Yeah, this is the only way I’m finding, but I could be missing something?
All this just to tweak the filter of a hi hat
If you want micro control over a drum voice, you may consider using a tone track to synthesize a drum voice (hats, kick, etc). Then you can assign the knobs to whatever performance macros you want. Or put the sample in the tone track oscillator. Or have a drum sample track that is just hats, then you can filter the hats without affecting the other drum voices. Just a thought
I guess it depends on what sounds from the 101 you’re after. Those other options won’t do the sax, or the cello, or the trumpet, for example. 
I’m seeing a lot of references to real/acoustic instruments on the MC-101.
As a potential buyer, I went to check the sounds list, but after 5 of the 51 pages I decided that probably wouldn’t tell me much. So … questions
Can someone give me a rough idea of the range available? I spotted a few “world” instruments but they seem to be dotted about.
And are we talking about sampled or synthesised cellos for instance?
How are they categorised ? Can you just pick a category and find it contains all acoustic instruments (say, “mallets”) or do you need to pick just the acoustic ones from a category that also includes many synths ?
Any pointers much appreciated.
I’ve watched a few videos over the past day or two and now I’m seriously considering an MC-707. The sound editing looks a bit fiddly but the random patch generation seems fun, the resampling and looper functionality seems like it would be great as an ableton-lite performance tool and it seems easy enough to import samples so I can just drop a load of drum one-shots or one-bar loops onto the SD card and use those easily enough. I have nothing against using loop packs etc and if I can layer percussion/top loops with one-shots on a single track then that’s a lot of power.
It looks, on paper, like one of the most “complete” grooveboxes on the market and some of the 100% MC-707 stuff on YouTube is very impressive. The synth engine seems powerful and the variety of FX and performance-related tools (clips, scenes, FX, resampling/looping) seems like plenty to keep me entertained.
Most of the delays go through a 2-band EQ, but that’s about as close as you can get, I think. You could use the neighbour track setup to send a delay into a filter, but I’ve never tried this so I’m not sure how many options the 707 gives you for splitting the dry and wet sounds (and you’d also be sacrificing one of your tracks).
This is a frustration with the 707 as compared to the MPCs - I think the 707 FX are generally better in themselves, but the configuration and routing is very limited in comparison.
Thanks!
The thing is I’d just like to have basic control over the drum kit mix without having to menu dive like a mad man 
Weirdly enough I landed a good deal on both a MC-505 and MC-707 in the same week. Started with the 505 and was so amazed at how deep it is, and how good it sounds, considering it’s from the 90s. I was so hyped to try the 707, which is great in many ways but it I can’t for the life of me understand why they made certain design choises.
It’s actualy way wayyyy easer to mix and tweak a drum kit on the 505, it’s more intuitive and more hands on…
Why can’t you just hold a drum pad on the 707 and turn the damn filter knob?
Another crazy thing that I just couldn’t believe my eyes, the 505 (again it’s from the 90s) has an UNDO button 
Yeah. It’s a real bummer. Makes it more or less unusable as a standalone production tool for me.
Almost none of the insert effects have dry/wet. Too few parameters to make fundamental mix decisions.
Why did they add so many delays but not a single one with high pass filter? Most have low pass but that is just a great way to create a muddy mix if you want to add a delay to any instrument in the low/mid range…
It has so many great sounds and parts of the workflow is great though.
But in my book, it doesn’t hold a candle to the MPC in terms of sound design, effects, and mixing.
I can’t say much about whether they’re sampled or not (probably?), but there are a lot of them. The categories are things like: Synth Lead, Synth Bass, Pads, Strings, Ensembles, Brass, Sax, Guitar, Flute, Trumpet, etc. There are lots of them. Pianos, oboes, violins, cellos, exotic instruments, and much more. There are some really powerful sounds in there, but I guess you can view it as a strength and a weakness at the same time. The “3000+ presets” selling point is only impressive if you’re the kind of person that loves a Juno 106 sound as much as a saxophone. 
Me, I appreciate the variety of sounds of the MC-101 and it’s one of the reasons I’m still holding on to it despite its frustrating workflow because it’s giving me a wider palette of sounds than I had previously. But then again, when am I really going to use a harmonica in one of my songs? 
I can’t say 100% (like you say, lots of patches!) but all the acoustic ones I’ve looked into are sampled. You can open them up in Zenology Pro (which you might have unexpected access to as it comes for free with that one-year roland cloud subscription they’ve been giving away with new purchases), and see that they’re single partial patches with a single PCM wav assigned.
To my ears, they sound like a up-to-date collection of those ROMpler samples they built on throughout the 90s. I know people have different ideas about ROMplers, but I mean that it as high praise. Still, think more JV-880 and less Integra-7.
This is the true strength of ZEN-Core, to be sure.
But also, even when I’m sure I can pick out the original patch that “inspired” the ZEN-Core one, it just sounds better on the 101.
I can’t put my finger on it, I haven’t A/B it, and I don’t want to be selling snake-oil, so take it all with a truckload of salt. But you know how the DT just sounds good? Like, you plug it in and play a random sample and even if you don’t believe in expensive converters or whatever, and it’s just a random snare hit, you say, “Damn, that sounds good!” The 101 (and, I assume, the 707) has something like that going on.
Maybe it’s just decades of fine-tuning these PCMs and generators and algorithms over generations of hardware, and ZEN-Core lets them drop all that in in a way that translates to a DSP box? But regardless, I keep ahold of mine because whenever I use it I sound better than I have any right to 
(Gentle heads-up): the latest “SDZ” packs have some super usable patches. The engine can do quite a lot.
Is there a quick save? Or do you have to go through the double confirm popup every time?
Since there is no Undo, it would be interesting to hear about your workflow in terms of experimentation? Do you just hoard Clips?
On the Elektrons I personally hoard patterns during the messy part of my creative process, and then just clear them when I found something cool.
Yes! I think Shift + Write + Enter
Anybody here uses Zenology with Logic Pro ? Any impression, experience ? It still can’t use/import user samples right ? I’m thinking of getting a lifetime key to address the lack of editing options on the MC101. Cheers ?
Roland doesn’t offer a lifetime key for Zenology Pro… you’ll have to subscribe (Pro or Ultimate)
Wait … so there are acoustic-sounding instruments mixed in the synth categories ?
Presumably the synthetic sounds dominate in those categories, so finding the natural sounding ones must mean scrolling through an awful lot of other stuff ?
Not really, it’s actually fairly well categorized. You have your Syn Bass, Syn Brass, Syn Strings, Syn Pad etc. categories like previously mentioned but also Ac. bass, E Bass, Ac. Piano, Woodwinds, Mallets etc have their own categories.
You can check out the sound list here: https://www.roland.com/global/support/by_product/mc-707/owners_manuals/3b731076-030e-4357-85fc-0a76720ed517/
There is a zenology pro lifetime key, it’s not cheap though and it doesn’t really integrate with the mcs’s properly. It’s mainly for designing patches on I guess. Around $220 iirc, but some 3rd party gear retailers sell the license a bit cheaper.