MC101 vs. Digitone

I personally have access to this combo, I’ve seen others use it, but it’s bounced off me so hard, one way or the other. Does anyone using this setup have any words of ecnouragement? Because otherwise, I end up just sampling riffs off the DN, loading them up via memory card into the 101 and calling it a day, but that seems like maybe I’m missing something with how these machines talk…

Thanks for any advice.

I had both. Sold the 101. It’s a great preset player with a great palette of sounds, but the lack of exposed synth parameters made it less immediate for me than the Digitone (2). The difference in my step was that I also had a Digitakt and used it to sequence (as the Roland sequencer is really bad).

My suggestion is for you to either buy a Digitone 2 and use it to sequence the 101 (you’ll have a greater sonic palette at your disposal) or sell the 101 and buy a Digitakt.

Not entirely sure this would work, but since the mc101 has a midi channel that allows PCs to switch scenes, I’d try to use a midi channel on the DN to switch those as needed.

Like, literally getting the sequencer of one to play notes on the other? If so, how are you setting it up? Is the 101 playing the DN or is the DN playing the 101? When you play, what problems are you running into? What’s not working for you?

The most recent big update added access to the synth engine :slight_smile: (somewhat menu-divey tho)

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Yeah yeah, I know. But compared to any Elektron gear (which I bought after the MC101), it’s unusable. The truth (or maybe my truth) about Roland is that I love their sound but absolutely positively hate their interfaces.

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get an SP404 mk2, cheap and powerful with Live 4x bar looper, loads of sample capabilities too

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OP says, “I have these boxes and need encouragement getting them to work together” and literally half the replies are “buy different gear!”

What’s up with that? DN + 101 makes for a great system. New gear won’t save you.

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It’s a great combo, DN can get out there FM-wild, do a lot of great drum sounds, but you can also just dedicate a track on the 101 for drum samples and other stereo samples you’d like to throw in. Or use both options for drums at the same time.

Grab a midi cable and route the 101 audio through the DN, some config but then pressing play on one starts both.

MC-101 has scatter and main fx, DN is more hands on with the sound design, together you can make a LOT of noise that you can shape live.

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I actually found the synth editing on 101 really good once I got he hang of it. You focus on each page and adjust and work your way though till you have the patch you like. It focuses you in a good way considering the limitations of the screen. The only major downside is you can’t save your patches. The song building workflow is fantastic otherwise. If it had built in battery and sampling line in it would be perfect

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I have and enjoy an MC-101 along with a DN 1 & DN2, but I really have no need to pair the MC-101 with anything. I did sequence the 101 with the DN a few times without any issues, but would have to dig into the MIDI settings on the 101 to remember. i don’t think it was any challenge to setup.

The 101 is also a great standalone travel device for me because of its low power consumption. I take it cruising on the sailboat for up to two weeks at a time and can run it as much as I want on a fairly small USB battery (I bring a 20,000 mAh, but I think a 10,000 would cover me for that duration).

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I’m not asking about how to technically do anything, but rather like…what’s folks workflow.

Maybe I should preface this by I usually don’t mashup two machines at once. I either stay all in one machine or if I need something from multiple machines, I make samples or loops from them and go that route…live multiple machine setups are alien to me in general and seem like a headache to which I’m surprised so many people deal with it…like, I get it in a Linux way…once you get your hot rod going, it’s yours…but you gotta build it first.

Sounds like you’d want a Digitone 2. :content: