Roland MC-707

I thought that 707 would replace the Octatrack Mk2, that I had to return back after almost two years of ownership and numerous returns (5 in total, waiting time, per return, was around 2 months..) for various issues.. :( I used to control Octatrack with novation lanch control via kenton usb to midi host, so the lay out was the same as the 707, a fader and 3 rotary dials per track to set as you like..Back to Roland now.. Build quality is very poor. from day one 3 dials were wobbling and not turning smooth. The screen.. oled with the worst viewing angles ever. Another thing I mentioned was issues with the polyphony. Stealing notes some times without notice. I could not find a way to apply cut off filter to my samples as a looper!! Arpeggios are very simple not even comparable with the Yamaha's superior system of arpeggios. I had to use my MoXF to run some interesting arpeggio phrases of 707's sound engine. There are some good sounds in the Roland's sound bank! Some of the internal sounds you can not really affect much using the cut off filter.. Some of the effects are good and they are plenty! I send it back for a refund after 5 days of usage mainly to poor quality. A warm thanks to Thomann team for their fantastic job and return service that they always leave you smiling at the end!
:)

I’ve had this instrument for over a year. Used it on at least 4 albums, and even made one or two of them using this box alone. I was going to sell it to replace the multiple things you can here for higher quality gear, but even now that I have that gear I will likely keep it, as it’s extremely handy.

Some Pro’s

It’s not even just a groovebox. One of my main uses is as a 4-channel multi-fx unit, with all the inputs and outputs and routing options available. It’s like having all of the BOSS stompboxes plus more, and then being able to switch between 16 variations of each using the clips.

Aside from that, the scatter implementation allows for very expressive performance, the synth architecture, whilst a bit archaic is very very broad/deep, and each clip has a maximum length longer than most hardware sequencers.

Roland have been killing it with the firmware updates, very responsive to the community, you get new features every few months.

Cons: Synth engine is very broad but not thaaaaaat good sounding, programming patches is a pain, polyphony maxes out quicker than expected. Limited clip rows (16), sampler memory too small.

I have to come back to my review after 1month and share my disappointment. It's just a groovebox and has many limmitations, for example you can't record MIDI Pitch or other CC in it , only what the internal knobs are assigned to,. MIDI implementation is rather poor so it's a standalone box. Seems also all presets are per project and not global ??? Lastly loading a project with not even 1 Samples in it takes 5-7s ? Also my unit came new and was slightly uneven on the bottom making it wobble and requiring a tiny bit of sticker added to one of the rubber foots. Otherwise all is good and I can recommend it for live. Disappointing in the end.