Roland MC-505

The MC505 has never been totally easy for me. The manual is written pretty well considering the manuals written in the early eighty's. lol! Those who have tried reading from that era remember the japanglish i'm sure! I digress! This instrument will teach the most die hard synth programmers patience. lol! Not really... but if you are into more of the programming side of things, you will love the MC5050. That said I have used it A LOT in the studio over the past 9 years or so I think and it's presets offer LOADS! I pretty much avoided using its song mode...programmed a few patterns...tweaked a few knobs during recording.... it has been worth every penny of the $1000 I spent for it new.... even without getting into much depth with it.

Had to mention the sequencer again huh? I can't remember what it was about its song mode.... seems like it didn't play nicely with others or something. Maybe it was the sequencer bug in the earlier version. I did update the OS, but by that time there was not even the thought to get into programming a song on it... i just use the daw. The D-Beam is wacko cool! It took a little working with to make it completely usable for something. ex. Using the turntable effect without the MC as a midi slave was always a little hard for me to control to make it really musical. I wasn't using it to perform though either so I am sure there are guys out there who can make the thing get up and dance!

The "real" instruments are a bit cheezy... does have that great Roland U220 piano patch. The synth sounds feature many classic digital sounds from the era. Has several great drum kits from the day that can all be tweaked with the filters for some very cool and live expressive sweeps in your drum tracks.

Hmmmmmm..... what can you say? She's on her last leg here.... the screen is pooping out. That can be replaced through "Right Key Repairs" for cheep but .... the sliders are all going bad. They change values arbitrarly, don't register contact in all areas. Just like my Roland JD800. They are the same type of slider. I think this is because of dust and me not properly covering them. Anyway, I was just looking to price a repair on the thing and I see people are buying them used for $150-200US. I think I would just get something used before I get into repairing this unit. It still plays... the mutes all work etc. I'll just keep using this one I guess until it just is no longer usable at all. lol! Will I buy another? I don't know... there are a lot of cool units out there. I've used this one for a long time, maybe something different.

I don't remember so well.

Yea this thing rocks! I think there are other units I might like better like the Korg esx series or whatever. But what piece of gear doesn't have it's challenges,limitations, or quirks? My overall rating? for the current used $150-$200 price, this thing is beast!

this synth groovebox is a bit hard to use to its full potential right out of the gate.
it is filled with sounds from the dance era of its day. some of them still relevant today but many are dated.
the manual is well written but it is intensely large and will take a long time to get through.
if you are just reaching for knobs and dials there is some instant fun factor,but to really go into the mc505 you kinda need a understanding of synth programming and sound design.
if not your just going to be missing out on the meat of this machine.

some of the effects can be fun. it is more fun to run the parts out through individual stompboxes or outboard gear.
yes it is a old way to do things but it is a good way to do things.
sounds better that way too.
you can still find memory cards online for it.
there is a small keyboard on it for triggering notes live or programming the very decent internal sequencer.
very nicely laid out control panel.

this dosent sound exactly analog.
but it can get close if you spend the time programming a patch it can be amazing.
lots of people here complain about the sounds.
dont blame the machine its your lack of skill at programming it.
this is made during the time alot of people were buying them and just pushing play and calling themselves a musician.
i think that this box truly has merit even eleven years after its initial release.
drums are ok. if you process them properly they can sound big and beefy.
there isnt many grooveboxes that were made that can offer the wide aray of sounds a mc505 can offer for such a cheap price. it can go from very old school jarre vangelis,to very acid and if you spend the time it can do some good glitch sounds too.
it is way better than people say in terms of sound.
each patch can have four ocillators each of those can have thier own envelopes and lfos.
you want evolving pads this machine can do them.
you want a fat bass this machine can do that too.
there is four kinds of filter offered. the res isnt to my liking but its not horrible its pretty decent for a older digital filter.
all in all for the price they go for and the wide range of sounds this gets a ten

yes i would gig with it.
its a electronic instrument you can never fully depend on them.
fairly well built. the lcd aparently starts to die after a while and the big wheel has been known to wilt out as well.
mines ten years old and still works perfectly.

dont know and dont care.
i would most likely get another one if mine needed fixing.

i will say this for 200 bucks i have to give it a ten.
for a true overall rating tho compared to my other gear and how much use i get from it i will give it a seven.
it is really fun and you can do a lot with it.

The presets is very outdated both style-wise and they don't show the units potential at all.The manual is thorugh,but a bit confusing at first.but once you dig deep into this machine,there is very good sounds to be made.but don't expect to be making much sense of things the first session with this box.

The fact that there is 6 outputs makes all the difference in the world for me.the sequencer is good,but again it will take some time to get the hang of things.I am teaming this up with the korg esx-1 sampler,and they sure make a good team once hooked up properly via midi and all audio channels on both machines sent to my mixer to be tweaked further with fx and eq!But I would miss the korg sampler if it wasn't in my rig,thats one of the crap things with the 505.No sample capability.but for the price i paid for the mc-505(150 bucks),it is exellent value.

the sounds are what you make of it,you can use the crappy presets and hate the thing,or give it some time,dig in and surprise yourself.the fx are good,but a not exactly extreme.useful for some things,but if you want juice,outboard is the way to go.if you plug in an external keyboard you get velocity and aftertouch,the built in keyboard-pads are not made to be played,it is made to be plotted...but so are most of the other groovebox-synths out there too.
The machine is capable of many a genre,but maybe not folk and classical and all the other obvious stuff.I use it for dubstep and dnb.Together with the rest of my rig,of course.sweet..and the bass boost feature rocks balls!

The thing is built like a rock.But the lcd display will sooner or later most likely fry and lose its pixels.and that sucks.However,Roland is selling replacements,and i even managed to squeeze some life into my broken lcd with a flattening iron!but it will probably not last for long.This is the only issue i can think of...but a major one.It is impossible to do serious work without a proper display on this thing..gotta order that display soon..gigs coming up.i would def use it at a gig without backup if the display could be trusted.

I get support from my Roland dealer,they say it will take one week to get the display.Very friendly and helpful.I will repair it myself once i get the display,piece of cake.but will wait to see how long my fix lasts...

For the price i paid,i would definetly buy it again.I have been making electronic music for 12 years.Used to work on a computer,but got sick of staring into a screen and feeling up the mouse all day.Got my hands on the mc-505,then followed the korg esx-1 and a kaosspad 2,into my mackie mixer.from there i process the signals thru auxes with a Rocktron chameleon and my old Eventide ultra harmonizer.
I love pressing buttons and turning knobs..it def make my performances and recordings be more interesting and expressive to me and my audience.

Insanely frustrating!
Had my 505 for a little over two months...all I can seem to do is bang on patch sounds and play with preset patterns.
The manual does more harm than good. Trying to edit a song is a fruitless endeavour.
It makes me sad, I read so many glowing reviews of this instrument and wanted it for so long but now I'm afraid it's going on the shelf in the closet never to be seen again.
Try before you buy.
If anyone knows a good tutorial PLEASE let me know.

If it were stolen I'd do more research for my next purchase.

I really like the Roland MC-505. It is so densely packed with features, it is a a little bewildering and I think that is what prevents many people from going deeper and playing with the basic feature sets.

Basically the unit sounds good, but it is tempting to merely play with all the presets.

If you dig deep enough, you can get get a wide variety of sound out of it to complement almost any kind of music.

My 505 had developed a bad lcd like most of them out there and this is why I am writing this review. Yes, you can replace it (as of 11/01/2008).

Also, it seems that the older 505's have plastic shafts on the pots and they tend to wear out and get wobbly. This doesn't seem to affect their use and performance. The replacement pots have metal shafts and should last longer. I think some were made with metal shafts, I would keep my eye out for one of those.

Although I applaud Roland for making parts available for the 505 after all these years, their customer service is beyond awful. If you order internal replacement parts they are non-returnable and they don't come with any service notes even when the replacement part is a substitution part and would require it. The replacement lcd screen is now a substitution part that is very different from the original screen. It is green and twice the thickness of the old lcd. Rather than being a 5 minute job to swap out the screen, it will take considerable time to install especially if you don't have the service notes on the replacement (and I think only Roland and their reps have access to this).

So I write this review in the hope that someone else planning to do this swap won't have to go through the pain I did of figuring out what to do. This is not a complete how-to as some of obvious steps are omitted like unscrew the case bottom.

1. the new screen mounts below the case not on top anymore
2. you will need to cut the opening and make it wider to fit the new screen. I used a nibbler and tin snips the metal is pretty soft be careful not to distort the screw holes.
3. you have to remove the output board to gain access to the opening.
4. the lcd screws in on the right and uses the supplied support on the left (oriented normally as if you were going to play it.
5. the clear plastic insulators are too small and you will probably need to use some tape to cover the ends of the lcd circuit board to prevent shorting on the metal case.
6. test the screen by hooking up just the power cable to the output board (bigger connector with red and white wires)
7. test fit the plastic screen (perspex?) to make sure the lcd oriented correctly. if the lcd is oriented to the left, you will have characters obscured by the screen.

If I had to do it again, I would say an hour as the case trimming takes some time with lots of trial fitting.

I think the MC-505 is totally worth it. It really can go beyond the trance/dance/tb-303 cliches if you take the time to figure it out. At its heart I find it to be very musical.

I wouldn't use it in a recording for String sounds, but it does have some really convincing Synth and Bass sounds.

Editing is a breeze. Knobs and sliders galore. A friend of mine (a drummer) who had never even touched a synthesizer hitherto, came over one night and started playing around with a Moog bass sound I had up. He got some awesome (non-bass) sounds going in just a few minutes. The manual is very concise... maybe too concise.

64 note polyphony, adequate for this box. There are some "stock" effects which are run-of-the-mill, but the "special" type effects like the Slicer are worthwhile. This box is not expandable. It does have an onboard sequencer which is fairly easy to use (read the section of the manual regarding the sequencer twice and you'll be a pro).

The Synths and Basses are good. The EP's are good too. The Clav's, Brass and Strings JV-880 quality. The D-Beam and novelty effects are fantastic. It reacts well to velocity and aftertouch (try the Moog Bass w/aftertouch).

I don't know if I can depend on it or not, but it's easy to fix. I bought it dirt cheap on Ebay because it had a bad POT (potentiometer, IE knob) and a faulty display. The POT cost $4 + shipping and the display had some bad solder points that took about 20 minutes to get to and 2 minutes to fix. I bought it initially just to add a D-Beam to my JP-8080 (they can be linked), but now I use it for sounds and even the sequencer occassionally. I play 70's progressive rock so I don't use the Patterns for live work, although I do find them interesting to play around with. I do use it live, but mostly as a D-Beam controller for the JP-8080 (for the "Filter Sweep" in Frankenstein... Looks cool to control it with the D-Beam).

I needed a potentiometer and I was able to get it ordered and mailed to me in a few minutes. I talked to a tech and he clued me in about the solder joints on the display.

If lost or stolen I'd replace it if I could get it for under $150, otherwise no. Is it worth what I paid, yes... but I bought a unit with what was perceived as a bad display and a bad knob and the case had been drilled out so it could be rack mounted (I actually rackmount it now too... Hey Roland, maybe the next MC should have the option). I love the analog-synth style controls. Very straight forward. All the digital era add-ons make it a wonderful machine for whatever you are doing.

ROLAND MC 505 REVIEW: MY OPINION
PRESETS(ABOUT 500) SOME ARE GOOD BUT THERE ARE SOME REALLY RUBBISH ONES TOO.
EDITING PATCHES IS EASY, THE MANUAL IS PRETTY MUCH OK.

ITS A 64 NOTE POLYPHONIC SYNTH WITH A 16 KEY MINI KEYBOARD WHICH DOUBLES UP AS STEP-WRITE ENTER KEYS (LIKE THE OLD TR RANGE OF DRUM MACHINES).
IT HAS REVERB, DELAY AND OTHER EFFECTS, PRETTY GOOD.
THE ONLY EXPANDABILITY ON THIS UNIT IS MEMORY STORAGE, WHICH IS 2mb OR 4mb SMART MEDIA CARDS (5v NOT 3.3v)
ON THE REAR IT HAS MIDI IN AND OUT/THRU AND MOST THE KNOBS AND SLIDERS TRANSMIT MIDI DATA.
THE ON-BOARD SEQUENCER IS EXCELLENT AND REALLY EASY TO USE, YOU CAN CREATE TRACKS VERY VERY QUICKLY AND SEQUENCE YOUR EXTERNAL MIDI EQUIPMENT!

YOU CAN MORE OR LESS CREATE MOST GENRES OF MUSIC WITH THIS UNIT.

IVE NEVER HAD A PROBLEM WITH ANY ROLAND PRODUCT AND THIS IS BUILT WELL, METAL CASE AND METAL CHASSIS AND RELIABILITY WISE I WOULD USE IT ON STAGE ANYTIME!

DONT KNOW, NEVER HAD TO CONTACT THEM.

THE SEQUENCER IS AS EASY AS YOULL EVER GET ON A SYNTH......IT HAS 6 AUDIO OUTPUTS, THE DRUM SOUNDS ARE REALLY GOOD, ITS TOUGH, THE FILTERS ARE GOOD, OVERALL ITS A REAL GOOD PACKAGE.

I bought this MC 505 when it first came out and assume that it's v1.0. The presets sound a little thin but fortunatly there are a lot of ways to fatten it up with the internal fxs. Editing patches are relatively easy, if you take the time to dive into it innitially. I don't use a patch editor. The manual has mistakes but bearing that in mine, it's a fairly good reference.

Many many polyphonus (is that a word?) ability. Fxs are easy to use. It accepts smart memory cards (no longer available - say what?. Chicklet keys but in midi mode, external keyboards allow for more expressions ie dynamics, after touch etc. The on board sequencer is easy to use (if you spend some time learning the basics).

Most sampled based synths have a thin sound. You simply can't compare a real string quartet with canned sounds. However, for what it is, it's okay...

I use mine as a back-up band. I program my own beats and sopatterns and play along to it. The nice thing about this machine, is that I can extend or shorten any song depending how it's going.

Fxs are fairly good and accessible on the fly.

See above comments for velocity and aftertouch.

General reliability is good. I've only had a couple of 'hiccups' since I bought it. However my pixel lcd screen started to go on me and I had to get it replaced ($300 repair). This apparently is a very common problem and used MC505 should be very aware of this. Apparently, it will go blank after time which makes it a real ***** to program without a visual aid.

It sucks when it comes to this machine! Roland Canada no longer make the replacement part for the LCD pixel issue, and had to adapt another kind of LCD for my replacement needs. On the one hand, it's kind of cool to have an LCD that is a different colour than most MC 505s (if not all), but it really should have only cost $100. It's the only Roland product that I've had issues with display screen.

However, aside from the price issue, Roland did fix it in quick time.

The procedure, if you have the replacement part, involves a snap in place ribbon and four screws mounting.

As a minor protest, I have decided to boycott future Roland products, at least for now (until at least I feel I've made up for the extra costs).

I would buy it again, if I was doinglive gigs on a regular basis (assuming my smart media card was still around as it has customized back-up info on it.

I've been playing and recording since 1979. I own Korg, Roland, Moog etc products.

I love the interface panel and as a side bonus, midied to other gear, the panels affect other synths etc. For intace, it makes a great multi-timbral midi mixer to such gear as the Korg Karma or EMU Proteus products.

I'm pretty happy with it in general. I think it will be a 'synth classic' especially if most lose their pixels and are trashed. Which will mean, those that are still working (like mine) will be sought by collectors!

Recently got it. Running on V1.04, the earliest version i guess. I'm on OSX Leopard and have tried various free MIDI sequencers (to update to 1.07) to no avail.

Straight off, the learning curve is quite high. You need the manual. Once you learn, there won't be turning back. Megamix is an important and easy to use live tool.

Due to the old software version, I get Rehasal, instead of Rehearsal.

Patching is EASY, but..

..I will update this once I get deeper with Patching ala Basslines vs Rhythm Composer.

8 once you get used to its perks.

Many LONG reviews written on this box, it deserves it. Truly a machine that lives up to its name.

Sad FACT 1 : TR recording mode updates only after the bar is finished. Click chiclets but it responds only on the next bar. Very frustrating.

Sad FACT 2 : TR recording mode will disable all other parts. Essentially making it a drum machine with next bar update.

Sad FACT 3 : I can't get Tap Tempo working properly. It just won't sync with pre-MIDI gear flawlessly. (1.04 related i guess.)

Happy FACT : Record mode is expected. It records everything so be careful tweaking, don't forget Rehasal.

8 as the other futures kinda makes up for the lack of a TR-Synth hybrid I was hoping it would be.

Sounds are alright right off the box, better with some tweaks, mega with a lot of tweaking and a good ear. Basically, tweaking is easy with all the knobs and minimal shifts. Tweaking is fun, seriously.

Sampler based, JV-1080 or 2080 can't remember. Comes with the plethoric sounds from Roland's various products. 909, 808, 606, 303, Jupiter, etc. etc. If it's not up to your standards, Tweaks are allowed. Not bad.Still searching for that Jupiter-8 arpeggio sound.

Preset Songs are boring.

8 as this box can really create some crazy sounds.

Physically reliable. Software-wise, not so. 1.04 perhaps, but Roland should make their products solid feeling at first go already.

7 as it doesn't feel that solid and direct compared with analog gear, software-wise, but hardware seems sturdy enough.

Probably will buy a backup if many gigs. And if a Patch corruption occurs.

Erm, filters wail a bit, not as extreme as an MS-20, but will wail and throb. Ask Roland about this and they will smile I guess.

I love everything there is to love about it.
I hate everything there is to hate about it.
Makes good partners with a Korg ESX-1, an MS2000 and any old TR, 909 preferably.
Sampler, Virtual Analog and an easy to use dedicated Rhythm Composer. And this Roland Jack of all trades, master of some. Very mobile, very easy setup, very Live Performance.

I'm not sure whether you can hook up two MC-505s and MEGAMIX them all together, now that would be sweet.

Thank god for MIDI.

Great! I love how easy it is to put together paterns. Some things take a litlle getting used to, but once you get the hang of it you can fly through it. I hit buttons so fast on this thing and it always can keep up.

I don't know much about polyphony, but aparently it has enough for me. Love the lft knobs and how you can easily record their actions to your pattern.
The Arp is great.
Expansion.. well that sucks because there is none. You can use smart media obviousl, but you can't add your own sounds. But it isn't a sampler.
The sequencer is fun and easy to use. I love it. How I work is I build a base pattern, save it, then make modified, extended, altered (ect ect) versions of it and save them as seprate patterns. Then you just link them together in song more and: disco!
The real time midi recorder is great, has a few little quarks. You get used to them and can work around them tho.

Here is the deal. When I first got it I tried to make it sound like something is wasn't. It isn't ever going to sound analog. It isn't going to sound phat or rich. Once I stoped fighting it, and decided to make use of it for what it is, I loved it.
It's a unique synth that has a cheap, dirty, sometimes low-fi sound. You can layer and tweak the sounds so they sound really interesting and intense, but not warm or thick.
People say it can sound like a toy, and I totally agree, but with the right amount of dedication to it, you can make INTERESTING, twisted crazy music.
Peaches, M.I.A., Bis. and Mount Sims all made huge club hit songs using this box alone. It's ditry sound is why it was such a hit in the electroclash genera, and I know it has just as much potential for future dance music.
It's all about creativity, and using it in the right way.

It has never crashed, but wierd stiff has happened from time to time. Random pattern changes, strange patch changes. Never lost data tho.
The LCD screen on mine is almost gone, but i can sill very slightly figure out what it's saying. This is common on the 505. I've spend thousands of hours on it, and bought it used, so it's been around the block a few times.

I love it, and I want to keep it forever. I want everyone to have one. I just sit in bed with it on my lap every night. Even if someone has a full studio, I think it would be a great sketch pad.

Wish I could add samples, or expand the synth like on the 909.

Overall if you are looking for a fun, easy to use, all in one on the go machine with an INTERESTING and UNIQUE sound, it's a great one.

I just got an 808, and I hate it. It sounds great, much phatter, but everything is done on a computer, not on the box it's self. It's more of a modual. It ruins the groovebox feature of having an entire setup in one. So I'll dtick to the 606, or maybe try the 909.

This was my first piece of gear that i bought after playing around with a friends mc-303 for 3 weeks. The 303 had a 2 week learning curve for me (no manual) and the 505 is much more advanced than the 303, so it took me about 2 months with the book to really get into laying down my own songs and patterns. Anyone who uses rolands know they each have their own operating quirks, but in my experience, the 505 is the easiest to learn outside of the 303 because of it's layout and manual. (good for beginners or software converts(me)..

The manual is very in depth (i think it's probably the thickest manual in the groovebox line) and although some of the translations can be a bit confusing, the info is there.. also, there is still some extra info to be found using google.. and a patch editor, i've downloaded it, but never used it.. the manual editing is so quick that software editing doesn't make sense to me, but i tweak by ear not by math so maybe it's useful to someone who obsesses over exacting details (i like to play music and make grooves with this, it's basicaly my drum machine + fills and extras)

Editing is a breeze! Most of the controls are only a knobs turn or a sliders push away, unlike the other grooveboxes that have a lot of menu browsing to get to parameters or knob assignments. Changing waveforms is simple, once you realize how to select your tones (roland's quirks) and how NOT to lose your progress while tweaking (stop and save often if you are spending lots of time editing a patch).. Realizing that some settings are saved via Patch Saves and some via Pattern Save was the one thing that bugged me the most in the beginning.. that's probably just a me thing tho. The manual explains this i think, i just use the manual for when i get stumped.

I've had this for 3 years now, and it's still the center of my setup.. This is my master bpm clock machine and it works nicely for that. I love how the system parameters and other edits are easily accessed by using the markings on the bottom with the keypad.. this is very quick and easy! I wish my 307 worked like this in that regard. so does my friend with the 909.. it's cluttery with lettering, but i want my synth to look confusing but be simple to operate, this one is exactly that.

features, well.. i'll try not to repeat the overstated... memory expansion is available, but as mentioned, hard to get those cards these days.. but you do need one! i filled mine up once and while trying to save a patch, the memory showed "full" and locked up my box... i had to do a factory reset and start over (i had no card)... talk about upset! a year's work and about 10 good song ideas gone.. lesson learned, get a card!

effects? yes. not "great" but some are very useable.. slicer, lo-fi, 4eq, enhancer are the ones i use most.. pattern delay and reverb are useful, i use those timidly when needed.. you can apply delay/reverb to any pattern (a pattern setting, not patch (see above) but the "special" effects you can only use one of (4eq/slicer/distortion, etc) so that's not too bad, useable with a plan in mind.. delays are really good if you tempo sync them.. long delays echo nicely, short delays will do some cool things too, especially on drums. the rest are "ok" and have special use if you apply them lightly, but they aren't the best features of this box.. also, lack of being able to use more than one effect in a patch is a bit annoying, and sometimes swapping patterns mid stream and changing efx between patterns can clash the timing, especially of the slicer with long tails (env. release).. which could be expected, but is limiting sometimes. i find if you don't use this box as "everything" you'll get exactly what you need out of it..

megamix function is exclusive to the 505 i think, and a very helpful one too. my buddy with a 909 was kinda upset that his doesn't megamix.. if you don't know, it's basically like a live play mixer that allows you to mix in specific parts from other patterns, and when the sequence loops back to one, the selected pattern part will play in place of the saved part in pattern.. a great live tool, and also helpful when you are fleshing out patterns in the studio and find something in another pattern that would work with a current idea.. just megamix in the part you want, resave (or save another copy of) your pattern and your work is done. no copy/paste, then reset all pattern parameters to match that original idea, all the settings of that part are changed with the megamix (a good thing)..

d-beam... not something i use.. kinda unpredictable for live use, the bpm control "could" be a cool trick.. but overall, i ignore this. this belongs on a 303.

i use a jx-10 76 key for my midi keyboard on this.. the jx-10 has aftertouch/velocity and great synth play action, and when writing parts into the 505 it saves my performance exactly as played.. can't ask for much more than that.. i don't mess with any 505 settings related to aftertouch/velocity so i dunno. i assume most will use an external keyboard on this anyway.

the #1 feature of this box that i see above most of the other grooveboxes, are the extra outputs! a total of 3 (mix/direct 1 & 2) stereo outs, which are great when you get into using external effects boxes (makes up for the lack of multi on board effects).. from what i know, most dedicated effects units are usually better than most of what you can find on board of any all-in-one synth box. so if you have the extra channels on your mixer, use em! one thing, when using direct 1 & 2, onboard reverb and delay are bypassed (again, hinting that external effects are the idea here).. sometimes, i run my bassline parts thru direct 2 and i can easily eq it independent of the rest of the pattern settings (expanding externally and outsourcing is the idea with the 505, imo) again, a great tool! also if you think in terms of mono, you could conceiveable get 6 mono outputs out of this setup (editing patch tones for left/right pans to send out separate im' thinking here)

my only complaint/extra want would be to have separate channels for the rhythm parts ie: separate kick channel, separate snare, etc.. but this seems to be a dying thing with gear.. most older drum machines without midi have this, and that's invaluable for applying effects to drum parts independently. (808 anyone?) again, i'm wishfully thinking of perfect world scenarios with this.. had roland included this, i think this 505 would be in every studio.

sequencer... straightforward.. i made a song with it on my first attempt.. make your patterns, save them.. then go in song mode and sequence them by looping and selecting parts to mute/unmute.. the sequencer is a breeze when playing live to tweak live and with certain settings selected, you can have the pattern return to normal after each loop or retain your on the fly tweaks.. again, this is up to you but you'll need to understand the play mode/loop mode and set them up specifically for what you expect.. the manual is good for that. editing? eh, i think that's a bit more tricky.. when i make changes, i start over from scratch and lay out my songs again.. if you make a song with a pattern, then change some of the pattern settings of the original (level/keyshift/reverb/delay/efx|outs) the song will not "update" to match the changed pattern.. think of the song as a one time arrangement (the time you made it) and if you make changes, lay out your song again. might be tedious for those that use short loops, but i usually work in 8 or 16 measure chunks. not overly tedious for me. also, i could be missing something here, it may be easier than i think to edit them, but i dont' waste time with that. kinda confusing for me that way. you may disagree and that's ok.

when confused or angry with this box, get the book and find out what you're missing.. chances are, the capability is in there you just need to tell the box what to do. love this box and it loves you back!

rating only a 7 because i think more effort would have made this thing a "must have" and with that kind of potential, half assed just doesn't make sense. but it's a strong 7.

hmm, this seems to be the love/hate part of this box.. many hate the presets, and i agree, most are shite but i look at presets as starting points on this thing (patch wise).. i don't know why they give you so many patterns that you can't delete out (roms) but if you think in terms of them being inspirations, they can be used/helpful at times.. i think they might be trying to show the different ways you can use certain effects in order to get certain results, ie: inspiring to a learner's ear type thing.. you'd be surprised what a little tinkering can do! i have a korg poly 61, and it's nice to work with because the patches are great out the box, but where's the fun in that? that keyboard i bought for the sounds, the 505 i bought for the potential. electronic music is discovery and experimentation for me, so the fun i get comes in originality and searching. this box almost feels like it was made for me, so i'm partial i guess. like i said, it's the first box i got, so i've heard these sounds a zillion times over (i spent the first year and a half i had it working for hours every day with it, making crap! but learning and having loads of fun with just this box).. making really intricate and complete songs is not going to be the strong point here, but making "grooves" and base tracks are where this shines..

some sounds are great, others not so much. basslines have potential, drums have potential, some pads are really good, some old skool acid leads are there to tweak on (those are not for everybody).. most people won't spend the time on this think to tweak out the surprises, but if you take the rise pad patch, and change waveforms on it, you will find the potential to make 10 new, distinct sounding patches from this one "preset" just by changing waveforms.. think in terms of "textures" when listening to presets, not the actual sound.. you can change the expression after you find the texture you like.. and if that sound doesn't work for you, try a different patch to start from.. tweak!! again, not a complete all in one answer for everything synth box but as a drum machine with added benefits, it's awesome! this is what i use it for, as i have a 307 that i use the same way, and i mix the two together basically.. using the strong points from each to make unique flavors..

i give my word in saying, that if you play with this thing long enough, you'll find some stuff that you can't live without (assuming you don't own the rest of the groovebox line or a 307). at least for techno/breakbeat/dnb/house/ambient uses.. don't knock it if you haven't put a full year's time of daily use into this thing, trust me. sometimes you need to become a bit bored with the sounds in order to find what you're really looking for.

also one last thing, this box will sound flat compared to your other gear (the 307 sounds better than this thing out the box, and cheaper) but i bought a $50 bbe sonic maximizer and i run my mix out thru that thing for a bit more *brighter* sound.. also, equing on your mixer will help.. with this in mind, you should be seeing a pattern emerge with my review... use this thing in a bigger context and use it as a tool, stretch out all the outputs, use your great mixer eqs, your effect boxes, your outboard reverbs, and you will make great things with this.. i compare this thing to Reason software Redrums with a synth added. no sampling, but you can sample with most anything else these days..

i give it a 7 simple because the sounds are not as diverse as a whole as i would like, and it doesn't give you a whole lot compared to what i get with the 307, but if you tweak it and use your brain in ingenious ways you can overcome many obstacles. potential!, potential!, potential!, although limited and requires extra pieces or external effecting for really diverse sounding music = 6. (personally for my uses it grades higher)

knobs react as expected when playing.. if you touch a knob and the original settings are radically different than the current knob position, you will hear a bit of sound bending but knowing this, you can easily do it in strategic ways/points as it is not a problem.. just use common sense, it's not a mind reader! operate it!

dependable? i think so.. i've gigged it a few times (maybe 5) once in swampy, humid air, once in 20 degree weather with ice on everything and it never failed me. i realize i don't have a monstrous setup when gigging but when i have gigged the only piece of equipment that ever failed me was... a laptop! this is why i don't use computers in performance settings, at least not in a dependent mode.

i have used it without a backup. but i play for free right now so i don't get nervous about it anyway.

never dealt with roland directly, although i will say the 505 has a good bit of online support from hobbyists and other users.. so that's good. i notice roland has been adding more downloadable manuals on their website so that is a good sign. never needed a repair but i would probably deal with a factory authorized dealer in town to handle any repairs anyway.

lost or stolen, i would cry! this is my first born, and still the center of everything i do. i would be lost as a person without it. i would love to have 2 of them just to see what i could achieve. but i have a 307 which is basically a better sounding module of 505 patches + extra and better effects. so the combo i use of 505 + 307 so far is a match made in heaven for me. they are both the main sequencing and my only drum machines thus far.. i feel i can use them in anything i do, so what more can you ask for?

it is very inspiring to work on, i love the abundance of knobs. this is what a synth should feel like working on it.. spontaneous. working is quick and easy once you get your gear legs under you..

i already mentioned the things i wish it had above.. a few things like i said, but you can't have everything. even if you have a pc with software you still have limits, so learn to work around them and try to be ingenious. what it lacks in sound diversity it makes up for in sequencing/midi potential.. i have no idea about any software tweaking via cubase or any of that, i don't use gear that way.. gear to me is an instrument, just like a guitar. a guitar is pretty boring by itself but add some flavor to it and you get things you never expected sometimes.. this is the idea here.

overall an 8 but a couple extra small details would have yeilded a 10 from me, i'm in love with this box sorry!

my current setup:
mc-505
mc-307
korg poly 61
super jx-10 (both for synth sequences, and as my main midi keyboard)
digitech rp6 efx pedal (first pedal, will def. be adding more)
furman power cond.
alessis compressor (rarely use)
bbe sonic maximizer
allen&heath xone 32 mixer (upgrading to full board in time, prob. mackie onyx)

laptop with reason for using malstrom synth and sampler, but not heavily used due to reliability issues

modest, yes.. but i keep expansion in my mind when buying gear. i buy what i like, not what's popular. i get satisfaction out of using stuff others don't like, if you're like me, this box is well worth $400 used on ebay. get one in good shape and treat it like you love it, it will love you back.

It was my first synth/groovebox/whatever ya wanna call it. I owned mine for almost 5 years, got it when it first came out. It is very easy to use, reading manual is a help, but you can manage without it. It's the easiest box to use out there.

This box has it all in my opinion, you got a drum machine, sound module, 8 track player, bunch of effects. It lacks expansion and that's why I sold mine. For drums this thing sounds nice and you can quickly change, hats, cymbals, drums, whatever you want, right there on the spot. When I discovered that this thing couldn't sample, I was very dissapointed. How hard would it be to add 4mb of sampling to this? I don't know, but it pissed me off, cause all the patches started to get on my nerves after a while.

I think this sounded great when I had it, I used it with my sp808 effects and it rocked with delay or enhancer. This is great for DnB, Breaks, Trance, RnB, HipHop, Reggae sounds. The drum machine on this thing is the best in my opinion. The other sounds are just outdated and too reperative.

Very reliable, never crashed by itself, only when running through Cubase, but I'm sure it was my fault. Very sturdy, but when you drop it from about 6ft, you may break some leds or bend the knobs, that's what happened to me. I sold mine after I dropped it and I sometimes miss it.

Roland, never had to use it.

Great machine, had to sell mine cause I needed the money, but now I miss it for the drums. Now I own Yamaha RS7000 and it's much better than mc505, since it has a sampler. But I think that presets on mc sound better than rs.

I'm using the latest version that was available on Roland's page, and since this product has been discontinued for quite a while, I doubt there's ever going to be a newer one.

It is a quite complex toy I've got here in my hands. The manual is quite thorough, but still fails to explain a few things and the interactions and their scope at some point. After a few weeks of playing with it, you'll know the things you need to know after using it for a bit...

Great stuff here. Both as a sequencer and as a groovebox, it really does what it is supposed to do. I almost exclusively use the sequencing functions to program my beats, and for everything else I use my trusted MIDI keyboard and a software sequencer. Not because the 505 wouldn't be able to do it, but because the software sequencer is available to me. I would, however, should all software sequencers be banned someday, be perfectly happy with the 505.

There are a lot of patches for the synth parts, not as many for the drum parts, but they'll suffice. I would have wished for a bit of sampler functionality, to get a few extra sounds in there, but well...

It even features a smart-media slot, but since in 2005 its hard to get those old 5V 4mb cards, I'll probably never be able to use it ;)

But all in all: a very good all-rounder, for basic synth sounds and grooves...you can write entire songs just with this one thingy, and nobody would ever notice!

The D-Beam is a fun toy, too, and makes changing certain parameters, or even improvising very flexible and intuitive.

Of course it is no "real" synth...it sounds the way it sounds. Good enough for me. Of course my Virus b kicks this one's behind when it comes to clearness and expressiveness, but to compare those two would be like comparing the a swiss knife with a small light on it to a MagLite.

The 505 is very very versatile thing, and it still sounds great!

One knob seems to have hat the "ghost" in it, but it hasn't happened in a while. I didn't even manage to kill it with OS updats gone wrong ;)

Never had to do with them.

Grat allrounder!

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...

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

The last review hates the sounds. That's fine. But realize this. The synthesis engine, 4 layers with full subtractive synthesis editing on each layer, is the SAME engine and type used in the acclaimmed Roland 2080 sound modules! You use a sample in each layer and tweak it out. Other than true analog and virtual analog, such is the same synthesis used in Rolands top synths, Korgs top synths, Yamaha's top synths and E-mus top synths. The E-mu XL1 and other modules use the identical 4 layer sample and synthesis approach.

Now one can complain about the uderlying samples used, but the reality is that if you *want* to program the sounds in the MC-505 then you have a very powerful synthesiser at your disposal. Most of the preset sounds use only one or two layers. Feel free to use 3 or 4 in different combinations and layer then and have them crossfade based on key velocity or keyrange or aftertouch. The sky's the limit. All synths sound different than each other and it's a matter of taste. The MC-505 may not sound great to everyone. Many believe it is better sounding than the RM1X.

Don't forget the drums. Great samples of great machines. That's what we wanted right? Other than boutique machines like the JOMOX or the Machinedrum and old samplers (which are really something different than we are comparing here) what's a better sounding overall drum machine?

When percieved as a big huge, easily tweakable and programmagle drum machine, that also has a pretty powerful synth inside as well as an 8 track step seqencer (with 8 separate drum tracks too) that you can play live with a band (via the tap tempo button, (it's best live feature BTW) then you see the power of the unit. nitpicking on each element is to ignore that the total package, and the way it is nicely put together is the beauty of the intstument. Later, sure add a synth module. Sounds great! As a writing tool and performance tool all in one box, it excels.

Very Reliable! I use it live all the time for 4 years now.

Roland is fine.

I might get the XL-7 or MP-7 by Emu. If the could serve my live needs. The megamix sliders are very handy. Sure one could gang a regular sequencer with a couple of synth modules and kenton control freak but the cost would be higher. Even if money is no object, there is something to be said, (especially playing live where setting up and setting down and transportation take a great toll on instruments) for a singe box instead of three connected with midi cables and their own power supplys and . . . . too many wires to break or lose!

I've had this thing for about a year and a half. I was sick of it after 6 months. If you are new to music production, then this machine is great. I was a newbie when i started with it, and basically i have learned everything about effects/sounds/patches/rythm and everything from this machine. BUt the mistake i made is that i kept the machine, instead of getting rid of it. In fact i still have it. This is one of those machines that you have to get rid of as soon as you 'conquer' it. In other words, get rid of it once you've fully exploited all of its features, when u have 'grown out' of using it. I've grown out of it long ago, but i still have it, as i have no money to buy other equipment. Everytime i have a good idea i sit down and start playing it, then think that wow, i just made this song sound awesome, then realise that, no.. i did not get anywhere i havent before. THIS MACHINE WILL ALWAYS SOUND THE SAME no matter what you do. NO EXPANSION, NO NEW SOUNDS, NO NOTHING. All you have is about 500 sounds, ranging from synth, to bass, to drums, and atmospherics, etc. but out of that 500, there are about 10 that you'd ever use, simply because the others sound so bad.

This machine is great for the drum sounds, the 909 and 808 are spot on, however, they sound bland without any decent effects. The obvious thing to do in this case? - Apply some compression... but the porblem is the compressor on the 505 is unbelievably baaaaad. It mutates the sounds yet gives none of the "punch" that you want!

Some bass sounds are ok... BUT
THE BIGGEST, BIGGEST PROBLEM OF ALL... is that you will not find a decent sound in the 505 that you could use for a lead. for example, for a lead synth. This machine has about 10 presets for lead synth, but they all suck. So you tweak them, for hours and hours. Then you think 'oh cool.. that sounds great' .. ok so u save the fucker, and u are happy for a while. Then a couple of days later, when u boot up the machine again, you realise, what was i thinking.. that sounds like a 505, like it always did.

In dance music production, it is ESSENTIAL to have NEW sounds. That is exactly what the 505 will never have. It's stuck with a few hundred sounds that were programmed into it almost 5 years. But the sounds are so bad, that even 5 years ago they sounded like shit. So you can imagine what they sound like today!

With this amount of money u can buy analog gear. With analog, it doesnt matter if it's 20 years old. You'll still be able to be original with it.

the pro/con-machine
working with the latest OS; no troubles.
presets are totally crap but editing patches is very simple.
but i dont't like this wannabe-synthesis cos you only can put 4 different waveforms together and tweak it with filters and lfo stuff- but that's the price one has to pay ? if there was a real synthie, it would be even more expensive.
the manual is o.k. but due to the internal structure of da machine working is sometimes very complex, especially the first few weeks.

when i bought it, i didn't know much about electronic music production, so i thought i could use more than only ONE effect at a time and i was pretty disappointed, when i found out the truth...
so if you want to get your sounds processed fine then effect boxes are recommended.
xpansion possibility is there, but only for storing patches and patterns, not for new sounds or even samples.
don't understand, why the roland cards have to be that tiny (max 4MB) and that expensive.
the sequencer is a nice xox-mod sequencer with a 96 resolution, wich is quite o.k. but no world champion.

bad presets, very few possibilities to change the sounds the way, that you wouldn't think it's a 505. the sounds work mainly for techno and maybe for house and a little bit d&b or even industrial, but it's never the big deal.
the effect section seems to be nice, but on the second look it's very limited IMHO

had some crashes when i was working to fast with too much data in the U-temp and didn't save for a time, especially in the microscope mode while editing musical data.
i never would work without backups? on any machine!

after i had explained my troubles and that i have the machine for several years, i was asked if i was saving the patterns and patches i create...they must be thinking there're only idiots out there, cos this wasn't even part of my question.
i had to write tons of emails to get no right answer and always beeing referred to the FAQ? very annoying. the guy just kept telling me pure basics almost like i had never read the manual? i nearly went crazy. didn't get any right answers until i wrote an email to roland uk and complained about the naff support...

if it was lost or stolen, i would go for an MC80(EX) and get an virus access indigo to compliment my korg babies (MS2K+ES-1) and to get them sequenced properly.

it's not a bad tool if you are a beginner and as a scratch pad, but it depends always on what you're doing.
i own it right from the release and i had very much fun with it and did some live-stuff, but if you know the machine that good, you know where it lacks...

I just traded my E-MU XL-7 for the MC-505 plus cash. Obviously my first impression was just how bad the preset patches were in comparison to the E-MU. But I knew this before I made the deal. I don't think any dedicated synth guy would buy for presets, just like most of us don't buy a particular car because it has nice bumpers.
Editing patches is easy. Four waveform set-up is more or less self-explanatory. ASDR sliders as patch-makers is nice. Synth engine is not as deep as the XL-7's, but what the hell. I got the 505 because it crunches.
Manual is at the same time incredibly helpful and very obfusicatory. Sometimes it's almost funny 'Let's make a bass sound!,' etc, and overall it gets the job done. Would be nice to have one written in English...not translated.
I have not checked the OS yet.
As for actual ease of use, it's hard to beat. Knobs and buttons seem self-explanatory, and each knob and button has multiple uses from the same location. I'm still stuck on writing patterns and just getting the overall feel of the unit, so I haven't really delved into the sequencing aspect of the box. Can't really comment except to say that the timing isn't as tight as the newer E-MU boxes, or even the Rm1x (it seems...maybe I was drunk).

No expansion...and this is what pisses me off. My next module will probably be the Proteus 2500, which is exandable like Catherine Zeta-Jones is hot. Anyway, I'd think that Roland would at least let themselves grab more of the market by selling $280 ROMS for the 505, 'ala E-MU with their expansion cards. At least the 505 has memory for patches and patterns via SmartMedia, but I've heard that the 505 is using some sort of dated version of the SmartMedia that may or may not be easy to find in the coming years (is this true?)
Polyphony is a usable 68. Again, other 'beatbox' competitors are pumping out 128, but who cares? If you really need 128 voices simultaneously, you need a computer.
Lack of MIDI Thru sorta pissed me off. No biggie though.
You can only use 1 effect per song, but when people bitch about that it seems that they are forgetting about the dedicated reverb and delay knobs. If you're like me, reverb and delay are two of your most-used FX, and being able to use them without taking up most sequencer / modules two FX processors is nice. Other effects are nice, particularly the exciter. It really nasties up the hats and kicks.
Kyboard is a joke. I've been playing piano / keyboards for 15 years now and there was no way in hell I was ever going to be able to play even the simplest chords on that cheesy, non velo-sensitive pad. A lot of your other boxes have the sharps and flats placed slightly above the major keys, instead of right nest to each other as they are on the 505. It's confusing on the fly. Solution? No sane person would ever want to use the 505 without an external controller. I use a Korg N364 that's too beat up to sell and too weak to actually use for sounds.
I LOVE the part mixer, which is assignable to other sound-modelling duties besides part levels. Drum muting is a necessary touch. Probably the best real-time groovebox-type instrument around when considering both the part mixer and the assignable knobs. Which reminds me...the filter really sucks on this thing. Totally step digital.

Dance-oriented sounds are excellent. Even the cheesiest factory patch can be beefed with a little 'verb and some attention to other tweaks. Basses are incredible....DRUMS ARE AMONG THE BEST I HAVE EVER HEARD. EVEN THE PRESET DRUM PATTERNS ARE OUT OF THIS WORLD. the unit isn't a dedicated drum module but it shames all the other drum machines on the market today.
As for 'realisitic' instrument sounds, who cares? You didn't buy it for acoustic modelling. If you must have a real piano, I'll give you my Korg P3 piano module. I don't think Roland is at fault for putting shitty acoustic instruments in the 505. The R&D went into the percussion, leads (must be tweaked) and basses.

I'd say it appears to be reliable, but I haven't owned it long enough to really approach that question. It seems to be built to last. I would never, EVER gig any kind of fussy electro equipment without a back-up, though. Roland or otherwise.

New dealt with Roland, but I've heard horror stories. I can't rate this category based upon what a bunch of jaded, drunken musicians say online, but I'm pretty sure that Roland still sucks at consumer relations.

If lost I'd have to get another one, unless a mc-606 or 707 came out. I love this box and use it with several Korg synths, a Boss dr-202 drum machine and Cakewalk SonarXL. Of all the gear it is hands-down my favorite because it is so intuitive and fun to dick around with on the sofa when you're tired of being holed up in a room full of empty beer cans and pizza boxes, trying to get the whole set-up running smoothly. The 505 does everything reasonably well (a renaissance box)...all in ONE metal case. I carry it with me often...sometimes I even keep it at work on slow nights.

Like everyone else, I wish it had a sampler like the Ensoniq and Yamaha all-in-one modules.

Allright, I'm going to compare this thing to the RM1-x because we have both. Compared to following instrucions on a BIG lcd screen (rm1-x) and learning numerous key combinations (mc505) the rm1-x takes the price. No doubt about that. The sequencer on the rm1-x is unbelievable, the 505 sequencer is OK. Let's just say you REALLY have know your mc-505 before you're going to use is it the way it was meant to be used. That meens reading the manual which I find sometimes a little puzzling. But it's ok.

A reasonable amount of tweakability. Better than the rm1-x is, definetly but again, harder to get it right. Of course when you get it right an angel gets it wings. Maybe.

This is a dance machine, don't use it for rock. Don't use it for ambient either, the rm1-x far exeeds it for ambient sounds. However there are some very nice rythm sets in the paterns. The sound is rather good actually, better than the rm1-x too, which I think sounds too dull. This one sounds a little more crisp and clear, I think. Whatever. The basslines definetly sound a lot better.

No troubles so far. Let's hope it stays that way, for the MC-505's sake that is.

See above. No troubles yet encountered.

Yes I'd buy it again. No, you shouldn't use it on your own. Get a decent sequencer with it. The sound is ok untill you can afford a sound module. However it is after all a pretty neat package. It's a nice music toy, don't count on it for recording though. You need some additional equipment for adding the finishing touch. That is if you want to become a techno god. Keep on dreaming.

I have always found Roland's grooveboxes extremely easy to use, although in saying that I preferred some aspects of the 303's sequencer as opposed to the 505, grooveboxes have and in probability always will a piece of cake to use.

Good Polyphony, limited multi-timbrality but I guess with the RPS feature u can get more parts playing simultaneously, good effects just make sure u tweak the limited parameters, especially on the reverb, good on-board sequencer, although it could offer a features which would make life considerably easier!

This is the area where people are either for or against the old groovebox, 1st things 1st if you are looking for stunningly realistic instrument emulations forgetaboutit! IMHO this is a drum and bass box primarily, to get it to do more be prepared to get into patch editing. In saying that I have actually managed to create some lovely natural sounds with it, the elec piano, rhodes, organs and other 'real instrument' waveforms are good but they are limited in no. and require a lot of programming, remember that most of the patches in the 505 use only 1 of the 4 tone layers available to them, lazy programming on Rolands part I guess, but seriously the ingredients are there 2 get great sound out of this thing but you'll have to do it yourself. I give it 7 because a synth module should have more stand-out sounds as standard than this has get some good sounds, maybe I should start selling some of my own patches!!

Solid as rock, did crash from time to time until I updated the OS, since then not a murmer!!

N/A

If it were lost would I but it again, probably not, the best sounds in my 505 are the ones I created if I could retain these somehow and transfer into a new 505 then maybe. I would definitely go out and buy a similar product, the market in 'grooveboxes' is growing and both yamaha and Emu's new models looki very tempting and I know the default soundsets are of a higher quality. I like these machine, I own Emu P2k, Trinity Rack, Triton Rack, Yamaha A5000, Emu Esi-32, X5DR, Yamaha Sw1000xg, Sounblaster Platinum and the MC 505. Within the contaxt of that setup the 505 is actually very important to me which is why I probably will never sell it, it does phatt as f@ck when programmed right, but why Roland shipped with such a weak set of patches i'll never know! I o.k when it comes to patch programming but I'm know the Roland guys are leagues better ( listen to the JV/XV series modules )and as the synth shares the JV patch architecture the possibilities where almost limitless. I've got a feeling that the 707 whenever it appears will be the groovebox to beat!!! Till then.......

I first saw this machine in the store, and it was hooked up, but I never succeeded in getting any sounds out of it, until one day someone had the 30 minutes it took to tell me. Now, I find it relatively easy to use, but when you get really technical, like editing patches or patterns, you're better off using a software sequencer like cubase. I now use it as a sound module. But when you're a beginner, or if you find programming your video-player is impossible, don't use this machine.

Roland is really proud of the D-Beam controller but it's not all that. It's functioning is not reliable, and I actually have been laughed at using it, and you probably will too. The mixer, used for controlling volume, pan, effect level and more for each channel is a good and compact solution, I like it. The standard arpeggio's are uninspired. (maybe the slap-bass) The sequencer is adequate. Touching the filters most of the time means doing damage to the sounds that can not be repared. It's most usefull with your home-made patches, I guess. Ah! That's another story. You can never really make your own patches from scratch, just alter existing sounds till they sound cool. But editing the patches feels innatural. You don't turn knobs, like it should be, but you work your way through menu's on the 2-line LCD screen. But hey, it's a groovebox, not an analog synth. There is software for the computer to help you alter the sounds, and even though computers feel even more unnatural, it's the best way to get the most out of the 505. And don't get me wrong. There's a lot in it. Everything is changeable, and if you're good with midi, it can be good to have as centre of your setup.
Oh yeah, and keep a list of which slots you've used to save your songs. There's no way to tell if you're overwriting your potential breakthrough hit.

It's true, the sounds aren't really useable. It seems! It depends. My friend borroughed my Groovebox and made some funky salsa and relaxing drum&bass-based loungemusic. My favorites are the Acou.Piano 2 and the Jungle drum kit. But I have to say; the sounds could have been a lot better. 'Modern'-sounding strings have not been included, neither have the real freaky acid analog sounds. Best way to descibe it is that the sounds are quite extreme but there's not much in between. Use it as a musical notepad, a toy if you like, something to try ideas on. Sure, you can hook it up to a keyboard and play it in your band, it's good fun. The effects are good, but not all of them sound... astounding. And you can only use one effect per song. Reverb and Delay can do weird things, but are fully adjustable, just as the rest of this machine.

My groovebox crashes, doesn't start up properly sometimes, can't keep it's pace, and, as of lately, evokes a high pitched scream (after a while of 'normal' functioning) which only stops when you stop playing (I use cubase as sequencer). Further, it can't communicate with computers properly and it even randomly changes patches sometimes, spontaniously. It sucks, it doesn't allow me to really get into making serious music. You might think it's my PC, but I don't have reason to believe that. I recently had to 'reboot' my groovebox because (take a deep breath, this is extremely weird) the drumkit-volume was suprisingly low, from startup. The drums would sound normal again after letting the sequencer go from one pattern to an other: the transition between patterns while playing would turn the drums loud again. Insane.
Doing a gig with it could make you instantly famous: but it doesn't have to mean in a positive way. I wouldn't try it.
That's all software; the machine itself is indeed sturdy, the knobs feel sturdy, the buttons even more so. It won't start falling apart from the outside.

Strangely, even with my problematic relationship with my groovebox, I haven't contacted Roland yet. I have been looking for a customer-support email-adress once and I couldn't find it. Maybe look better next time.

I wouldn't get it again if I lost it. I'd go for one of the analog modeling synths: Novation Supernova II, Roland JP-8080, maybe even an Access Virus or a Waldorf. I don't need the sequencer, just good sounds and reliability, that's why. A friend of mine recently bought a Korg MS2000: I wish he would trade it with me.
I paid half of the price it costs now in the store 2 years ago, I shouldn't complain. Maybe it's haunted or something. Sadly, it's my only piece of gear. I like the ease with which I can get to my favorite instruments, and the mixer. I hate: see above. I chose this machine because I fell in love with the amount of buttons (should have waited for the Andromeda...). Oh, I wished it had an external input, but sadly, it hasn't.
You CAN have a musically good and fulfilling relationship with it. Be careful with what you want.
finally: if you recognize any of the problems I've had and dealt with them: please contact me!

Well, if the question was "how easy is it to make this thing sound like a toy, and playback cliche techno phrases from 4 years ago?", it would get a ten. If it were "How easy is it to do anything moderately useful or creative with this machine?" i doubt it would even rate....so i settled on a 4, somewhere between the two.

These things are for sale all over now, with the announcement of superior competition from Emu and Yamaha. It accepts smart media, but not for importing new sounds or samples. Nope, if you are the kind of person who cant live within a tiny ROM block and thirsts for new sounds, go elsewhere..these sounds are pretty lame, but those are just the presets...problem is, the samples are going on 4 years old now...if you are making dance music, this is a problem. how many DJs do you know that play records that are 4 years old? thats what i thought...the new Yamaha machine samples, and the new Emu at least you can expand the ROM periodically if you want more sounds.

I suppose in 1998 when it came out, this *might* have been a techno hit making machine. Maybe I have a jaded opinion, and remember kids, I have all the gear this thing tried to replace (909, 303, juno, etc), but I dont like it at all. I bought it over the net on a friends recomendation, and needless to say, I was not happy when it arrived. Maybe its my fault for not hearing for myself before i laid out a couple hundred bucks, but I guess i cant rely on reviews in Keyboard Magazine alone!

hmmmm...my 909 is holding up well after 15 years, so I guess Roland stuff is in for the long haul.

Lets not even go there. between their tech support never returning a single email, the sketchy hours they hold, and the way a man claiming to be a sales representative for the company physically pulled me away from other products in the store to show me roland products (what
was he even doing in the store anyways?!? he didnt work there!), I have an extremely low opinion of their company (and the sleazoid that took it upon himself to bother me). I love my 909, my 303, and my juno, but they just dont make anything useful right now.

I didnt own this for very long...why bother answering this question anyways? If you cant tell my opinion of this piece from the rest of this review, you need help. But dont take my opinion, check it out for yourself...when the new Emu and Yamaha pieces ship soon, theres gonna be a TON of these things looking for a new home!

If you have ever used a software synth like Fruity Loops you should have next to no trouble using this machine. Even if you have no experience you should have no problem using this machine. I don't know why people put down the Roland manuals so much but I found that the quick start manual got me going in about 30 minutes.I have been working with keyboards for about 2 years now, and it took me about
1 week to master pretty much everything. Editing patches is simple all you do is hit the "wave select" button on a preset and choose some more tones or take some out, and set the parameters like LFO and filters on each tone. By the way, like most machines the presets are absolute garbage, they were entertaining for about 30 minutes. If you ever want this machine to live up to it's "built for the profesional market" reputation then you will have to make all your own patches.
I don't see much use in a patch editor here it is simple and does not take much time to edit a patch. If you're a beginer and you need something that has some professional sound than this the machine for you. I would not reccomend the MC-303 because it's sounds are far too simple for professinal use. Besides, I don't know how the MC-307 and the MC-303 users can do without a parts mixer, It's a very useful tool.

64 voice which is more than enough for this machine. It has 16 little sequencer keys which can serve as a keyboard, but if you're looking for velocity and after touch get a MIDI controller and plug it in.
The effects are good but the truth is the real good sounds lie in the effects(reverb, and delay are almost a must). Without effects this machines sounds would really be plain. Although, I feel the biggest downfall of this machine is the fact that you can only use one special effect like phaser once in a pattern and that is the only special effect you can ues . You cannot add more effects to a pattern
than one with the exception of delay and reverb. Delay and Reverb can be put in and out of a part via the part mixer and are the only 2 affects that are really versitile in this machine. If you pick a phaser for your bass line and adjust the settings for it then if you want to use a effect for your strings you are forced to use a phaser with the same settings that you used for the bass line. Anyway, it can accept smart media for extra memory but I have not used it yet.
I briefly tried the MIDI with cakewalk and the timing seems to be there but I don't have much use for MIDI in that way. The sequencer is the standard 16 steps step sequncer very similar to that of fruity loops. The cool thing is you can record in 3 different ways,real time,step sequencing, and RPS. You can acatually play a chord in real time and the machine will input your notes and duration of those notes into the sequencer and play it back. You can use RPS to just hit notes on keys playing them like a keyboard and it will play them back. Also, you have the standard step sequencing that everyone uses.
Roland could of done a better job in the features category but it's not too bad. If you gain experience with this machine then you can really use it to it's potential for example technically the machine is only 8 track but realisticly it is 17 track but even more realisticaly I could fit 30-35 tracks into this machine. I wont say how cause I don't want to type for the next 2 hours.

If you need more info on things like this or if you want to hear this thing in action and have ICQ just add me 65603107.

The piano sounds like a toy, but who cares it's a techno box.
The presets stink as always,YOU NEED TO MAKE YOUR OWN PATCHES.
I would only reccomend this machine to the techno head, no other genre's would work well with this machine. If you want to read about the effects read the features category. But know this, the key to good sounds is effects even if they are limited like in this machine.
If you get a MIDI controller the machine has velocity and after touch
so it's not a bad investment. The filters are OK just like the LFO, but what were you expecting you're paying $600US for a machine that can do almost all.

For some reason I had it freeze on me once, but I'm pretty sure this is rare. It's a reliable machine, I would do a gig with it. Now we come to the D-Beam, it was fun for about 1 week I haven't touched it since. It has no real music application but it's fun once in a while.
I would not use it live though, sometimes if you're lowering the tempo with the D-Beam it can get stuck at a tempo and not let go and you have to correct it manually, same goes for the other D-beam effects like resolution.

I e-mailed Roland Canada once with some questions and they did not get back to me until I wrote a mail saying I would never buy another Roland machine because I don't have the info I need. They always answer my mail's now. Other than that I have not had to deal with them.

It's a nice machine but don't expect to get huge overnight with it.
You can get good sounds out of it but in my opinion you need other gear to go with it to make a song sound real good. It's a good all around machine but those damm effects(or lack of them) just kill some of the sounds.
I definately think this the best "groovebox" out there.
Although, I have never tried it I think it could beat the RM1x hands down. Maybe when I buy more gear I'll sell this guy, but maybe not.
The cool thing is that it has basically a 909 a 808 a 606 and 707
drum machine in it, so there is thousands of dollars there. If you're on a budget this is a awesome choice, paired with the SP808 this thing is kick a%#. Anyway I want my gear list to be MC-505, SP808, JP-8080, Korg MS 2000R, and Yamaha EX-5, I think this would be a awesome setup.

If anyone wants to hear my newest song made entirely on the MC-505
get in touch with me via ICQ# 65603107

The MC-505 is the first piece of electronic music gear that I ever had, I couldn?t be happier. The MC-505?s biggest triumph, in my opinion, is the way that Roland has developed an instrument that is so easy to understand even when is so fully featured. Depending on who you are, you?ll think of it as a great pad for sketching ideas, or as the main sequencer of your set-up (as I do) both for playing live and in your little home studio. I bought it used, and I?m not sure of what OS am I using, and I?m not aware of any improvement? no that it needs a better OS, by the way.

When you first power on this ?groovebox?, you may be amazed by the hard sounds of the presets. I don?t like the presets much? I think they don?t push this machine to its limit, as they should. Same with the sounds? some of them are cool, and the drum kits are stunning, but there are plenty of cheese sounds and EFX that I guess I?ll never find a good use for. Preset patterns and patches (sounds) are not erasable. There?s a lot of user memory even if you don?t own a SmartMedia card, but it could have been nice to have the possibility of erasing them (so you don?t have to hear ?Psy Trance 1? once again). As I said, I bought it second hand and it didn?t came with the Quick Start guide? I found it later on, in the Internet, and it?s neat and easy to follow. The Owner Manual is? confusing. The Spanish translation is a pain in the neck, and some important things are hidden, but I managed to find nearly everything about this machine on it, so I have no important complaints about it.

An impressive number of features. A very good sequencer, a lot of sounds and ways of editing them (kind of stripped down JV1080 synthesis), usable effects (though they?re not as spectacular as I think they should), a lot of real time edition (lot of knobs, faders and buttons), arpeggiator, etc? I love ?grooveboxes?, and I love knobs and the tweaking that goes with it. The keyboard is? well, it?s hard to call it a keyboard. Better buy a controller keyboard, but you can use the on-board keyboard without any problem (tough is not velocity sensitive) if you need to. I sometimes do. Polyphony is 64, and I never need more, but I tend to be minimalistic? For the same reason, I have never needed more than the 8 parts that the MC-505 is capable to sequence (7 + 1 Drum Kit). If you really concern about this issue, you must know that you can trigger Real Phrase Sequences live, increasing the layering of sounds (up to 16 RPSs can be triggered, so in practice you can sequence up to 24 parts?). Some people gravity towards the Yamaha RM1X because of its 16 parts sequencer, but I don?t like its sounds? too cheese, too clean? You can like them or not, but the sounds in the MC-505 are hard, phat and noisy. The arpeggiator is very catchy, and easy to use? great for Moroder-like stuff, you know.

The sequencer is great. It can send and receive any kind of MIDI message, and though I sometimes have had problems driving other gear from the MC-505, it works Ok most of the time. If you?re new to MIDI sequencing, you may be lost at first, but you?ll end getting round to it. This machine is perfect for chaining patterns on the fly. You can mute and unmute parts (and drum parts), and go from a pattern to the next at ease. Megamix mode allows you to mix parts from a pattern with parts from another. Great for jamming. Song mode is more limited than it should. You can chain up to 50 patterns to form a song, and it works good but could have been nice to have some kind of linear recording. Anyway, patterns can be up to 36 measures, so you can fake linear recording working with very long patterns. It works perfect.

You can back-up and have extra user memory for patches and patterns with SmartMedia cards? Sadly, it only accepts 2 and 4Mb 5v. Cards, and they?re expensive and hard to find. You can always dump data to an external sequencer, but it would have been nice to use standard 3,3v. SmartMedia cards. Also, the MC-505 is not expansible? you are stuck with the waveforms that it stores.

Well, the sounds. They?re polemic, aren?t they? The presets are so so? Some lead synths and basses are really good. Pianos are awful, as a lot of ?real instruments? here. Edit them a lot and, with practice, you?ll get where you wanted. As I said before, there?s a limited number of waveforms for you to play with, but edition is so complete that you can make a lot of cool sounds. It?s kind of a challenge to make this unit sound the way you want to, so tweak a lot, work the envelopes a lot, play with the effects. If you?re not a purist, you?ll be happy with the analog feel that you can get out of this machine. The sounds respond to modulation, pitch-bend, velocity and any tweaking, so you can program very expressive music with this machine. Also, I love the lo-fi character of its sounds, but... well, maybe you don't.

The drum kits are great. Very cool sounds from the Roland TR series, and more.

Very reliable? Never had any problem with it. One of the Part buttons is a bit deaf and dumb, and sometimes it don?t light up when I press it, but that?s my problem I guess. I have heard of people having problems with the LCD screen, but I never had any. I could play live with it, yes.

When I bought it, user memory was corrupted, and I guessed that maybe that was why the previous owner had sold it so fast. Called Roland Spain, and they were nice, and fixed it for a little charge. My only contact since then? I always get into mailing lists for information. Check groups.yahoo.com/group/mc505. Also, Roland web pages are nice? at www.rolandgroove.com you can get some useful documents. Sadly, Roland Spain is probably the worst web page that I?ve ever surfed into?

I love this machine. I think it?s a modern classic, and I recommend it for the unpretentious and for the creative. I would be desperate in the event of losing this machine, because I?m still paying to my bank for it. I guess it?s too expensive to buy it first hand, so if you?re not sure you can check the also fantastic Electribes from Korg, or the classic MC-303. Anyway, when I try another ?groovebox?, I always miss a lot of things from the MC-505? even the ones that I never use! What I like about this MC-505 is its concept, and the way that everything works so great together. As I said, I don?t miss much in it, except for maybe some sampling, but I understand why it?s not featured (it?s expensive enough the way it is!).

The MC-505 will help you develop you composition skill whatever music you make. I was amazed to read in a review below that you must ?never use this machine for a music style apart from the ones it was intended for?? hell, what? Use it for anything that please you, maan. I write electronic glam pop with this machine, kind of Brian Eno jamming with The Glitter Band at Korea, and I can?t see why I shouldn?t. If you want to know how this machine sounds, and how creative you can be with it, buy Grand Royal?s ?At Home With Groovebox?, a Lp with tracks from Beck, John McEntrie, Cibo Matto, Pavement, etc?, using just the MC-505 and little more. Also, check ?Will Save Us All? from Chicks On Speed (a B-52?s influenced German combo), whose hit record ?Glamour Girl? is in fact presets ?House Garage 1? and ?House Garage 2? from this box.

Groove On!

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.