MC-707 Tutorial: Side-chain Compression Effect

In this quick tutorial, I show you how I achieve the Side-chain effect found in many EDM songs... that pumping bassline... on the Roland MC-707 Groovebox. Using a new feature called "Motion Designer", you can smooth out the automation of parameters across the steps. Side-chain compression isn't a feature on the MC-707, yet, but you can use the Motion Designer to simulate the effect. Here's how...
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Mahalo!

[@lephisto]

I just got my mc707, being totally dragged into and your tutorials are my goto place to look when i want to expand my spectrum. thank you so much.

[@InRoB-Music]

Thanks for this simple trick, it take my work a whole level higher. I really enjoy your vids from this such new gear to me, please keep going.. 👊🏻

[@UnitE808]

Glad you are finding them helpful! No plans on stopping yet!

[@testbildmuc]

another way to do this (if you do not want to use the filter/don't want to affect the sound) is to add an amp (volume) lfo in the top row of the sound designer, that's what I use for a similar effect.

[@UnitE808]

That's the way I was doing it before. Works great!

[@rinse4208]

Is there a tutorial on that. Kinda know how what u mean but gotta see it

[@UnitE808]

@@rinse4208 I can make one for that. All the lfo is doing is ducking the volume momentarily.

[@YouTubeSupportTeams]

that's the way it's supposed to be done.

[@not-god]

That LFO doesn't always start in sync to the sequence, at least in my experience. The motion is always locked to the step. But you lose a knob for level.

[@mikepatternbeats]

Was looking exactly for this! Thank you so much for this great tutorial!

[@davepaulsaunders]

This is what held be back from buying it! Think I might buy it. Can't believe they didn't actually say where it was or a work around! Even Akai Pro Force has Mother Ducker! Great work - Dave from Adelaide, South Australia. Looking forward to syncing it to the Deluge as that has a dedicated chain as well for an analogue / digital hybrid groove box.

[@gibson2623]

Very nice!

[@31337techno]

somebody finally did it :)

[@UnitE808]

Yay! Love your videos, by the way! Very inspiring.

[@31337techno]

@@UnitE808 I learn from your videos as well, handy to look up to find a shortcut for something... Like on this video, I didn't knew how to invoke motion designer menu... I did it twice before just by mistake... too lazy for instruction, now I know that I can type 707 sidechain and I will have your video reminding on the way of triggering it. Keep up the good work!

[@Arperture]

Now to figure out how to do this with external audio coming into a track. I think I could set up a filter as the MFX and then automate the cutoff that way...

[@80iesDude45]

The Novation Circuit comes with a really nice Sidechain function which I miss on my MC-101, where I change the velocity on every Bassdrum step to minimum value to get this pumping Sidechain FX. Works fine too ;-)

[@user-lr9cp2dv2s]

Hello, thanks for the 707 videos, which greatly expand the level of playing this instrument. Do you know how to copy/paste the value of a step, and is it possible to shift all steps in a track sequence to the left and right? I did not find any information about this in the official instructions.

[@UnitE808]

Hi! Thank you for the kind words. Check out the update addendum on Roland website. It has the instructions on NOTE SHIFT. This is what you're looking for. Press Shift+the first step to shift. Then press func. Then choose note shift. Use the dial to select the number of steps you want to shift.

[@jimgravesus]

Cool. Will be fun to experiment with.

[@masnejkluk]

finaly !! thx man

[@PierGen]

Thank you, i learn something. good work

[@holeyfoley1496]

Is this working if I have a trs8 were my Kick is playing and my Bass with sidechain at my mc707?

[@YouTubeSupportTeams]

it doesn't sound like sidechain at all though, especially as you used filter and not velocity for the effect. It now sounds like you just used a preset which has lfo on the filter with a time of 1/4. I wouldn't use squarewave either. The other waveforms give a much better smoother more realistic effect

[@UnitE808]

Velocity is not an option for the motion knobs. Filter or level will get you the closest. I agree that a sine waveform would be smoother. This was just my version of a workaround for not having sidechain compression built in. Better options are coming.

[@YouTubeSupportTeams]

@@UnitE808 yes sorry i meant Level, not velocity but you understand my point. I look forward to more videos, yours are polished and well done, keep at it

[@JoeNebula]

Honestly UnitE how can I buy you a beer. No joke 😎

[@UnitE808]

@@JoeNebula you can hit up my patreon. It’s in the channel description. I’ll be giving some extra goodies over there soon.

[@JoeNebula]

@@UnitE808 Thanks but I cant send you anything on there. Only join :(

[@Mabelrode77]

Big Thanks 👍🎹🎼

[@michaelbrazelton83]

Thanks for these videos!

[@UnitE808]

Thanks for watching! More on the way!

[@hiparik1]

Maybe you make a short video about how to build a full song(Techno) ? It would be great.

[@cyberinstinction]

OMG it is so cool... Thank you so much

[@heavysystemsinc.]

Another way to get sidechain with kick and bass is to have them share the same dedicated compressor and turn the kick WAYYY up and the bass WAYYYY down and the the compression gain WAYYYY up. Adjust attack/release times to taste. Then you don't have to sequence anything at all.

[@UnitE808]

How would you put 2 different tracks on the same compressor without it being the master compressor?

[@heavysystemsinc.]

@@UnitE808 Resample your bassline clip into a sample, bring it into a drum compression instrument. Usually you're only ducking kick to bass, so with one kick pad and 15 bassline clips, you should be good to go. It's just a matter of 'baking' your bassline so at that point it's not editable. Alternatively, you could create 15 bass note hits and play it out as well. There's multiple ways to go about it. :)

[@heavysystemsinc.]

@@UnitE808 Also, there's something you could do that's a 'manual side chain'. Set up a knob on the bass instrument to Envelope Attack and sequence the motion so that when a kick is there at the same time as a bass hit, turn up the attack then turn it back down for other hits. It's time consuming to do and you have to use parallel clips (i.e. if your drum pattern changes, then your 'ducking' motion sequences aren't going to line up anymore), but it's also an option since ducking in a compressor is just 'auto volume adjust of another sound based on this other sound'.

[@UnitE808]

@@heavysystemsinc. both great ideas. The second one seems about as tedious as the method in the video . lol 😆

[@iamkeebz]

In the motion designer knob selection area, since the update... they added the C4 knob which I understand and then another page of blank knobs that I can't seem to access, and on the final page a pitch bend knob. I can't seem to find any documentation of what to do with the blank knob page anywhere. Any suggestions? I'm trying to wrap my head around how to assign a group of tracks to the send and return effects loop and thought that might be it, but so far I can't find any way to do this and be able to get a controllable S/R that will get 100% wet signal at max. I can the master delay/reverb and just route through that, but that won't get me the full wet signal like if I assign a single track.

[@davidnieves5440]

Thanks so much!!!

[@yingtong101]

Does this also work with an external synth in one of the 707 channels?

[@UnitE808]

Yes

[@hiparik1]

Oh yeah! U R Guru! It's fu**ing working! Tnx.

[@meldmagic]

🤠 Reversed bass sounds better than side-chained bass, imo.

[@dmallegro613]

Thanks a lot for this manual :-)

[@A_wolfcalledCherry]

Genius

[@BigFknRobots]

I don't understand why people make these tools for "live dance music" and don't have volume ducking as a sensible and easy to use feature. Awesome you found a work around, but disappointing it required it!

[@UnitE808]

There is another way by using the gate fx and setting it to duck instead

[@Lucasicosa]

Or dial the ducks in as motion everytime the kick hits. That way you can have different kick patterns :) 🦆

[@sarahhey8654]

🐦

[@AppAxis]

How many motion designer patterns can be applied to a single track? #Tremolo #Sidechain #MC101 #MC707 #Dawless

[@UnitE808]

You can do one for each of the knobs

[@jdikoder]

So, it means that this machine does not have the option to side chain input audio? Tx

[@testbildmuc]

no it currently doesn't. there are external audio inputs but the compressor does not have a sidechain function atm, but they could do it in a future update im sure

[@YouTubeSupportTeams]

@@testbildmuc it's ridiculous that it's not on a machine in 2020. The comp and limiter don't even have a gain reduction meter..not asking for much here.

[@soundscaperecordings1111]

thanks for the tip but I tried it and it made my hi hats very muffled any ideas?

[@UnitE808]

Try using level instead of filter. Assign level to one of the knobs and follow as above.

[@soundscaperecordings1111]

@@UnitE808 ok thanks man :)

[@SMARTIALARTS]

what if I don't want it on the second kick for example?

[@UnitE808]

Then it won't work like this. I am just offering a workaround for a sidechain bassline on a 4/4 beat. You might want to look at the step lfo.

[@SMARTIALARTS]

@@UnitE808 thank you

[@UnitE808]

@@SMARTIALARTS might want to get the new 1.30 update and try out the step lfo editor. That might achieve the results you're looking for.

[@yqsl7726]

Is there any another way for side chane? I need these filter for live performance.

[@ACABSTUDIOS]

wow 1,000 dollars and no native sidechain?

[@UnitE808]

That's one way to look at it. Another way to look at it is "what am I capable of with this machine?"

[@DeepStateKilla]

@@UnitE808 another way to look at it is... Why does Roland insist on limiting possibility instead of expanding it? When it comes to ui, the veteran roland needs to look at chinese newcomer asm for how to build quality ui

[@randomaccess8540]

@@DeepStateKilla MC-707 certainly isn't lacking in terms of depth and features.. Yes, it's missing native sidechain but what is there is pretty great for the price.

[@DeepStateKilla]

@@randomaccess8540 i completely disagree. Who releases knobs with nrpn resolution but linked to ccs🤣? Designers are laughable. Add yes i own one.

[@DeepStateKilla]

This isn't a side chain compression tutorial. That's not work around either.

[@UnitE808]

What is it then? I was asked by users to find a workaround. Did you actually read the description? But, I thank you for the constructive criticism and brining more activity to this video. It helps get it out there more.

[@DeepStateKilla]

@@UnitE808 "SC comp emulation". We both know a side chain is signal based and this isn't that. I appreciate what youre doing, but i think the title bit deceptive

[@UnitE808]

@@DeepStateKilla not sure why you're nit-picking. It's helped users to get the sound they want. Your time might be spent more wisely making music and not picking apart KZbin videos. If this doesn't work for you, move on. Simple. Roland listens to their users, so i expect a true sidechain is coming. There is a focus group with the engineers and some users today to discuss what we want to see for the future of this machine.

[@alexwest909]

this video and technique are a bit of a scam. this literally only works because the bass, bass drum and lfo are all 100% syncopated. The moment you make an actual baseline of any complexity whatsoever, this technic does not work.

[@UnitE808]

No scam. This was made in response to users wanting a basic workaround to sidechaining a bassline to a basic 4/4 kick sequence. The bassline isn't the part that dictates the ducking, the kick does. So, no matter how complex the bassline is, it needs to duck only when the kick happens. This method I show isn't possible with broken beat style of kick sequences. You would need to be more specific in the motion designer using the motion drawing page to specify which steps need the ducking. If it doesn't work for you that is fine. Calling it a scam is incorrect and unnecessary.

[@flrn84791]

Scam: a fraudulent business scheme. Not sure how that applies to anything in this video, he's not selling anything to you, is he?