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Roland MC 303

Posted: Sat Mar 26, 2011 10:29 am
by mja
I was thinking about getting one.

I was looking on youtube and they look pretty cool, a nice vintage sound from them,
cheap enough too secondhand.

Anybody on hear have one ??

Are they easy to integrate with Live ??

Re: Roland MC 303

Posted: Sat Mar 26, 2011 11:09 am
by PHY6
Stop thinking about it, it's shit...

Re: Roland MC 303

Posted: Sat Mar 26, 2011 11:20 am
by 3phase
vintage sound? itr is as vintage as any plug in 100% digital..wouldnt call it shit just beacuse it dont sounds so good... otherwise i would have to call other thigs shit too

Re: Roland MC 303

Posted: Sat Mar 26, 2011 11:24 am
by d-track

Re: Roland MC 303

Posted: Sat Mar 26, 2011 12:07 pm
by Cowlash
d-track wrote:http://www.ladyada.net/make/x0xb0x/

um..
its a tb:)
He wants a MC303, not a TB303. They're different machines.

Re: Roland MC 303

Posted: Sat Mar 26, 2011 12:37 pm
by Synthbuilder
Standard Roland rompler sound of the mid 90s - a JV1080 sort of thing but less control over the parameters. Which isn't actually a bad thing if this what you want.

The biggest problem is that when in sound module mode - ie. external midi control - you loose all the front panel controls. This is just about bearable with a decent computer midi sequencer but Live doesn't really do the sysex thing so I would imagine the MC303 would have to stay in standalone mode.

I found midi timing to be a little off too, and it's difficult to say for sure, but I think the internal timing was sloppy too.

In the days before laptops and Reason I'd take my MC303 to play when I was away from home. These days there are other options.

Re: Roland MC 303

Posted: Sat Mar 26, 2011 12:40 pm
by MacGuffin
3phase wrote:vintage sound? itr is as vintage as any plug in 100% digital..wouldnt call it shit just beacuse it dont sounds so good... otherwise i would have to call other thigs shit too

it's worse than a V.A., it's only samples of vintage gear.
Although these days they can be bought for around 150$ used, so it could be used as an inexpensive sampled-based drum machine... but even then for a little more cash one can buy one of those korg electribes with tubes.

Re: Roland MC 303

Posted: Sat Mar 26, 2011 2:20 pm
by Tarekith
You'd be better off trying to find a used mc505 or one of the electribes IMO. The MC303 has limited preset editing, and the stock sounds are only so so. Pretty basic sequencer too. Was really cool at the time, but I think today most people would be disappointed with it.