MC-707 Groovebox SONIC LAB Review 

I got a 707 in December '19 and was simultaneously amazed and overwhelmed at the possibilities. I find that it gets less overwhelming with time; even with light use. You just kind of get used to it and I find myself liking it more and more. It really is an all in one electronic music tool; and now I wish I could buy one for all my friends. The frequent updates have been adding actually useful features too. Everyone who has any interest in making electronic music with knobs and sliders instead of a mouse should have one of these.

Wow, 1 product 2 studios 2 presenters review - very engaging and dynamic, hard to quit watching. Nick and Gaz - you are digging into something new in music tech review territory.

I must say I absolutely loved the format of this review. From a punter point of view, I would take this over some noisy Namm videos any day.

Absolutely love this video. My 707 and TR-8S setup is almost all I need. Plus, the combo of Nick and Gaz is all that is needed for a great review.

Great review. You guys did miss a pretty big feature in my opinion. You can change synth patches on a per clip basis for the entire track.

I flipping love my 707. I’m a novice to making music and I was making a track in no time. Absolutely awesome device.

Absolutely brilliant show with great repartee from both of you! You really should do more of these types of reviews - entertaining as well as informative.

What a great review, gents! I have had my 707 for 2 weeks now and already loving it. Patch 1.72 adds a lot more to it that improves on an already great machine.

I love my MC707. Been a guitar/ bass player for 20 years plus and dabbled with synths and sequencing /daws before. But when I saw this - YUP. This is exactly what I need. Have had it almost a year and I’m still finding new cool things that I can do with it!

This is one of my fav SonicLabs! I really like the way you both made use of your camera angles to show the front and back and the distance zoom out and the closer. Gaz being a bit out of focus was fine, I just think you both really made the most of the pandemic to evolve the show even further. I think SonicState/SonicLab came out even better afterwards.

The MC707 makes a fantastic brain for your hardware as well, sequencing 8 different channels and will allow you to mix your hardware audio back into the MC707.

This looks and sounds mighty impressive, I cannot wait to get my paws on one for a test drive. Brilliant review btw, you guys keep it up and you'll end up with a series on Netflix.

I was sceptical of the format, but having watched it all, you two are great together. The length of time you've worked together shows in this remote review! I have been interested in the Zencore stuff and, after this, getting an MC101 just for the 4 part multi timbre zencore synth module seems worth while!

Great review ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I love the fact that your review is very honest and genuine highlighting all flaws too AWESOME 👌🙏🏻

This turned out to be the best machine Roland has made in a while

Excellent format , and i hope youll stick to it in the future - you two ARE the ..."Real" backbone of Sonic Lab ! - Yay ! 😁👍🏻

Relaxed and still FULL OF VALUABLE INFORMATION, thanks guys

That was a great discussion. I really enjoy the back-and-forth style.

Forget COVID, this kind of format works so well you should consider using it all the time.

Damn Nick?! You really put a decent dark synth-core -ish backdrop together. I’m just happy to see a sort of 808 grid sequencer tat I can upload anything into and give my file the sequencer grid treatment and get on a pitch or another knob to vary my own phrases. 62 seconds stereo is HUGE once you’re considering the fact of that 808 grid sequencer and the treatments from its knobs. Considering that 62 seconds is a pretty obvious point that it’s meant to be for phrases, like the old sampling beat machines from not too long ago. You two have probably sold me on this one. Gaz, you would be held hostage at Roland if only you knew Japanese. I’ll probably wait it out until Christmas, in case they take your lesson and throw in an SSD hard drive to expand that recording memory into a SMC707+. They’ll probably wait now to release that, since it’s always after I buy the last one that the next iteration gets presented. Thanks again for sharing!!

Scatter also gives essentially two more multi effects to chain , you can even bypass the scatter and just have the two extra effects.

I need neighbors like you two. GREAT review!

Best SONIC LAB review ever - thank you very much!!

Alternatvely, they should add a system parameter to toggle between making [Shift] a hold button or a toggle button. The Shift button on Modal's Skulpt and Argon8 is a toggle button, making one-handed operation possible. There's a master multi-band compressor and EQ in addition to the master delay/chorus and reverb, and even an optional insert effect to go with those at the user's discretion, not including the insert effect and EQ per channel, plus EQ per oscillator in the individual synth patches.

There is a big feature you missed and that is you can change patches on a per clip basis for any track type, ie, up to 16 different patches per channel !

"A very very deep unit" is the pull quote from Gaz.

amazing unit, Rolands best release in years, great review guys

The 62 seconds total sampling time is a deal breaker indeed, I’m glad that you mentioned it and highlighted the issue, I only wish I had known before buying one then returning it a few days later once I discovered it myself a few months back. I had hoped by now it would have been fixed in the 2 firmware updates since, but I think the fact that it hasn’t means is a hardware issue. A shame because it means that after a few clips you don’t have enough space to continue, daft design.

For my purposes, this is the most comprehensive and capable piece of gear I have ever purchased over my 40 years of purchasing gear. And I’ve had tons of synths, drum machines, etc ranging in price from $0-$4000.

Such a game changer here. Roland listened and really pushed some boundaries with the 707. I love it for playing live Techno 👍😎🇦🇺

21:50 Gaz, I wish it were like that, which seems logical, but, at least on my 707, the encoders are stuck on fine tuning and I pretty much have my finger on SHIFT all the time to get the values moving in larger increments. Take the filter cutoff as an example. I counted 92 knob turns to range from 0 to 1023. 92 knob turns. With SHIFT pressed this operation becomes faster, but the transitions are stepped. And I must hold the SHIFT button. Someone may suggest using the assignable control knobs. Great! Considering their range goes from 7 to 5 o'clock, when assigned to cutoff, or ADSR, they have a bipolar range (-64 to +63) where the action only happens between 7 and 11 o'clock (for the cutoff) or between 12 and 4 o'clock for decay or release for ex. I am forced to choose which 3 parameters I want to have easy access to, but they aren't even calibrated. I found that in settings you can offset the start point of the active range of the CTL knobs, but not scale it so that the knob becomes fully active all the way from left to right. It's nice that there are so many deep editing functions in the menu but for a product labelled as a 'groovebox', having quick access to ADSR, LFO and Filter should be a given. My take away from all this is that Roland's concept of groovebox has shifted from real time electronic music (= multitrack sequencer with hands-on control for live sound editing), to a loop launcher with insanely massive sound editing buried in the menu. Why? And what a pity! I really wanted to love this instrument. By the way, great reviews as usual!

Cheers guys, great review. Most appreciated. :)

You can also transfer and create patches from Zenology plugin back to the hardware very soon with Zenology pro. Also the MC-707 contains many of the sounds from Synth Legends pack, AX Edge keytar, Supernatural synth and XV-5080. Nice t-shirt Nick... you look well 👍

Great outro track Nick... sounds like OMD with a little YES thrown in. And I agree on the available recording time, let's hope Roland are listening and give us more as you suggest!

This is my first groovebox since the Korg EMX. It really fills all my needs.

Nice jam outro, as always x

I don’t need it but I want it. Nice review guys.

This dual remote-review format is great. The best thing to come out of COVID

Synthstrom Deluge tickles your wish list fellas.

Really cool format, you both did well to keep talking over one another to a minimum. I can tell you let each other get your point across. The lack of latency is fab as well. Thanks guys!!!

Since this video more features have been added: Arpeggiator, Generic USB Driver (for ipads etc) and a random tone generator. Good stuff!!!

This mirrors my feelings: great machine, sounds good, fun to play, intuitive to use, NEEDS BETTER LOOPER FUNCTIONS!

Sounds like it'd be great if in a future firmware given a minimum spec of SDcard inserted, they could then use the internal looper space as a cache for streaming from the card..

What’s most amazing is considering how future flung the octatrack really is. This MC707 is really trying to keep up with the octatrack but outside of that zen engine....hmmm. Having both together is a good idea.

The zooming and editing of the sample does indeed look Digitaktish but the old Roland SP-606 was very similar as well.

I’ve got mine sending from the reverb , which it lets you mute , and then that goes to my iPad Pro and can have massive send and return effects chains , then you can automate the send. Just wish it had a proper sampler

loving the south west massive attack vibes you have created on that 707. that vibe is in your veins down there, right? also - the duo of reviewers format works well too imo, thanks.

So internally there is a 20 channel I/o mixer they can send and receive? so you could stream live mixes from your computer to a USB stick stereo? But not to the SD card? How does the mixer run through the actual physical unit? Is a 62 seconds sampling time global or per track?

great review do you know if there's a way of fixing the sync issue between the 707 and the mpc live they just don't sync well any i try..

Thanks guy ,ill be walking on by on this .Phew nearly came a cropper and bought it .62 secs sample time ( laugh) ,no song mode ,no mix mode ,no arp . Of course they'll add all these features in an even more expensive follow up .

So, for live use, to send a master mix and a click to a drummer, is that going to use up 2 of the eight available tracks? or is there another solution for that? sorry if that sounds like a stupid question.

Appears to be pretty fun but out of desk space. I would only probably use it as a sound module triggered by my deluge! All the stuff you're talking about what it's missing is found in deluge. Would be a great pair! Long as you want recording is readily available on deluge, and overdubbing!

Gaz, so nice to finally hear someone else sees how Roland's digital synthesis goes all the way back to their first in the D-50 with the four layer/partial/tone (they've called it various things over the years) having the toggles for selecting the 4 for editing and toggles for on/off, I see that here and I see that all the way back to D-50 but nobody else seems to mention that. Similarly, yea I am enthused to see that some of the terminology like TVF is kept consistent - I grew up with a D-20 and was always perplexed by the those set of terms and such (thinking I'd never understand) only to learn they were just fancy new names for the same exact equivalents from analog subtractive sysnthesis. OMG 60 seconds max sampling!? As you say, this is ridiculous Roland crap just like usual, they shoot themselves in the foot, because in this day/age storage & RAM are inexpensive.....c'mon......

Great review guys! I agree. The MC-707 is a beast but if they could just overcome the 60 second limit (I, too, read about the 12 minutes of mono/6 minutes of stereo record time) that seems self-imposed, this groovebox would be stellar!

I have one and think, all things considered, it’s probably the overall best instrument ever made. That said I mostly just play guitar these days and have only made a few songs with the 707. It’s just so powerful and usable

Sample manglin? Can you adjust sample time and pitch using them knobs?

So is there only 62 seconds of temporary memory sample time per project that's open? ie if Im recording a bass guitar into it on a project, once I do 2x31second recording of bass I cant pull anything else in for the whole project unless its saved to the SD card?

You lovely people! Forgot to mention the customizable LFO function!!!! 4 dubsteppers with patience ;)

Love this little box :)

I have quite a few roland products: fa-06, TD30, jdxi, jx-03, jp-08, rc-505 system 1 and gaia sh01... I was looking for a central hub type product however on the capabilities i chose: Akai MPC One as my solution akai has loopers ( with over dub unlike mc707), 8 audio tracks, 128 midi tracks, cv/gate, extensive sampler with 4 layers, auto sampling for external midi instruments, big color touch display. mc707 is pretty good and i like the sound of the zen synth engine.

Dont care what negative people say, but Roland is such incredible company. They really bring out quality stuff.

Agree it's really nearly the dream machine. For me the main frustration was that there's no way to store your own patches outside of a project. Also no instant scene/clip change.

Just checking in, did Roland address the looper time limitation?

10:15 Yes, not quite a "looper"! And it could have been. (I wonder if it could be updated in software?) I'm a constant user of their RC505 Looper - so straightforward, easy to use! The new MC's are so powerful, but not "easy", everything seems to take 1-2 steps more than it could.

Proper honest reviews.

Great video - the virtual lab worked great. I know it's nit-picking, but I can't get over the bleached out LCD on this and the X/Xm. If Akai /NI can put OLEDs in their mini keyboards, it seems like a daft choice not to in higher-end gear.

Maybe I missed something but ... After making a song, how many songs can you store and the time to load songs for live .... For me is that the most important feature. I'm looking for something to replace the MC 50 micro composer from the 90'. This was an awesome device back in time. The only drawback was that little screen but you could record very quickly and also 16 channels ! ... Is this a must have ?

Yes awesome review. I learned a lot from the presentation. How can I set it up so I can jam and record a guitar right into the loop?

I've got one and for me the MC 707 is a live game changer. You can do complex, pro sounding dance music which isn't at all dependent on long samples. Plus, it's simple and uncomplicated enough to really enjoy using it live. A dawless set up in one box.

adding up both studios, how many wall warts total

Great review, but please tell me - 3000 sounds, can you save patches to a favourite folder?

Hi i wonder if you could help please ? I'm not a musician but i am interested in creating my own electronic music and my research has dug up 2 choices - the Roland MC 707 and the Uno Synth Pro Desktop and price consideration to one side what would you recommend ? I've found the M-Audio Oxygen Pro Mini 32 key midi which is also compact, as space is a consideration, and that would give me a keypad and touch pad option so wondered if you could throw any light on the subject for me ? Just want to have a bit of fun with it ( the MC 707 looks like it could be more suited to a non musician ) but i'm interested in your view and would much appreciate some light on the matter !

Love the 101. One thing that surprised me is how good the pad sounds are for such a tiny unit.

OK, when is the 16 track version coming?

Try the "Akai Force" you can record long tracks long loop times and overdub. It also has a lot of fx's and a 7 inch colour screen which is much more enjoyable to view then this small screen it also has two inputs for your instruments and cv.

excellent video.. yeh the looper time is restrictive, though you do have 12mins. mono/6mins. stereo for sample loading on to a drum pad/kit, overall it's pretty brilliant and there are hints that a song mode maybe coming too in a firmware update.

Hey love ur videos loved this one too it would be rather nice if Roland put out a mc 909 and so on and do u have music on bandcamp iTunes etc cheers and be safe

This machine is very difficult ... but for professional musicians i mean old electronic fighters like this mans in video it's the holy grail! yehh

You guys should really try the Akai Force, same idea, of everything in one unit, but it has way more capacity, you can put an ssd drive inside, you sequence tons of stuff for in the unit itself, plus tons of midi tracks for external gear. I love Roland gear, but since I got the Force, it changed my whole workflow, the Force is now the center piece of my studio. And, it's self contained but it can also control Ableton Live at the same time, it's unbelievable, I love it.

What are the "disk streaming" requests all about on the MPC? Is that kind of the same issue with the MC-707 here?

Hey, are you having the master sync as the Keystep pro?

Hey Nick! I know it's an old video. I recently got an mc-101. I was asking myself about the mute states that you mentioned are saved with scenes in the mc-707(would be the most logical and useful approach). Is this true? Because in the mc-101 the mute states are saved with the clips which is an absolutely stupid design decision. We could have had so much more if the mutes(drum pad) were saved in the scenes..

Can you please have a video on how to use the effects on a track.

Can you pan individual oscillators?

The idea of building clips (patches) is amazing !! - Its like running ableton inside....But i really wish it has at least 32 step sequencer

Can you control scenes/clips with a launchpad?

Rg the SHIFT button - the only and very important case when I’m appreciating the position is launching scenes 5-8, maybe that’s the reason why to keep it upper left

Great video of a seemingly very cool product. High on my wishlist atleast. But it's beyond me why they skimp on memory. It is so cheap these days, and it's even cheaper for companies like them. Heck, they could just include slots and support for basic PC RAM and SSDs, for people wanting to upgrade it.

I really hope there’s a computer or iPad editor for this.

Nick, it sounds like your dream machine is an Akai Force? Most of your complaints are solved in the Force, although it has its own limitations.

Totally agree with your overall review and appreciate the demo/insight. After working with my 707 for a few weeks now I totally agree with the frustration regarding the insanely limited sample time. Sure, there is plenty of other features that keep this unit useful and interesting working within it's limitations, and It's encouraging that Roland keeps providing useful firmware updates.... but as of 1.8 in 2023, sadly still no change on this severe limitation to "global domination".

Looking forward to receiving my TR8S this week. ^_^

It looks good but is sill not as unrestricted as a Deluge, for example and the menu diving looks cumbersome. The Deluge streams everything to and from the SD card and so the only limitations on recording time is the size of your storage card. The only limitation on the number of clips that can be played simultaneously is the CPU but it takes a lot to get to the point where it is struggling! Having only a tiny segment type display actually makes it very intuitive and changing parameters is very easy. I considered the MC-707 but the Deluge just seems to be a more complete product.

It frustrates me why these machines have such short sample time. In this day and age they should all be able to play multiple full length songs.

Probability functionality is almost a given with new gen grooveboxes - really hope it is included in 1.8 update!

In 5 years of videos on sonic state I’ve never seen them really happy with a product 😂

Does anyone know what kind of bass Mr. Gaz is playing? Sounds great! Also, lovely review guys, thanks!

No motorised faders though! I miss my mc808. Resisting all temptation to buy this until I see what teenage engineering replace the OP1 with. It would have to be something incredibly similar.

Sample time is actually 12 mono minutes, 6 stereo, but only 62s allocated to the looper. So if you're using samples outside of the looper, you have a lot more space.

I love mine. Oddly, I use it as a sequencer mostly at this time. But I'm forcing myself to expand into using the onboard sounds which are staggering in number. Basically, I'm under utilizing it because the first 3 channels being sent to monosynths with no keyboards keeps me really busy. Looper is a bit lame at this time. I hope they update it.