, expandable via SRX boards, USB link to PC, see MC-909.com

Sounds are CRAP, CRAP, CRAP

Crash, Crash, Crash, dammit!!!!

As friendly as a cockroach ;-)

Yeah! Just go and buy the new MC-909 when it arrives in Jan 2003 here in the UK that is....

Take your time, read the manual and about 12 hours of use you pritty much mastered this thing

I like the sequening... pritty easy to use 8 parts + drum parts +RPS, your covered to do your songs... the sequencer is much better than the MMT8. The effects department... You can recreate all your effects using the sequencer or creative patch mod, you dont really need effects....
Phasor for instance, make patch 1/2 3/4 Identical and set Pitch eg delpth to +1 with an alternative attack time between 1-15, map velocity to pitch attack time and you can go from 0 Degrees out of phase = 0 velocity to 180 degrees out of phase Velo= 90 back to 360/0 degrees out of phase Velo = 127 just wortk with depth of the seperate patch and you get your phasor, Change negative/posative depth on alternative tones
Tone 1 = 0 Depth Tone 2 = +10 depth Tone 3 = -9 depth Tone 4 = -15 depth, and alternative Attack taime between 1-15 on each... and allpy LFO1 Tri to Tone 1 Pitch +/- 3 to have a rotary phasor effect. This phasor effect will only work on patches that eather appeggiated /sequenced fast or with a leignthy releace time....
You cant recreate flange because the sum of the tone outputs to feedback into itself

You can recreate deley by mapping velocity to AMP = 100% and you use the same notes on the sequencer at any given interval equil to the delay time, Liek 1:1.0 C-3 127 1:1.48 C-3 70 1:2.00 C-3 45 will give you the C-3 is delayed by 1/8 intervals.... you know....
You can do psudo reverb by doing the same delay trick above but you gotta play with CC#72 Releice time and stack it togeather, But I dont really recomend this procesure as your quickly overload the MC 505 sequencer or evein Cakewalk...

You can do Slicer By input CC#72 from 0 - 127 like so for example
1:1.00 CC72:127 1:1.24 CC72:0 1:1.48 CC72:127 1:1.72 CC72:0 1:2.0 CC72:100 ... and so on... This will give you a Stuttering effect at 1/16 note intervals.. This is an excelent effect for Global Drums or Pads/Strings/ Sustained effects

You can do lots of other effects without waisting your effects block, so dont waiste that space!

The preset suck, It doesnt mean you have to though. You can come up with some wicked as noises , you have 4x7 LFO wavforms witch can be routed to Pitch, Cutoff, Level, or Pan, you have about 200 syclic/pitched waveforms and 200 drum/unpitched waveforms.

You can customize each drumsoundz with EG waceform and you can make the most excelent drumsets....
The synth section is just as good as any other VA/PCM/Analog synth, of couse it has its weakness /streaths but other than that, if your good at programmig Analogs then you can make some very nice sounds on the MC505.

Key track/ Velo/ Aftertoutch/ Pch Bent/ Mod wheel can modulate LFO Rate/LFO Pch, Cut, Rez, Lev, Pan depth/ Cutoff, Rezo, Level, Pitch, Pan/ Pitch, Filter, Amp Eg Attack, Decay, Releace Times/ LFO Releace Depth X4 X4

You have the following Modulators
FM x4
LFO1 x4
LFO2 x4
Ring Mod (AM) x2Pitch EG x4
Filter EGx4
Amp EG x4
Velocity 1x16
Key Track 1x16
Pitch Bend 1x16
Mod Wheel 1x16

You have the following destinations
Filter Attack, Decay, Releace Time x4
Filter Cutoff Depth x4
Filter Rezo x4
Filter LFO 1/2 Depth x4
Pitch Attack, Decay, Releace Time x4
Pitch Depth x4
Pitch LFO 1/2 Depth x4
Amp Attack, Decay, Releace Time x4
Amp Level Depth x4
Amp LFO 1/2 Depth x4
Pan Depth x4
Pan LFO 1/2 Depth x4
LFO 1/2 Rate x4
LFO 1/2 Attack Time (fade in) x4
LFO 1/2 Releace Time(fade out) x4


You have 11 Modulators and 82 Desinations (Lots of witch you can Modulate the Modulator)
So dont believe the shit when people tell you the sounds suck... put your progrimming skills to use... and it shouldnt take that long to learn, the MC 505 is an excelent learning took for Subtractive synthesis/ Psudo FM/AM synthesis also...

Try working with a sawtooth -> sine - > sawtooth - > sine sample first
then change waveform graduly... shit you can do allot of things quickly on the MC 505 you just have to learn, takes onlyt a couple hours to learn the interface, it aint that hard, and you have 384 patch locations for you creations.

You can make some badass SnH Patches that squeel and screm...
You can make simple melodies by patching LFO1 Tri/Saw to pitch and Square to AMP at max, you can sample random melodies with slow moderate SnH to pitch. You can patch cutoff and layer Ahh - Eee - Oww - Uuu format wavforms to Velo and pitch bent +36 semitones and you will have a synth that talks/ psudo vocoder and put a slow snh low depth on the Pitch +/- 12 to create those detune singing you heard from Cher - Madonna - and that one Latino dude in his songs too, you can make detuning singing sounds liek that...
You can patch random LFO to filter1 with another ring modulated waveform to create scary circus noises

And they all sound badass WTF happened to creativity?!?
So for sounds I give it a 10 the raw waves are awesome, you just hav to use them correctly...

Say Mr 'Anonymous' (see 3 messages below this one) who got the MC505's for 600pounds... How do you modify your MC-505 with filter mod?

The filters are dsp based so I recon you eather
1) patched analog filter to some of the MC-505 multi outputs (witch is not a mod)

2) You work for Roland Tech or your a 'special' customer and you got an extra dsp and/or a rerofited/reprogramed dsp

3) Your pritty damn good at reroffiting and programing roland JV dsp chips

4) You just reroute your patch tone 1/2 + 3/4 in series/parrallel/spectral setups to combine up to 4 seperate filters, thus creating super filtermodes, creating eather a comb filter/psudo bandpass/superstacked LPF,HPF,BPF/series/psydo phaser or evin EQ filter types via EG offset (not a mod)...

I am intreseted if what you say is true....
Thanks

-- Miek

It's very simple to use !
Isn't hard to modify patches...but the software editor is difficult!
Manual isn't clear!

it have 64 voice polyphony
Usually you aren't going to use its effect...but are very simple to use.
It have full midi implementation and is a good!
It have a step sequencer...simple to use

Sounds are bad. They are not realistic...tb303 is similar a "beurp"
Mc 505 is good for live esibitions
It's very static....:?

U can't depend on it...

Here in italy is unfriendly!

No....I think it is a good instruments for live performance...but in studio's work...isn't the best instruments!
But...I think is a good instrument for beginner!!
Ciao!

The presets are awful! It's easy to edit patches, and you can make good sounds yourself if you try really hard :^)
The manual's ok.

The features would be good IF IT WORKED PROPERLY! See below.

Because it's a straight ROM playback synth the tones are static and boring. You have to have the filter changing all the time in order to give it life. Get a real synth. Great drum sounds on it, though. Below average sound overall. If you have to work this hard at getting a good sound, it's not worth it. The effects are good on it mostly. Reverb kinda sucks though.

This is a piece of garbage. I bought one 4 years ago or something. When you fill up the memory, you start having glitch problems. I signed up on the Roland 505 mailing list and everyone wanted to know why their 505 was crashing! It's totally unreliable. It will change your sounds around on you randomly (!), crash without warning, and corrupt its own memory during writes so badly that you have to erase everything in memory, and you lose all your work. It's not reliable at all. I have heard many horror stories about it. I was so surprised to see only a couple of people on this page had any trouble. I must have got one of the many bad units that went out...

They were totally unfriendly. They offered no help. They stonewalled me.

If it were stolen I would laugh. I have considered kicking it down the stairs just to watch it shatter many times, but I occasionally still trigger drum sounds from it, so I haven't done it. Plus it cost me $1000 bucks new. It worked great in the store, but it's a piece of junk. Buy a real synthesizer and a sampler, save your money.

I have two 505's, one is modified (extra filters added) to sharpen the sounds up more. Both of my 505's have the latest current version, roland sent me a disc with the new V1.07 operating system)
Editing patches are a breeze, although knowledge of synthesis is required, I don't use a patch editor, just use your ears and fingers instead. The presets are crap, they still were when Roland released the thing anyway (they knew that), money matters more to them than they're customers now. I bought both of mine together for #600 uk pounds, both second-hand, but in mint-condition. The manuals I don't bother with, because I prefer to experiment and learn instead, and you lot should do the same, it makes more sense, you will see.

I use a remote keyboard controller for mine, the effects are okay, I just use the delays and that's it, all other effects are done using an external fx processor. It's very sad you can't expand the machine, like the jv-modules with an expansion card. I only bought them for the onboatd sequencer and part-mixer, because there is lots of control here (and hey everybody likes knobd and sliders, it's all part of the fun, tweaking here and there).

The presets are old and crap, but with some fine crafting of the sounds (waveforms) you can create some interesting stuff, both of my machines have been reprogrammed entirely, and they do not sound the same, i've had them for 4-years now, and they now spit out more realistic sounds, I think i'm the only person with a 505, that sounds like a proper TB303, because I spend a lot more time re-programming them. And I have never touched any of the presets on them, they're just not relevant, and I hate dance-music anyway. If you want to get better sounds, get programming, i mean very deep into it. Velocity and aftertouch are fine, responds quite well enough.

Well I've had both for 4-years, one crashes every now and again, but that's because, I have processing more information than it can handle at the same time (here is a tip for you 505ers out there, use it slowly and carefully), and it will give you no trouble at all. the 505 is a sturdy reliable beast of a box, providing you give the love and attention you would any other piece of your gear. I don't gig my 505's. Backup is done using smartmedia cards, I get mine cheap from a camera supplier, and he cahrges only #11 per 5v 4mb card (how about that, so I bought quite a few of them)

Roland, well what could you say, they are arses really, more personality than a japanese robot i would guess, but Roland do build good quality stuff, but now a lot of their gear is boring nowadays, a lot the new gear is just re-hashed now, they've learn't nothing new, they get a lot of famous music people and bands to advertise their sorry new ahem! products, if you want quality roland gear, skip the new stuff and buy the older analog gear instead, now that's quality.
Yes both of my machines are upgraded, and one modified, never needed any repairs, still going strong after 4-years, but... they are beginning to exhibit a life of their own (weird), sometimes they tend to do their own thing, I even get a slight drift when the sequencers are running at full-tilt for a length of time (freaky), like they are behaving like old-analog machines

No, I wouldn't buy it again, because they a new one wouldn't sound the same as mine do. I love them, hate no! I compared it with the RM1X, but that sounds rather dull, nice sequencer though. I wish you could put expansion boards in them (Roland still haven't learned anything from their other products, they need to implement some expansion capabilities into all of their products now). It does help me make music 4-years worth in fact. Yes, if you have a 505 take good care of it, explore it, delve deeper into it and it will teach you new tricks, use it more than just a dance machine