Roland MC-707 Review

In this review I cover the Roland MC-707, their latest Groovebox wonder box. For a more indepth look at some of the MC-707 features, be sure to check out these videos as well:

[GazWilliams]

Totally excellent conveyor of the vital stats, thanks!

[mitspeichenumdiewelt]

One of the best reviewer on youtube ;-) Keep going!

[aikighost]

They need to implement user kits and user synth patch saving outside of projects.

[testbildmuc]

Got an mc707 instead of an mpc live after watching your review and I'm extremely happy with my choice. There's just no device out there that does as many things while staying as performable/dynamic as the mc707. Quick question: is there a way to quickly transpose a whole clip via the buttons (as in, pressing c is the base tone, pressing c# shifts the whole sequence up one semitone etc.)? I noticed there's some combination for shifting octaves that I've been hitting accidentally but I couldn't find it in the manual

[TheDjAliceD]

what i choose when i want to sequenz an external Synth (Tone?)

[audiolego]

It's a good midiout sequencer? It looks like it. I Gas for mc707. I was thinking of trading it for my Elektron A4 synths sequencer but .... the Elektron sequencer. The 707 just sounds radio ready

[levijessegonzalez]

As a complete idiot newb to these things, I have a couple questions....

I'm a songwriter that plays drums Bass keys and guitar.

I would like to add electronic Elements to my songs (synth parts, sound effects, electronic drums etc) would this be a good tool to inspire creativity with? And record with?

Or should I work in the DAW?

[agustinbernal]

Hi, great video, thanks! Have you tried it with the Polyend Play? Cheers!

[MikeKelleher]

I see some questions comparing the MC-707 to the TR-8S, but is there any synergy to using them together? The Aira line was originally all about the ways you could link the gear together for a whole Roland ecosystem, but the TR-8S was already a sort of simple groovebox when they added the ability to sequence and pitch imported samples, so it seems to awkwardly overlap the MC-707 a bit. So is there any reason why you would pair them together?

[Rustik]

You going to do a review with new features? I am interested in the sounds of the "synth" engine and if it is possible to use as a main synth for a live lieu of a electric piano and synth on stage for this little to hear some more of it and if has automation.

[unrulysoldier]

Very good review fella. Your voice was a tad hard to understand, maybe push some low mid for clarity... but very in depth, realmworld, honest review. Have you reviewed the 707 vs the isla S2400 ? I'm literally on the fence. Nice one. Dread.

[MattiMattiMatti]

Just a small production note for future videos - please make voice mono. The stereo "panning" is a bit distracting.

[CaidicusProductions]

So, this is track based, interesting. I have an MC-808 and it works in patterns. So, basically you select a pattern, select the sample/synth/etc for that pattern, then hit record and record that pattern as many bars as you've selected. What this means is you've basically got 16 tracks in total on the MC-808. 1-9 are synth/samples, 10-16 are drum patterns, each one being an entire drum pack. Am I looking at this wrong or is the 707 actually limited to a song being no more than 8 tracks in total? an 8 track song isn't terribly simple, but it isn't very complex either, especially if you introduce new elements to the song in later bars.

Any insight on this would be greatly appreciated. (hopefully you actually understand what I'm talking about, I'm not the best at expressing complex ideas so I wouldn't be surprised if you had no idea what I was talking about)

[GearAddict]

Great review!
Is there a "quantize" setting for starting/triggering the clips in sync with the next beat etc?
I would like to know more about how the looper works.
It seems like a fun machine.

[Rustik]

Very cool! Glad to see your progress with this.

[stefg]

Great review. The box features tb-303 sounds. Can you sequence the typical tb-303 slides and accents in here?

[williammillan]

Fantastic..Review 🤗 ..just got my 707 ..🙂😃😉☺️

[patrickfrancis]

How Do you record in real time without a count in or wait note option ? How Far have they come ? Without that one simple option not very far. Without that option they just increased the difficulty of real time recording TImes 10 !

[dankefurnichts]

when i make a clip with 128 steps the 4 measure bars stop during the second run thru. no indication of the second half. when back on bar 1 it starts over again. is that bugged on your machine too? i have firmware 1.20 installed.

[leetronix]

I liked your review, very thorough and informative. A few key components missing especially at this price point. The sounds are very nice, but definitely not on the same level as say the RYTM l & ll. I feel the screen could be a lot bigger which would be nice but not a deal breaker.