I’m seriously thinking about swapping my DT for 707 (even found a good deal). Can’t quite get used to DT. I much prefer doing drums on OT, but I want to keep its tracks free for other stuff. Really tempted by the synth engines in 707. What do you think?
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I’ve got an OT. Getting an Akai Force tomorrow and I’m hankering after a 707 too.
I don’t need one but I like the idea of having lots of different workstation type standalone units.
So I’ll be watching this thread closely.
Be sure to check out the TR-8S update from today! It’ll really confuse you as to what’s best (in a good way haha)
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That too. Will appreciate if someone could compare these two.
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I have both. What are you hoping to know? What is your plan for it? Main drum machine, one box for live gigs, centre of studio?
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Some one just posted a comparison in another thread 
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Main drum machine. I know these things are subjective, but how good is it for designing drums? How deep and useful is its sequencer?
Menus are one of my main problems with DT (and DN). I just don’t like this system with sample/sound browser/manager/sound/sample pool.
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I hear you. I looked at the 707 (and 101) when it first launched and decided no way because of the shitty interface. Same thing for the TR-8S. If you love the way the DT sounds but want less menu diving, you could save yourself a whole pile of cash and get a Model:Samples to complement your OT instead? I’m doing exactly the same thing (for exactly the same reasons you mentioned about saving OT tracks). My Model:Samples is coming tomorrow!
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Or I could just keep my DT and use half of its options (and therefore less menus) 
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Its not very deep in terms of machiendrum like tweak every parameter to get the sound you want, its much more chose the models and samples you wish, tweak filters, fx and EQ to use in a kit and jam out.
Its a great jam box once the kits are set up the way you like. Its also very punchy and the ACB models sound good. The sqeuencer is simple but very quick and intuitive and does fun stuff like last step per drum. tuning per step, racheting per step and so on.
For me its a very fun box and thats 90% of what I want from hardware. If you will be using it for live playing or jams rather than intricate sound design then I think its a great machine. I cant see myself ever selling mine.
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I’ve owned two digitakts. Owned a 101 and upgraded to the 707
The 707 is a way more capable and better machine.
I would also still take the 101 over a digitakt. The speediness of the workflow is scary fast. Think novation circuit but with a complimentary screen.
The digitakt is in serious need of a mk2. Stereo sampling, song mode, sample chop all needed.
I love the digitakt but the 707 release and mpc one were the nails in the coffin for it I think.
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Will also add the 1010 music black box is worth a shout
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It’s a fun box
With that said. There’s no count-in.
TR-8S has ACB which neither the 707/101 has. Great for sound design.
I briefly owned 707 but the synth engine didn’t wow me so went back to the 101 for the ROM sounds. 101 is super focused w/ tight fader throws.
Also I didn’t want 2 big Roland boxes so for me I went TR-8S + MC-101 combo.
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Ok, I will try and talk you out of the MC-707.
They packed a lot in there, and it shows. The interface is intuitive in some area’s, and menu divey/just flat out ridiculous in others. And while the manual is better than some other Roland products, it is still a pain to work through. I just want to take a moment to give a shout out to Moog and Elektron here, because their manuals are well written, and easy to follow.
The screen on the 707 would have been bad 30 years ago, and it is just horrible now. The viewing angle is laughable.
You have to stop playback every time you want to save something. This is a workflow killer.
The FX are alright. They packed a lot of them in there. Some are decent, some just sound like a bad imitation.
The build is very plasticy, and the faders have a little wobble. It just feels a little cheap compared to some other Roland products I have owned. Again, they packed a lot in there, and they probably cut some corners to hit a price point.
The pads are hard, and they are large and spread out. Decent for banging out a drum beat, but for playing chords, they suck.
With all that said, for better or worse, they packed a whole lot in the MC-707. For an all-in-one solution, it delivers a lot of features.
A nice selection of ins and outs.
It is nice to have 8 faders, along with the assignable knobs per track.
Streaming individual tracks over USB is always the bee’s knees.
The sounds are ok. Not as good as the ACB, but they put some nice editing in options in there (again, very menu divey).
The ability to pull in clips and sequences from other projects while the sequencer is running is a great feature.
I would like to see them do something in-between the 101 and the 707, both size, and feature wise. Less ins and outs, but definitely physical inputs for sampling. A couple less faders is fine. Revisit the interface. Make it run on batteries. And a much better screen!!! Maybe call it a 701? Or a 107? Call me Roland. (Just kidding, we know they don’t listen to their customers.)
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I agree. Something like a six track version that optionally runs on batteries Would be perfect.
I spent some time with the 707 and once you got sounds you liked, I found it incredibly fast to get ideas going. Ironically, I think I made some of my best and most complete songs with it, but ended up returning it because I found the sound design to be laborious. I also didn’t like that there weren’t more options for which parameters could be assigned to the knobs. That was before the sampling update and I’ve regretted returning it at times. I think the best case scenario would be to have some tracks running drums and internal synth engines and a few tracks running midi out to some external synths and their audio into the faders. This would allow you to have more direct sound design capabilities. I did find it really fun and I thought it sounded good. Probably should’ve just kept it.
(For better or for worse, I found my way to the Octatrack, and I’m slowly learning the ways of the eight armed mind f*%<er.)
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I don’t know, at the price point and feature set, and the fact that you’re swapping out a DT, I don’t think I’d choose the 707. Synths sound good on it, at least. Maybe consider the MPC One? It’s kind of amazing how much it can do, it sounds good, the screen makes menu diving orders of magnitude better than dealing with the 707’s screen, the pads feel much better, and it has enormous flexibility when it comes to effects.
Or the Octatrack, of course, but that’s a bit more money.
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How long have you been using the Digitakt at this point? I would suggest maybe just making songs with only it for a little while if you want to try to speed up your comfort level with it, I suppose it still might not click for you. To me the Digitakt is the fastest drum sampler type device as far as fine tuning your one shot samples goes and working with slightly rougher samples, most other options to me feel like they work best with really well curated sample libraries and already polished sounds as apposed to quickly designing a drum sound on your synth sampling it and fine tuning it on the Digitakt to get it nice and snappy, a bit of a resonant filter envelope and overdrive to make it bump.
That said we all find are own paths with these instruments, if you’re not feeling the Digitakt and feel you gave it a fair shake there isn’t a huge reason not to explore other options if you got the time and money. You can always sell the MC-707 get a Digitakt again or move on to whatever other product you fancy. Best not to stress it too much, just try to be happy and productivity will often follow.
You asked about the synth engine but you said you would use it as main drummachine.
The drums on 707/101 are samples though.
So no real benefit of the synth engine here.
The TR8s might be better suited as main drummachine (at least my conclusion) since you have synth engines which are specifically designed towards drum sounds, while you can use samples as well.
That said, in my opinion the 707/101 synth engine sounds superb for a groovebox.
The huge polyphony is a real benefit over the monophonic digitakt tracks.
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