Roland MC-505 Groovebox

An all in one techno music production studio, this machine has it all. A massive collection of professional and coveted electronic synth and drum sounds, effects, built-in real-time VCF and envelope knobs for tweaking, a sequencer/arranger, and many other great additions. This is the successor to the MC-303 and is now much more advanced. Its sounds will be familiar to any techno-head.
The LFO and resonant filters allow quick and easy sound manipulation. The new D-Beam allows you to randomly tweak your sounds by passing your hand over an infrared beam! It has a great sequencer for building your songs (with groove quantizing and part level faders for mixing) as well as many idea catchers like the phrase sampler and arpeggiator.
This is an all-in-one music machine that's great for DJ's or anybody else who wants to create slamming dance tracks. Designed as a stand alone machine, they do not work quite as well when incorporated into a multi-synth keyboard rig. It's perfect for beginners and advanced users, but offers the most possibility to those who will use it exclusively. By the way, in comparison to the MC-303, this is far better especially in the quality and quantity of sounds! It is used by Beck, Chicks On Speed, Peaches, Freddy Fresh, and Cibo Matto.
66 VISITOR COMMENTS
- Demos & Media
-
Audio Clip 1 - Here are some cool techno and trance song and pattern demos from the MC-505.
Manual - Roland has made manuals for most of their products available as free PDF downloads.
- Specifications
- Polyphony - 64 Voices
- Oscillators - Acoustic Simulation and ROM Samples
- Filter - real-time resonant filter
- Drums - 26 kits
- Effects - 24 effects
- Arpeg/Seq - Has Arpeggiator and Sequencer (up to 95,000 notes)
- Keyboard - 16 small keys/buttons
- Control - MIDI
- Date Produced - 1998
- Est. Value - $1,200
- Websites of Interest
- Resources & Credits
-
Images from Roland GrooveZone.
Errors or Corrections? Send them here.
for sure not as fat as analog (i was sure of that and i didnt even expect from it), but i found the sounds who cames out very contemporary for techno tracks. drums and synths.
great midi tool, i start immediatly to trigger mono evolver keyboard, clavia modular and ableton flawless!
sound engine and synthesis ok. For sure need to be deeply sqeezed to reach nice sound.
thumbs up!
Nothing to complain bout it but forcing myself to read thru the thick manual was the most pain in ass.
The user interface is almost worse than the manual, but once you start getting the hang of it, it's got a lot of mileage in it: This machine was intended for live use - the RPS and the Pattern Call features, not to mention the D-Beam.
The presets are good, but force you into clichés - make your own suonds and patterns. As for sonic variety, remember that it has 2 extra stereo outputs.
Only problem is that it's userinterface is odd and way too deep... I've had mine for years and I'm only starting to get into it.