How to Flip Samples on the Roland MC-101

Check out the Roland MC-101: reverb.grsm.io/mc101
I show the best method for loading, chopping, and flipping samples to make both old school hip hop and modern trap beats on the Roland MC-101, making use of the 1.50 and 1.60 firmware updates.
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[@pastorlance1]

The tip of switching to sustain solved a huge problem for me when working with loops thanks for this video. Also loved the tips about chopping samples on 101 that is the same basic procedure used on sp-404. The updates Roland has done for 101 makes it a legit groove box.

[@GirlfightClub]

I returned my MC 101 I loved 2 months ago for some emergency financial reasons , and been just waiting even with the update to buy a new one. Well I just now ordered another one because of this video. 😁 100% awesome instruction thank you for your dedication.

[@playpm]

Liked before watch!!! Been waiting for this topic for months already!!!!!!

[@stevengain9488]

Awesome video, thanks for showing the high-hat roll, I couldn't figure that out.

[@BrettYoakum]

Super helpful, thanks for putting this together

[@SandroMassarani]

Thank you very much!! Great tips in the video. You are a very talented teacher and musician.

[@rowlandiv1922]

MASSIVE!!!! Thank you for this!

[@larsoe]

Just what I was looking for :D

[@stevewoywitka3258]

Great post 🤘.

[@Lovesinthebuilding]

I’m about to get in to sampling Gabe

[@YOUrDEAlerwiThHell]

This trap beat was kinda hella sick 😍🤩🔥❤️‍🔥

[@GeorgeL909]

Wow this was super helpful. I had so much trouble trying to find the sample start time until I watched this again. Also a tip for jungle fans, you can use key offset and fine offset to pitch shift and thus time shift a jungle break to match any bpm! It's an old school way of working, but it works. Then you can copy a pad within a drum kit to any other pad using shift+copy while the pad is selected. This has the benefit of copying over all the settings and changes you made to that pad along with the sample. I just found that out tonight 😂 makes chopping way easier, especially if you pitch time shifted to match bpm perfectly.

[@GeorgeL909]

Ok looks like I might have made a mistake in my above comment. Not sure if it's a bug or something, but it seems like if you copy a pad with a sample on it using the shift copy function, when you edit the new pad start point, it also affects the old pad you copied from 😤. This is not at all useful for chopping. Turns out you actually have to re-load the sample just like Gabe is doing in the video. Hopefully Roland will fix that, because copying the sample with the shortcut retains all the pad edits. Now I have to re- enter all the edits each time. 🤔 Roland simultaneous impresses and perplexes me with their design decisions...

[@GabeMillerMusic]

Yeah it's a bummer about that. I tried it before filming this video and didn't bring it up for that reason. But pitch shifting for timestretching is a great tip.

[@SisterRose]

i just recorded a ton of stuff off my microfreak. i was worried i'd have to like, record every note seperate but when I realised you could chop stuff up I recorded random riffs and scales lol. It does mean I'm limited to 2 octaves but that's perfect for example for bass. since the 101 lacks an audio in it's still a more convenient way to get my other synth sounds on it even if it's a bit static/unnatural. the release helps a ton tho!

[@TheCircusp]

That's what i was expecting, Groove Bap

[@iblamesummers]

Super useful tips. Thanks. Such a shame the Roland MC-101 does not have broader, less cumbersome sampling capabilities but at least you can load Wavs.

[@stefanweber8762]

Thanks ❤

[@dRew-something]

Great vid/tutorial! Do you know how to apply scatter effect without holding the scatter effect button down (pad1-16)? I've selected the alternate option in scatter menu but I'd like it to apply effect from pad 11..if that makes sense..currently having to hold pad 11 to apply effect..I'd like to apply effect without holding pad..thanks

[@user-sx2iw2hq3l]

Hello Gabe. Could you explain me what does mean to flip samples. Thank you so much

[@saluddiaz]

Thanks for another great video! I have a question, is the drums on 6:05min a loop or created on the unity itself? I would be great to see you creating these drums or similar on the unity as like a tuto! Thanks and keep up the great videos! On a second note, it doesn’t look like it’s a loop 👍

[@GabeMillerMusic]

I showed how those drums were done around 7:48 :) There's a more in depth walkthrough of trap drums in the 101 video I put out last week as well.

[@EmilioNorrmann]

can you adjust the lenght of a note in sequence mode for a drum track like this one ? I can do that in "tone" tracks, but can't find that option here

[@buckbumble]

Is there a seing function on this unit, like 1/16T for drums?

[@jaydeepalmer]

Hey Gabe, I got a question: once you custumized your "drum kit", can you export it to another project? If yes, it would be awesome! Edit: I found out how, in your video about scene chain, thanks 😎

[@vittoriobellamente4380]

hi nice video,i love this machine, but i hate stop music to change project,can chain the project without stop music like tr8s?

[@dovepaige]

You are quickly becoming one of my go to sources for the MC 101, it's my first groovebox and has become my primary device and I'm trying to figure out ways to incorporate my BASTL THYME with it do you have any experience with that device?

[@GabeMillerMusic]

Unfortunately I haven't had a chance to try any BASTL stuff, but I'm glad you're digging the videos!

[@mixedatmidnight]

Agree on the goto source for mc-101 tips and tricks :)

[@GEEZEE16]

im looking for a sampling techniques for the mc 707 do you have a video fro the mc 707?

[@buckbumble]

I just got this the other day. I’m not sure why as I come from an MPC background and Akai’s stuff is just way more user friendly than Roland which is very much the opposite. However, I’m determined to stick with it as I want something small to take with me to make beats. Also, I need those iconic Roland drum sounds!

[@dionysis_]

I had an MPC for some time and thought I might get this but it doesn’t even seem to be comparable..

[@marckirby7356]

How did it work out. I'm coming from akai and want portable unit but I'm unsure

[@DjSuess]

Nice one..this will help out alot w mine which just came in. Q: do I need to update the firmware right away or atleast to be able to access new features? It sounds like the things that you couldn't do before , are definitely stuff I'd like to use. Thanks!

[@GabeMillerMusic]

It'll say which version it's on when you boot it up (1.5 or 1.6 is what you need to be on for sample chopping).

[@bloodmoneyperez]

Okay. If I’m using audio over USB to sample into looper can you edit the start times and copy to each track for chops??

[@guilhermematta]

Hello, do you know if I can put a whole song to release live? I ask this because I would like to use it sometimes as a V.S. player

[@DominicJacksonFilm]

can I record straight into it then chop the sample up onto the seperate keys:?

[@EmilioNorrmann]

heyyya it's me again, now with firmware 1.71 you can record directly to a looper track from usb, then export that loop as wav, then import that wav to a drum or tone track ! are you planning to do a video on the firmware update ? cheers !

[@GabeMillerMusic]

I've got a bit of a backlog of videos to finish first (some sponsored stuff, new gear, etc), but I'll try to jump on it eventually.

[@davidmoore9385]

As a stand alone device mc101 or electribe 2

[@heavysystemsinc.]

You can copy pad/sound by pushing the pad then follow immediately with SHIFT+FX. It should say 'PAD X COPIED'. If not, repeat the process as it's trying to figure out if you're wanting the deep copy menu or to copy the pad. If it said PAD X COPIED, then immediately select the new pad and press SHIFT+FX again and it should say PASTED TO PAD X. It's quicker than this method of going through the file menu.

[@bsmith1014]

I was just about to get in here and say the same thing. I'm thinking about buying one and im familiar with a bunch of other groove boxes, and im like yea he could definitely probably just copy the pad lol

[@heavysystemsinc.]

@@bsmith1014 The downside is that you cannot set different start/end points when copying the pad, it references the original pad's points, so if you change any of the copied pads start/end points, all of them referencing each other will change. That said, it's super useful for getting variations of 1 shots like stabs and kicks/snares etc. I did devise a way to 'beat chop' on the machine, but it's super convoluted. Basically it's this: Set up a looper track to resample as you would, but to cut out different elements of a drum loop, you'll speed up the BPM after adjusting the start point on the sample you're chopping so that you hear the loop. To do this, make a single measure clip and trigger the sample on the first note. This will allow you to hear how much or little will be resampled. Then when you've made the adjustment (again, change the tempo faster to shorten the chop or slow it down to lengthen it), record into the looper then export the loop and delete the looper and make a new looper and repeat the process for each chop. Yes, it's a pain in the ass, but does allow keeping your memory usage on the machine manageable if you're not near a computer to use easier methods to chop and then just save those samples to SD card. It also works to trim up super long samples into just the parts you want to use as well, which I have some long samples, but sometimes only use one bar out of, say 16 or 32 bars in the sample. This can help with bloated memory consumption issues that arise if working with a lot of long samples that you're only using small bits of. So to summarize, you can chop samples internally, but it's a lot of leg work and copying pads also copies start/end points unfortunately so chopping or loading up the same sample into multiple pads is mandatory to do this. Finally, the machine doesn't 'exit' from sample loading in a drum track so you can just load up the sample 4 or 5 times quickly by tapping the pad to load the sample to and mashing the value knob. At least THIS part is quick. :)

[@andyvanderford6083]

I have a minute long loop of someone talking and can load it into a drum track as a sample, but I have to hold down the pad the whole time for it to play out fully. Is there a way to make it so it plays in full after I hit the pad once?

[@thepauloapo]

Hey, Gabe! Figured you can copy/paste a pad's sound by holding down the pad then pressing shift+fx (copy shortcut), then selecting target pad and shift+fx once again.

[@GabeMillerMusic]

Nice! Were you able to get the samples to be tweaked independently? When I tried that, the chops affected both pads.

[@thepauloapo]

@@GabeMillerMusic I see... "Sample edit" parameters stay bound to the same source. So, only helpful if edits are limited to the pad edit menu.... Too bad.

[@GabeMillerMusic]

Bummer, that's what I was afraid of. Doing it the long way seems to bypass that somehow.

[@KiTnKyra]

I think you can import the samples all at once (say, pads 1-4) because it stays on the import screen, then you could manip them all independently without doing the whole process over from scratch each time

[@thepauloapo]

@@KiTnKyra yeah, I've also found it to be easier to just load the whole lot in one take, as it spares navigating to the folder each time.

[@dopelogik]

That SEQ hi hat roll trick is a dirty little secret. Any way to record notes that live? I'll play like a 5 note hi hat roll and it records like 3 notes.

[@oracularmusic]

Hey Gabe, when you load samples in do they automatically sync to the projects tempo or are you setting the tempo around the sample?

[@GabeMillerMusic]

They don't sync, I've been setting the project tempo to match. I try to remember to put the BPM in the filenames of loops/samples to flip I bring in to make all that easier.

[@oracularmusic]

@@GabeMillerMusic Great, thanks.

[@Planewalker]

I'm still looking for the hack to change the default sound on a clip from TRACK to CLIP. You mention this in the MC-101 hacks video that references this video and the playlist, but never explain how this is done. Please help! Thanks!

[@GabeMillerMusic]

It's the third video in the playlist (the video isn't by me).

[@Planewalker]

@@GabeMillerMusic Is it the one about saving a template project and making it write-only? Do you just set up a new project, make 4 tracks and set them up with the sound per clip, then get it to auto-load that each time you start a new thing?

[@giwake]

I'm having a weird issue where my samples are way too quiet. Is there a way to fix this?

[@mattmatt8355]

you have to do this: 1. hold SHIFT + SOUND 2. turn Value knob until you see SAMPLE EDIT, press Enter 3. turn Value knob, there you can find Gain parameter (+6dB, +12dB)

[@jonathansessa7979]

You've JUST about sold me on the 101, but can you record a sample directly into it or no?

[@GabeMillerMusic]

You can't sample directly into it, there's no audio in. You'd have to connect something via the USB port, which is almost certainly more trouble than it's worth.

[@jonathansessa7979]

​@@GabeMillerMusic Got it, still will probably be getting one, appreciate it!

[@cheapnoise9014]

Can you sample directly into it?

[@GeorgeL909]

Unfortunately not yet. You can sample into a loop track via usb, but that's super limited and it's more like "recording a brief audio loop" but doesn't sample into something that can be used for a drum or tone wav :/ that would be really nice though. The 707 does have that feature. Hopefully they add that in one day.

[@cheapnoise9014]

@@GeorgeL909 Thanks! I was looking for a sampling keyboard or box to replace my crapy Sk1. Let me tell you, there aren't a lot out there and the fact that I'm blind makes things harder.

[@GeorgeL909]

@@cheapnoise9014 I feel you, it's super difficult finding something affordable with hardware. An update made the mc101 class compliant though so if you have an Android or iPhone, you can sample using the amazing Koala sampler (probably the best sampling tool I've ever used) to sample and edit anything then I think you can transfer it over via usb directly onto the mc101 with an adapter. Just make sure the 101 has batteries, cause your phone might not have enough juice to power it on.

[@GeorgeL909]

@@cheapnoise9014 my apologies I completely glossed over the mention of visual impairment, I'm not sure if the app would have accessibility options and the lack of tactile controls might be problematic, so my comment may be of limited value!

[@GeorgeL909]

@@cheapnoise9014 I looked into this a little, because I was very curious, and forums online have mentioned the Korg micro sampler ms1 as a simple to use mostly tactile sampler with a keyboard, similar to the sk1 but possibly better. Alternatively I do think novation is making a sampler version of the circuit called the rhythm. It has no keyboard, and no screen, but it can likely play chromatically on the pads, and the lack of any screen might mean everything is accessible via the knobs promoting a touch and audio based workflow over visual. I know it's not out yet, but it might be great for you when it is released, and best of luck with your search!

[@samanderson806]

707

[@ACABSTUDIOS]

I clicked on this because in the thumbnail, you look like a hot girl with purple hair

[@andrewculley4306]

Best tip for the MC-101 is to buy a MC-707

[@GabeMillerMusic]

Yeah but money. And also portability.

[@GabeMillerMusic]

Yep, the 101 has an SD card.

[@GabeMillerMusic]

It's probably best to think of the 101 as a scaled down, paired down version of the 707. The 707 has more tracks and more ability to do sound design from scratch, and it's overall more powerful. The 101 retains a surprising amount of the 707 features though, and these last couple of firmware updates have made it a really powerful device in its own right, despite its size.

[@MrJanHjohnson]

Actually I’m selling my 707 atm to get a 101.., portability ftw

[@spacetoilet]

Too expensive. Besides the 101 is endless fun for its size and sound AMAZING.