Roland MC-202

I need to do a video about my way of programming it but I have many stuff cooking at the moment, it will come tho.
Meanwhile those two are great:

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https://tinyloops.com/doc/roland_mc202/quickresults.html

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Love my MC-202, canā€™t wait for the Tubbutec mod! Hereā€™s a jam and animation I made -

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Lovely!

Randomly, hereā€™s another 3D model of an MC-202 [OC] Roland MicroComposer MC-202 [3D] : synthesizers

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You have to connect the other synth to ext cv and gate sockets, then it will play the notes on ch2, if you connect to the synth cv and gate it will play ch1 the internal sequence.

One thing to be aware of is that both channels have to be the same length if you want them to loop together, otherwise there will be a pause on the shorter channel.

Assuming a 16 step, 24 pulses wide gate, per bar, the total number of ticks per bar is 384, so as long as both channels fit into the same multiple of that (assuming 4/4 time) then it works ok.

If you think it is bad having to have 2 channels total the same number of ticks, the MC-4 had to have all 4 the same total number of ticks :laughing: but once you get used to it, not too bad, a calculator comes in handy!

But the 202 (and MC-4) sequencers are pretty good I think, you can do some quite interesting things like ratchets, swing and microtiming manually, having separate pitch, gate and step durations seems limiting at first, but can sometimes actually be an advantage once you get used to it.

Here is an old video I made showing how to do swing on the MC-4, but you can apply the same technique to the 202.

The how to is in the description of the video.

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Well this will be a nice chance from feeling guilty about spending my own money, at least. I suppose the resale potential is a safety net, but itā€™s hard to imagine someone not loving the 202. I got lucky and nabbed a 101 as one of my first synths in the 90s, and the 101/202 sound became the standard all other mono synths had to beat. Iā€™ve owned various technically superior monos since then, but sit me in front of a 202 and Iā€™ll still be happy all day. Have fun!

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Thanks a lot on the mini in-depths.

I wrote the above (which I will edit later) because I could never get channel 2 to output the notes stored in it - the MC-202 ALWAYS sent out the same data no matter what I did. After a few attempts, I put it off for a long time since there is not much info out there on this topic.

However, I did learn how to program it using numbers - and if this channel 2 works, I will HAVE TO sequence my SH-101 using the MC-202!

Thanks again for clearing this up!

@Stazma

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MC202 is the remake Iā€™m waiting for someone to produce. Surprised Roland or Behringer havenā€™t produced one yet.

Owned a couple at different times in the 90ā€™s, often used the second track to sequence an SH09. Sounded lush. Nice and compact.

Only recording I have from that period is from 1993, MC202 straight into a Quadraverb, recorded onto cassette.

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The SH-01a is probably the closest thing to a 202 remake, the sliders are actually a little longer, it does not have the same sequencer or the LFO delay but other than that it would be a good modern substitute.

Soundwise it can do most of what the 202 can, plus more, some people rag on ACB but I have to say put them side by side and the illusion is shattered, the SH-01a stands up very well.

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Yeah, thatā€™s a fair observation. SH01A has tempted me a few times.

Have a System 1m with SH plug out which gets close.

Still miss the accent feature of 202 and delayed LFO (although 1m has that).

ā€¦ wanders off to look at second hand prices of SH01Aā€¦

Experiment with the note and rest gate times and you can get really nuanced sequences. As youā€™re entering notes itā€™ll have a default value of say 24 ticks, change one note to 22 and the next one to 19, so and so forth.

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Thank you!!

Iā€™m trying to sync it to my digitakt/deluge. Where do the get the right din sync midi cable to do this?

I tried using a regular midi cable at first before reading that wonā€™t work. I hope I didnā€™t damage the 202!!

I thought the malekko manther was supposed to be a bit of an mc202 homage. Did I get that wrong?

I loved my manther when I had it. Awesome synth!

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Either it work or it doesnā€™t but I donā€™t think you can damage it from plugin a wrong Din cable. Anyway it is tru that not all the midi cable work with the 202 as I experienced it when I got mine. It happened that I randomly bought a Roland midi cable, one of those that are garanteed for life, and this one does work with the 202 !

Awesome!! Thank you!

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Had my eye on the Manther. It took a while to go from announcement to availability and by then my interest/budget moved on.

Limited sound demos never really grabbed my attention either. Might give it another appraisal.

Why did you sell yours?

Only sold it cause I needed the funds. Highly recommended. Awesome sequencer, beautiful built in delay and motion recording!!

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Do I have to change any settings on the mc202 once I midi sync it? I ordered the cable last night.

No, when you plug something in the sync in it automaticly disable the internal transport and clock :wink:

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Thank you!