Roland MC-808 - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Roland

Roland Corporation

is a Japanese manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, electronic equipment and software. It was founded by Ikutaro Kakehashi in Osaka on April 18, 1972, with ¥33 million in capital. In 2005 Roland's headquarters relocated to Hamamatsu in Shizuoka Prefecture. Today it has factories in Japan,...

MC-808 is Roland's latest Groovebox

Groovebox

The term Groovebox was originally used by Roland corporation to refer to its MC-303, but the term has since entered general use. It refers to a self-contained instrument for the production of live, loop-based electronic music with a high degree of user control facilitating improvisation.A groovebox...

, announced at the Winter NAMM in 2006. It is the successor to the late Roland MC-303

Roland MC-303

The Roland MC-303 is the first of a series of musical instruments known as a Groovebox. It combines a simple sound module with a sequencer to record and store notation, along with controls aimed at encouraging the musician to improvise the music while it is playing...

, Roland MC-307

Roland MC-307

The Roland MC-307 is a combination of MIDI music sequencer, synthesizer, drum machine and control surface produced by the Roland Corporation. This combination is commonly referred to by Roland as a 'Groovebox'...

, Roland MC-505

Roland MC-505

The Roland MC-505 is a combination of MIDI sequencer/arranger, synthesizer, and drum machine with built-in real-time Arpeggiator, LFO, VCF and Envelope Knobs for tweaking...

and Roland MC-909

Roland MC-909

The Roland MC-909 groovebox combines the features of a synthesizer, sequencer, and sampler. It was released by Roland Corporation on October 8, 2002. This product was announced at the AES Fall Convention in 2002...

. Though cheaper than the Roland MC-909, it has a number of features the Roland MC-909 lacked including double the polyphony

Polyphony

In music, polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords ....

(128-voice) and motorized faders. It lacks SRX card

SRX expansion board

The SRX are a series of expansion boards produced by Roland Corporation. They are small boards of electronic circuitry with 64MB ROMs containing patches and rhythm sets...

expandability, and turntable emulation, which the Roland MC-909 has. It supports more flash memory

Flash memory

Flash memory is a non-volatile computer storage chip that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. It was developed from EEPROM and must be erased in fairly large blocks before these can be rewritten with new data...

(1GB CompactFlash

CompactFlash

CompactFlash is a mass storage device format used in portable electronic devices. Most CompactFlash devices contain flash memory in a standardized enclosure. The format was first specified and produced by SanDisk in 1994...

,) and more RAM

Ram

-Animals:*Ram, an uncastrated male sheep*Ram cichlid, a species of freshwater fish endemic to Colombia and Venezuela-Military:*Battering ram*Ramming, a military tactic in which one vehicle runs into another...

(up to 512MB,) than did the Roland MC-909. Its has a 2 line segment built-in LCD display that is less flexible - similar to the late Roland MC-505, and much smaller than the Roland MC-909 large LCD screen. It also has a large LED display

LED display

An LED display is a flat panel display, which uses light-emitting diodes as a video display. An LED panel is a small display, or a component of a larger display. They are typically used outdoors in store signs and billboards, and in recent years have also become commonly used in destination signs...

, similar to the late Roland MC-303. The Roland MC-808 requires a USB connection to a computer for full patch editing, unlike the Roland MC-909. (However, the OS v1.03 update available on the Roland website allows for some patch editing without a computer, most notably sample chopping, including auto-chop.)

Features

The key features of the MC-808 are:

Sound generator with 128 note
Note
In music, the term note has two primary meanings:#A sign used in musical notation to represent the relative duration and pitch of a sound;#A pitched sound itself....

- voice
Speech synthesis
Speech synthesis is the artificial production of human speech. A computer system used for this purpose is called a speech synthesizer, and can be implemented in software or hardware...

polyphony
Polyphony
In music, polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords ....
16-track sequencer+Tempo/Mute Ctrl Track
Wave based synthesizer with fully programmable patches (including rhythm kits)
683 preset patterns
Stores up to 800 patterns (each with 16-tracks called parts) in user memory, and up to 700 more on a Compact Flash card
Three record modes (real time, step and TR mode)
Song mode, which allows sequences of patterns to be recorded
Sampler (Standard sample memory is limited, but sample memory can be expanded with a PC-100
SDRAM
Synchronous dynamic random access memory is dynamic random access memory that is synchronized with the system bus. Classic DRAM has an asynchronous interface, which means that it responds as quickly as possible to changes in control inputs...

or PC-133
SDRAM
Synchronous dynamic random access memory is dynamic random access memory that is synchronized with the system bus. Classic DRAM has an asynchronous interface, which means that it responds as quickly as possible to changes in control inputs...

DIMM
DIMM
A DIMM or dual in-line memory module, comprises a series of dynamic random-access memory integrated circuits. These modules are mounted on a printed circuit board and designed for use in personal computers, workstations and servers...

up to 512MB)
7 banks of 128 user editable patches
RPS sets, which can be used to trigger individual parts of patterns in real time
Arpeggiator with 128 presets
16MB of user memory for storing patterns, songs, patches, RPS sets, pattern sets and samples
4MB of sample memory (to hold newly recorded samples, or samples for playback)
RAM expansion slot (up to 512MB PC-100
SDRAM
Synchronous dynamic random access memory is dynamic random access memory that is synchronized with the system bus. Classic DRAM has an asynchronous interface, which means that it responds as quickly as possible to changes in control inputs...

or PC-133
SDRAM
Synchronous dynamic random access memory is dynamic random access memory that is synchronized with the system bus. Classic DRAM has an asynchronous interface, which means that it responds as quickly as possible to changes in control inputs...

DIMM
DIMM
A DIMM or dual in-line memory module, comprises a series of dynamic random-access memory integrated circuits. These modules are mounted on a printed circuit board and designed for use in personal computers, workstations and servers...

)
CompactFlash
CompactFlash
CompactFlash is a mass storage device format used in portable electronic devices. Most CompactFlash devices contain flash memory in a standardized enclosure. The format was first specified and produced by SanDisk in 1994...

slot (up to 2GB) (for storing patterns, songs, patches, RPS sets, pattern sets and samples)

The factory box comes with the following accessories: owner’s manual, sound and parameter list, AC adaptor, CD-ROM (with editor and USB MIDI driver), ferrite core, a band for fastening the core, and a leaflet ("Attaching the Ferrite Core").

Sound Generator

The 808's sound generator produces sound from two different kinds of patches. A "standard" patch is made up of four tones. Each tone can have two different waveforms, one for the left channel and one for the right channel. Waveforms can be either preset waveforms, or samples (both work the same way.) Rhythm patches are made up of 16 tones, each one assigned to a note. Rhythm tones can be made up of up to four waveforms.

Tones are generated by a wave generator then sent to a Time Variant Filter (TVF) and then to a Time Variant Amplifier (TVA). The WG, TVF and TVA all have an envelope which controls their operation. Standard patches have two LFO

LFO

LFO may refer to:* LFO , an English techno act* LFO , an American three-man pop/rap group** LFO , an album released by the American pop group LFO* Light Finding Operation, a form of mecha from the anime TV series Eureka Seven...

s available, which can be assigned to modulate the WG, TVF or TVA. This design is similar to many synthesizers using substractive synthesis. Rather than being restricted to a small number of waveforms, any wave file can be used as a waveform.

Some parameters can be modified in a patch using a fader. For more complete patch editing, the 808 must be hooked up to a computer via a USB cable running the 808's patch editor.

The sound generator allows for the routing of parts into two Multi-Effects(MFX) units. There are 46 different effects. Each MFX can be set to one of the 46 effects.

Sequencer

The sequencer can play patterns, or songs which are made up of a series of patterns. Each pattern can have up to 16 parts. Each part is assigned to a patch.

Parts contain a sequence of MIDI events such as notes and control changes. There are three ways to record data to a part. Step recording, realtime recording and TR-Rec. Step recording allows the entry of notes step by step. Realtime recording allows both notes and control changes to be added. TR-Rec allows each of the 16-pads to represent a beat, and makes it easy to enter percussion tracks. There is also a "microscope" editing mode allowing detailed event editing.

Songs are made up of steps with each step having a pattern associated with it. Muting and unmuting parts can be done for each step. The overall level of each part can be modified at each step as well.

Sampler

The MC-808 can import samples (as WAV

WAV

Waveform Audio File Format , is a Microsoft and IBM audio file format standard for storing an audio bitstream on PCs...

or AIFF

AIFF

Audio Interchange File Format is an audio file format standard used for storing sound data for personal computers and other electronic audio devices...

files,) and can also record samples from its input. Editing of samples can be done using the sample edit feature of the patch editor program. Some basic tasks can be done from the MC-808 without the need for the editor program. Newly recorded samples are stored in sample memory. Samples must be loaded into sample memory to play them as well. The MC-808 will automatically load samples into memory when needed. There are also some manual operations for loading samples into memory and unloading them. As shipped, there is 4MB of sample memory. Samples can be saved in user memory or card memory.

Users

The Roland MC-808 was used prominently in the album Téo & Téa
Téo & Téa
Téo & Téa is a conceptual album by French composer and artist Jean Michel Jarre, published by Warner Music in late March 2007. The album was released in the U.S. three weeks later, on 16 April 2007...

by French composer Jean Michel Jarre

Jean Michel Jarre

Jean Michel André Jarre is a French composer, performer and music producer. He is a pioneer in the electronic, ambient and New Age genres, and known as an organiser of outdoor spectacles of his music featuring lights, laser displays, and fireworks.Jarre was raised in Lyon by his mother and...

, who used some of the preset patterns as the base for a number of the tracks of that album.

Criticisms

The motorized faders are noisy (although the device allows this feature to be disabled.)
Lack of SRX card
SRX expansion board
The SRX are a series of expansion boards produced by Roland Corporation. They are small boards of electronic circuitry with 64MB ROMs containing patches and rhythm sets...

expansion slot
Requirement of a USB connection to a computer, for full patch editing, unlike the Roland MC-909
Roland MC-909
The Roland MC-909 groovebox combines the features of a synthesizer, sequencer, and sampler. It was released by Roland Corporation on October 8, 2002. This product was announced at the AES Fall Convention in 2002...

. The OS v1.03 update available on the Roland website allows for some additional patch editing without a computer, most notably sample chopping, including auto-chop.
At the time of its release in 2006, the MSRP was set at $1,249.99 (USD). As of 2009, units can commonly be purchased new for roughly $800, or used for several hundred dollars less.

Unsolved bugs

Some operating system bugs were gradually being solved since its release; the last operating system upgrade (Version 1.03)* was introduced on January 15, 2007.
(Note OS v1.03 update available on the Roland website allows for some additional patch editing without a computer, most notably sample chopping, including auto-chop.)*

There are current unresolved issues with the implementation of effects when switching patterns, but the MC-808 was "designed by specification". Roland might refer to the end users' requests for effects that sustain past the point when the pattern switches as they "developing a future new product".

External links

MC-808 PDF Manual Links: