Roland MC-505

After reading through the previous reviews, i must say that most people who reviewed this unit either a) are newbies and dont know what the hell they're talking about b) are people who have fooled around with the unit in a shop but got nowhere because they don't know how to use it properly, c) people who own beginners eqipment and have played the mc 505 and are jealous coz they can afford it, and finally d) people who own analog equipment and think that that gives them a right to put anything 'not analog' down, even though analog sounds are emulated perfectly.
My introduction out of the way, for ease of use, i'll give this a 3 for when u first buy the unit, because even though the manuals go into great detail about most things, its still easy to get confused, and it will take you a few weeks to learn all the controls and remember where the hell they are. As for ease of use after u've owned the unit for a few months i'd have to give it an 8, because all of this machines features can be accessed by a maximum of 3 'menus'. That means.. everything is a maximum 3 button pushes away. Thats not a lot is it, considering how much stuff you can achieve with this thing.

I use this unit to make make all different kinds of trance. That means melodic trance, hard trance, tech trance, and so on and so on. I dont use it for any other style of music making so i cant comment on how efficient it is if u want to use it for, lets say r 'n b. Trance tends to be a style of music that relies heavily on effects. This unit has all the effects that you need to make a song of yours sound PROFESSIONAL, and sound just as good, if not better than music u may have bought on CD. A lot of people put the d-beam controller down by saying that its lame. I fully understand why they say that, though they miss the point entirely. The purpose of the d beam on this thing is to achieve sounds or effects that you wouldn't have a chance programming into this thing. The dbeam simply saves time, and is useful for creating wacky sounds or sound effects, that would take quite a while to program. Having said that, lets move onto the next topic.

The sounds and expressiveness of this unit vary a great deal. As much as i love this thing, I must admid that most of the preset sounds sound terrible. They sound very... bad. They lack expressiveness or any great depth, and when u compare them to the sounds in today's songs, they sound incredibly outdated. (as an example, a friend of mine owns a 'hard house/rave' album that came out in 1996. I was listening to it the other day and instantly recognised the sounds on it, they sounded like mc 505 presets. I guess that will give u some sort of an idea. The 505 was designed in 1996/97 and i guess that makes sense. I'd also like to comment on other presets such as preset patterns, and preset songs. They are all terrible. The people who wrote these songs may be known in japan as djs but the stuff they programmed on this thing is absolutely horrific. If you got into electronic music 2 days ago, u might find them entertaining for a while (a few minutes) but if you are into decent music and labels (ie. Perfecto, Globalunderground, Sasha/Digweed, Oakenfold, etc. you will know what i mean. The people who wrote the preset patterns on this thing should be killed. They used none of the effects/features of this thing, and the ones they did use they stuffed up big time. They didnt tweak anything right, the sounds they used suck too. So, if you listen to any presets, they will put you right off buying this thing.
On the other hand if you have an ear for music and you are talented, you can achieve ANYTHING. I have had this unit for about 6 months, and in that time i made my own sounds, drums, patterns and songs. I tweaked things and i tweaked them right. I used effects the right way, and paid attention to all sound settings and every miniscule detail. What did i end up with? - Songs that sound BETTER than the albums i have bought on cd. As an example, my tracks sound identical to those you'd hear on the global undergroud series. I am not talking out of my arse by the way. It took me a few months to get it sound this good, but i got there. When u think about it, u can compete with artists who have 10+ instruments in their lineup, and here i am, achieving the same sound with a single mc505. The bottom line is, if you are not good enough (u may be good, but you have to be GOOD ENOUGH) if you are not good enough, this unit will frustrate you, and you will brag on about how much this thing sucks and how all your songs 'sound the same' - as one previous reviewer has stated. Its all up to you. This unit has all the features you want and need to make professional songs. Its up to you to tweak things right, and put time and effort into whatever you are doing. As the saying goes... what you put in, is what you get out! Then i read all these reviews and people complaining about how this thing is not analog. I DONT CARE IF ITS ANALOG OR NOT, WHEN I CAN MAKE IT SOUND BETTER than MAURO PICOTTO, OR TIMO MAAS, OR SASHA, OR ANYONE ELSE. I DONT CARE IF ITS NOT ANALOG WHEN I CAN GET FAT BASSES AND FAT SYNTHS AND FAT, PUNCHY DRUMS HAPPENING, JUST LIKE THE ONES I KEEP HEARING IN SONGS ON THE GLOBALUNDERGROUND SERIES. (by the way, if you know about globalunderground, you will know that those cds shit all over anything else out therer as far as trance or progressive music is concerned) This machine can give u the basslines u want, the drums u want, the synths u want, and whatever u want. You just have to tweak it right (Otherwise it will sound like shit) So anyone who has complained about the sounds, can go and stick a carrot up their arse. As for people who complain about the realism of the sounds, for example how the piano soundds dont sound like a real piano, etc. Hello its not meant to sound like a real piano, its meant to sound like the piano sound that you keep hearring on cds, and etc. the same goes for any other instruments that they complained about; ie guitar. That sort of complaining is so immature and narrow minded

Never had any problems. Very sturdy. If you drop it thats your fault.

Never had to use customer support coz i have common sense. Whenever i needed help with something, i thought about it before i started asking other people.

Overall its an excellent machine. I manage to make professional songs with it. If you cant, (like most reviewers before me) then u suck. So go hit something, or better still, kill yourrself instead of embarrassing yourself by complaining about something you dont know how to use properly. In conclusion i will sum up this machine in a single sentence. It is excellent for trance, and you can make it sound professional, but only if you put time and effort into it, and only if you are truly talented, otherwise, it will sound very amateur indeed plainly because it was designed like.. 4 years ago, by people who werent really talented to begin with. I dont know wether to blame that on the japanese in general (how many famous japanese artists/DJs do u know of???) or Roland themselves, for hiring lamers as patch/pattern/song producers. Either way, you have to be very good to make this machine sound pro, and that really is all i'm saying :) If you need any help with anything, or just want some advice, or want to have a further discussion, drop me a line at squarepusher60@hotmail.com

The presets are ok, but the real fun to be had is when you start morphing them into your own style. Editing the sounds are easy once you realize how many ways there are to change them. It comes with 2 manuals. The quick start one tells you some of the basics and then there is a thick one which explains every parameter in detail.

It has some good built in effects that are all able to be edited. It has an onboard sequencer that lets you record up to 32 measures of music with 8 different tracks. My only complaint is that you have to be dead on with your timing. If you aren't what you record will not be what you hear when it's played back.

It's a digital instrument so a lot of the sounds that are listed do not sound just like their real counterparts, but this is to be expected. It would work well for any electronic based music.

I have owned it for 1 1/2 years and have never had a problem with it. I would definitely play live with it.

If it was stolen I would get something else just because the sounds are quite dated now. I also own a Nord Lead 2, Roland SP 808, Yamaha PSR6, and used to own a Novation bass station.

Very easy if you study the manual carefully. Its not as easy as the MC-303, but it has more features too.

The features are wonderful. This baby will do almost anything. I am still learning more and more features on this unit every day.
Very impressive.

The sound quality is remarkable! There is so much to work with and each sound is so tweakable. Also there are many many sonic flavors that you wont expect in a unit like this.

Solid Solid Solid

Roland is really one of the best companies out there.

This MC-505 is one of my favorite pieces of gear. It does so many functions that its become indespensible for me. Its a very creative and inspirational device.

HA HA HA HA!!!!! this thing is like layers upon layers of different functions for all the same knobs. you need to be a rocket scientist to comfortably be able to tweak anything that isnt in the top layer (eg. changing the rate on an LFO - the knob to do it will change the depth unless you change the function of the knob which is annoying to do all the time), which is real unfortunate because if you have an idea it taskes like ten minutes to figure out how to do it. not like the mc 303 where all its features had a corresponding knob, thats what it did and it did nothing else. nice and easy and fun to tweak.

It does have many many features, almost TOO MANY. One really crappy feature is whenever you save a pattern it saves over all the patches you used in the pattern. So, for example, if you make a little tune and change the organ sound or something, instead of just saving the pattern you have to individually save every patch (sound) you changed. so it is very very very easy to save over patches that you already used nad therefore the chance of screwing up all your other patterns is a possiblilty everytime you make a new pattern.

For the longest time, I really hated the sounds on this. recently i have made a handful of cool sounds, but it is hard because when you scroll througgh the sounds you are only scrolling through the sound patches, it is a little difficult to find the actual waveforms - which in my opinion you need to start from when making a patch because every patch on this thing is like copyright free sounding cheeseball stuff, the patches seriously sound like something on one of those commercials for local business's that are recorded on camcorders , you know what im talking about.

oh yeah, we've dropped it and kicked it and stuff. It hasnt erased patterns because of a glitch or anything.

N/A

This was supposed to be an MC 303 replacement, but i want my old mc 303 back more than anything. It is like a pile of features all poured randomly into a very confusing design, and its sounds are weak. Sure with enough tweaking you can get almost anything to sound cool, but there is some weird quality about these sounds that is almost unsavable. With all its features and everything it has become nothing more than a slave driver for other synths for me.

Most of the presets suck. The manual is very in depth. I feel the need to take music classes to understand some of it. I have to read one thing over and over. And you can't just find a section you need to know about and read it you have to read the whole thing. I hate the manual. I am going to order the video manul and see if that helps. Editing preset patches is easy but I have loads of problems editing my own.

good features, I guess.

I wish they had put in more strings and voice-like sounds. This box needs softer sounds!!!

I never had problems

I tried searching roland's site and cannot find where to e-mail them.

The more I find out how to do different stuff on it the more problems I have. I wouldn't buy another if it got stolen. I would find the person who took it and hand him the manuals. I would have punched the sh t out of it already but it cost too much.

********** I NEED HELP WITH THIS THING!!! ************ If anyone thinks they can help me with my millions of questions PLEASE e-mail me

*** justinbaloun@hotmail.com ***

First of all, when you get the unit, you'll be way too excited to start reading the manual without touching the thing. So you find yourself trying to make sense of what is in front of you, namely a lot of buttons and knobs which seem very overwhelming at first. I found myself starting to refer to the manuals when i got frustrated by not knowing what i was doing. The quick start manual is okay, but its easy to be mislead while reading it. It goes into considerable detail, but its easy to take a 'wrong turn' while following its instructions, so i found myself going back and forth, having to read and try the same instructions over and over again. Once you have all the basics covered, give yourself about a week to remember them. The second manual is great, nice and big, the only problem with it is that it goes into extreme detail about things you don't really need to know. And the things you DO NEED TO KNOW, are mysteriously NOT mentioned in the INDEX. So, with not much help from the index, i had to go through the contents pages to find what i was looking for. (Major pain in the ass) Other than that, you'll be OK after about a month. Give yourself a month with this thing, and you'll know it inside and out!

U know the drill. A million people have talked about its features, I wont bother repeating them. One thing it lacks is a sampler. If Roland wanted to make an ALL IN ONE PRODUCTION BOX then they should have included a SAMPLER instead of the DBEAM controller. Speaking of DBEAM, its one of those features that you think will be fun to play with, and it is, but only for about 10 minutes. What it is good for is making experimental music. Thats the only decent purpose i can think for it.

Some instruments sound like absolutely shit, while others sound better than the CDs you have. It pisses me off how people in reviews slag off the sounds, with comments like, "the piano sounds cheesy" or that the "guitar sounds sound cheesy", and all that. My comment to those people; If you want a piano, then BUY A FRICKIN PIANO, if you want a guitar, BUY A GUITAR. These complaints are not justified at all. I mean, any sane person would conclude that a metal box is not going to sound like a guitar, and therefore not have any realistic expectations. Having said that, there are about 512 sounds (patches) in the unit, and i must say about half of those are utter crap. (Crap in a sense that you can't really use them for anything, because they sound too bizarre and just dont really have a pleasant sound to them that you hear in trance songs) The other half are good, but basically, the whole techno/trance music scene is reliant on just a handful of signature trademark sounds. By that I mean, a nice bass, a nice lead, some nice strings, the tr 909, and basically u got yourself a nice sounding song as good as any you'll hear on CDs. So, in essence 512 sounds is a lot, considering you'll only ever use about 10-15 of them to get the sound that you're after. Some of the patches (instruments)may sound a little bland at first, so what you do is tweak them to your liking, then save them, and you will find that they sound absolutely fantastic. This unit can sound unbelievable with the right tweaking.

It works best for dance/trance production. Onboard effects are good, but u can only ever use one effect at the time (plus delay and reverb + cutoff + resonance). It reacts well to tweaking most of the time. Sometimes the machine can slow down a little, and also, give it about 5 or so seconds when you are saving a pattern. It has no velocity and you dont need it coz it was MADE FOR ELECTRONICA, not a concerto.

I can depend on it. The only thing that is annoying, is that this unit makes it very easy for new users to accidently 'save over' their previously saved stuff. I wouldnt use it on a gig coz i just use it at home. I've never had any problems with it.

Never dealt with Roland.

If it was lost or stolen i'd buy it again, or just go for a roland jp-8000. This thing should have a sampler dammit.

Don't know what OS is running.
Most presets sound allright, but some are really horrible (see Expresiveness/Sounds).
Editing is easy as f*&k especially thanks to the nice 'n retro buttons just inviting you to turn them.
The manual is written as though the reader is an idiot, which is probably a good thing...

Polyphony is great; sure, add another tone, it won't hurt!
The keyboard might be considered crappy, but is great for recording drums live or step time. Complaints? Just buy a midi keyboard for $ 150 and shut up about it will ya?
Expansion sucks BIGTIME, all of it !Luckily, the box is pretty complete as it is, so I'm not really bothered.
Sequencer is very simple but DOPE for dance and hip-hop. It is EZ to use and a good thing. Stop bothering it with your criticism.

Once you tweak the sounds they are P-H-A-T. Before you start whining, just try and fuck with the ADSR envelope for the filter OK ?
Dance is its natural habitat. Hip-hop elements can easily be incorporated due to the great drum samples (808-909 etc.)
Effects are OK no more no less.
It just sequences what you play people, so it won't make your crappy playing sound like Mozarts produced it.

It fucked my memory up for no apparent reason ! I was pissed of and wanted to break the silver motherfucker into bits.
It is, however, sturdy and I would haul it anywhere.

When the memory was fucked, I returned it to my dealer, who sent it to Roland, who did nothing about it but leave the memory card they probably used for testing in the machine :-) so it saved me a lot of money.
Transferred the songs to the card, formatted the machine and trucked on.

I would buy it again under any circumstance.

Being a guitarist, I'm not very familiar with these sorts of things, so I had some getting used to to go through. However, the manual was pretty helpful for me. I've had this for about 2 years, and I've come to really rely on this for just about everything non-guitar related (I play in a 4 piece band and use this religiously). I guess if you just want to make noise with it and not really "Compose" its pretty easy to use, but if you really want to get into what it can do, it does take some time.

The groovebox is excellent for the setting in which I use it for (although its not exactly what I think Roland had in mind). Rather than putting ideas on tape and running it to the PA, we simply do our programming on the groovebox and run a click track from one output and the rest of the mix to the PA. I'm awestruck at the sounds on here. The sequencer is very reliable and I would say that without it, I'd be lost. I also like the arpeggiator (although it's not very flexible).

I don't know why everyone else is so upset, I'm very happy with the sounds. The onboard effects are key to really making them shine (reverb, delay etc.). One of my favorite things to do is sequence guitar sounds to play right with the live guitars in the band, which is really cool, but by itself, the guitar sounds aren't all that realistic (but who wants realism?).

I really must say this thing has stood up. We've probably played over 100 shows with it, and the only time I ever had any problems was when we were out in the sun with it and the display started to go out. I covered it up, let it sit in the van and by showtime, it worked! The sequencer has never screwed up...ever. You can definately depend on it, but you really have to backup stuff on the media cards. We've got two with everything on them (we did accidentally delete everything once).

I gotta stick it to Roland here. They aren't very friendly people...even though they just happen to make some excellent gear

This is a very good machine. Using it in a band setting (where I pretty much write the sequences and use it like a tape player live), I can't afford to have it not be tough. They just need to beef up the customer support people at Roland.

The 7 isn't a good representation being that this is the first synth(peice of equipment) I've ever had. And I've had for only two days. I love the part mixer portion were you can fade in out out factory preset patterns. Other than that I am going through the manual and I'm still shaky on moving from one type of thing to another. ie playing a pattern then going to the editing of that pattern.

I have yet to use all this machine is capable of. Although I find my self adjusting a certain efx for ever when it's not even what I was after.

I liked the preset patterns to the mc 307 better. Especially the dream dance section

No problems yet

Never had problems yet

One thing I can't find is how to pull certain patterns from different songs and assign them to the r-7 keys in the part mixer and set all the bpm together. There is a lot I need to find out. but so far I like what it can do and the pattern quility is fair.

Plug up and play this baby it is so easy to use. I read the manual after I played with it and found only a few diffrent things to make it to do much more.

Features are ok but I use another to get the fx for the type of music that I play. It does sync to midi and control with my synth (Korg Triton Pro) makes it easier. (One thing to remember is this is more like a drum machine not your main synth)The sequencer is decent but I use midi to do all of this for me. Try Mega Mix on this and you can have some fun...

Tr909,808 it has it and is great for Techno and Jungle... The Bass lines are good to just add some Fx to them and your on your way some kick ass Boom. Please don't use this machine for any other music other than what it was created for (Techno, House, Jungle, Trance, Hip-Hop)

I have giged with it and so have many others it will hold up all night. It doesnt heat up like other machins that I've used. I havent had it lock up on me like some others have.

Like I mentioned before no probs so havent had to call on them.

If it were stolen then I would go out and get another right away this baby rox !!!