Hit:
Roland System100m D set - hands down the nicest modular system I have ever used, and I have used a lot, aside from the stability and great sound, the layout and overall design is simply perfect, it has such precision you won’t believe, it is to modular what the SH-101 is to monosynths as far as user interface is concerned, for the current prices they are a rare true vintage Roland bargain IMHO. I wanted one for years, I sold the System500 and Aira FX modules to pay towards it and even though I liked those they are not missed.
Roland MC-101 - I had dismissed it as being a bit too lacking in depth and not been interested, perhaps that was the case in earlier firmwares, I’m not really into using presets so I skipped it, but not as of 1.06 with sample import, random tone generation, the sequencer additions and soundpack support. It is like a little pocket studio of great Roland sounds, and lots more besides, for the price of 3 Volcas or other budget gear, very good value for money. I love Roland Micro Composer sequencing since MC-4b and MC-101 doesn’t disappoint in this. 4 tracks yeah, but drum tracks can have 16 sounds, each pad can be independently muted, and pad mute states persist across scenes, I think I’d have preferred the option to store pad mutes in scenes as well though.
Probably the most satisfying groovebox I ever used, ideas just flow with it, you do have to get passed the learning curve but it isn’t too difficult, once you get it things are very quick and simple, surprisingly so IMHO. In some ways it is better than the…
Miss:
Roland MC-707 - I had one for a few days earlier in the year when the firmware was less featured, it also had a dsp fault, the main reason I purchased it at the time was for an audio clips launcher, I discovered that only 62 seconds were available for looper tracks, not the whole 6/12 minutes if memory, this and the fault meant I returned it.
Until 5 months later
Hit:
Roland MC-707 - After having the 101 and really enjoying it decided to try 707 again, again the new firmware adds a lot, although the daft 62 seconds of looper memory still applies, but this time I am more interested in its other features, currently I am still well within the return window but so far it feels like a hit, I’m not sure if I didn’t have the 101 that I’d have bothered again, but the fact that 101 projects can be loaded in is a great move on Rolands part, they work very well together. Remarkably some of the 101 functions seem a little less direct in the 707 but it could just be a case of getting used to them. Sound quality is very nice, exactly as 101, sampling is pretty ok quite similar to Digitakt but with almost double the sample time (62s max) and of course stereo and polyphonic. Definitely doesn’t have the sample manipulation functions of Digitakt though, so the comparison ends there. Very fast to get ideas down, great layout, a bit big for my taste at 4x the footprint of the 101, but more of a studio player anyway.
Hit:
Printed manuals - PDFs on tablet/computer are ok and have their place, but for me they are no substitute for a proper printed, spiral bound manual, so I bit the bullet and got ARmkII, OTmkII, Digitone, MC-101, MC-707 manuals printed professionally. I wish that they were included in the price - more so than the pretty but fairly useless flashy colour printed cardboard boxes that gear comes in, yeah printed manuals can go out of date, but it is pretty easy to add amendments. The large format easy on the eye experience of a printed manual is worth the £15-20 they cost.
EDIT: it’s a hit