Perhaps we shouldnt be surprised to see a slightly upgraded version of the MC-909 In the end, though, its a question of vibe.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Since those last dark days of the 20th century, technology has been advancing beyond most of our wildest dreams, and the MC-808 Sampling Groovebox, Rolands latest, is a wholly different beast, featuring 32 parts, quality effects, sampling, extensive sequencing features, computer-based editing and even motorised faders.

But Roland isnt the only company to stand on the shoulders of giants, and for the price of this latest creation you can have access to an Akai MPC or a pro-spec studio PC, a copy of Ableton Live and a selection of plug-ins - so who sees further in this brave new production world Read more: Roland System 500 Series Modules Main features The MC-808s main features are eight motorised faders and 16 drum pads (which double as keyboard keys for playing synth patches) lined up horizontally.

There are some transport controls, a couple of knobs (volume and input level), jog wheel and a large number of buttons.

From a performance point of view, there is also the famous D-Beam and a large tap tempo button.

In case you arent familiar with the D-Beam, you basically wave your hand in front of it to control various real-time parameters, the idea being you can be more expressive and fun to watch.

If youre familiar with the Roland MC-909, youll know the kind of sound to expect from the 808.

Theres something distinctive about the sound of hardware, and with the same sonic engine inside, its no surprise the MC-808 and 909 sound similiar.

The unit comes supplied with a healthy number of preset patterns to choose from (256) built from the extensive library of waveforms (622) and drumkits (128), all of which highlight the potential of the unit.

The sounds range from very useable to a bit dodgy, and with some notable exceptions, they sound very, well, Groovebox-like.

Roland Mc 808 Editor Software How To Design A

From a programming point of view, with a couple of decades of pattern-based sequencing experience under their belts, youd expect Roland to know how to design a nice working interface and they dont disappoint.

Getting started If youve used this type of thing before, youll be up and running in minutes, and if not then theres an appropriately named section in the manual (which is excellent, by the way) called Creating your own pattern.

The faders too are very useful, although not quite the giant leap forward in performance that the marketing spiel would have you believe (many of the presets demonstrate the ability to record fader automation within a pattern, but without adding a great deal to the resulting sound).

In terms of sampling power, the machine is certainly no slouch (up to 512MB).

There are a number of different tricks to be performed with your samples, ranging from conventional multi-sampled patch creation to an auto loop-slicing function (which maps the parts across the pads ready for reprogramming).

Roland Mc 808 Editor Software Software For PC

You can set sample loop points, reverse samples, time-stretch and generally mess with your sampled audio in all the ways youd commonly want, and all of this is made vastly simpler when used in conjunction with the editing software for PC and Mac (although it would be good if you could input values into the Editor fields on the PCs keyboard as well as with the virtual sliders on the GUI).

So how about the negatives Well, one thing we did notice, and checked with a variety of different cables, was that the main outputs seem to throw out an awful lot of noise.

When everythings blasting away its not so bad, but in quieter sections it is very noticeable.

Another serious pain in the proverbial is the fact that the LCD screen is invisible from almost anything but the narrowest of angles, so you have to be standing right over it to see anything.

And then theres the paltry 4MB of supplied sample RAM, which yields a laughable 23.5 seconds of stereo sampling at the units fixed frequency of 44.1.

From a performance point of view at least, we also feel Roland really missed a trick by leaving off some type of turntable-style pitchtempo fader of the type they put on the MC-909.

Theyd probably defend this by pointing out that the MC-808 is designed to be slightly more affordable, but this is why we also think that the MC-808 is a slightly curious addition to this range: it outperforms its older sibling, the MC-909, in the major raw specifications, such as sample memory and polyphony (both double), but is actually the smaller brother in terms of features and controllers.