Roland MC-101 Beginner Tutorials: 3) Drum programming

Lesson 3 of my beginner MC-101 series, where we go through the whole machine assuming no prior musical knowledge. This lesson is all about programming drums and the many options available for your musical creation needs.
Once again I’m blown away by the support from the community and I’m thrilled to be able to help people, thanks so much for checking it out. As always ask any questions you have and I’ll work on answering them in the comments or in a future video.
I followed this tutorial to update my firmware each time and it should work to update straight from whatever firmware you’re currently running to version 1.5 (most recent)
• Video
I made a playlist for the MC-101 videos, so feel free to check them out there, I’m going to try to get on a faster upload schedule (still have a lot of videos I want to make!)
• MC-101 Tutorials
Table of Contents:
00:00 Intro
01:50 Re-Define Tracks
02:40 Drum vs. Drum + Comp
04:45 Drum Kit Considerations
09:30 Kit Demos/Types
13:00 Change Pad Sounds
14:45 Drum Pad Settings
24:00 Reverb and Delay
28:20 Advanced Step Sequencer
35:45 Mutes
40:15 Drum Roll
47:00 Outro

[@PortervilleMusicSociety]

I have watched this video so many times just for the Reverb and Delay how to get to the screens and change drum kit. Ben Coe, I have to thank you still after almost two years for explaining things simply and clearly for people like us to try to learn. Thank you so so much.

[@H-Zazoo]

Very good explainer. Particularly like the way you don't assume people already know things, which is a mistake a lot of tutorials make. Please keep them coming, my MC101 arrives in the mail today....

[@fensterputzernuernberg]

Ben is an excellent teacher ! one of the best i have found on youtube

[@Eskodisk]

Just rediscovered my 101. Congrats on the excellent videos. They are really a great help, for sure, if you do not use the 101 every week ;)

[@ludekkolenaty2209]

Great tutorial Ben, you've been of such a help. Thank you.

[@jaycorrao6648]

This is a great video series. It’s hands-down, the best video series showing from start to finish all of the options available on the MC-101. Kudos to you, sir!

[@sierracharlie264]

@34:35 A flam is a drum rudiment where it plays a leading softer note followed by a thicker fuller main note. I.e hitting the drum with two sticks one higher than the other so the main hit is slightly delayed and louder (or the preceding hit is lighter, softer and earlier). A flam is not the same note played 5 times.....just so ya know! 🙂 Great video though mate - I learned a lot about the menus and stuff. Thanks.

[@jaspermolenaar1218]

Thanks for finding out all those options, that’s very instructive!

[@KitCatStudio]

3:00 wow this is the best description of a compressor I have ever heard! done in one sentence :) great vids, keep it up and tnx!

[@gabrielemariotti5780]

btw, how is that I can only select Drums+Comp for only one track and not all for?

[@JohnMark61355]

Very helpful and professional video. Thank you.

[@tonyjones6256]

I'd not seen the mute group before, very useful!

[@ulfbro3973]

You are an excellent teacher. I hope you keep up with this. Thanks a lot!

[@sugarmountainsounds3597]

Yeah, thanks for these videos. They are so useful!

[@pathayes4772]

Thank you so much for these tutorials! Absolutely invaluable to a newbie like me. Keep up the good work, it's very much appreciated. 🎹😊

[@franciscoramoncleriguesrov7187]

Estoy siguiendo tu trabajo o revisión con el traductor de voz ( leyendo lo q dices ) y funciona muy bien, si hablas así de claro y bien como lo haces 👍👏, puedo seguir tus trabajos , y puedes llegar a más gente. Así que gracias por compartir experiencia y tu tiempo. Desde España, vlc gracias 🙏

[@ASDPOWER]

Great vids you just taught me how to use this amazing tool !!!! awesome!!!!!

[@crushdesign]

3 great videos (so far!)

[@rockgodd62]

Again another excellent video along with the others . First and foremost I’m a guitarist that has just recently started playing keyboards . So I wanted a drum machine to play along with , but found all the other YT videos on the other Roland drum machines way too involved for a beginner . But as your initial video states , this is for complete beginners ( which is me ) and thanks to your videos I’ve just ordered a MC 101 . Thank you

[@terraperrosabio2539]

Great videos. Thank you so much.

[@valley_robot]

Mine is coming next week , I will be watching all of these,thanks man

[@ALTARBEATZ]

Nice video again very easy to understand as a newbee Roland groovebox user.. (was Electribe only guy)

[@patricemichel3913]

Encore merci pour ces superbes explications claires et précises. En un mot : bravo ++++++++++10/10++++++++++ 😊

[@Cris01]

Just bought this machine and you are a true hero

[@anacardaable]

these tutorials just get better man... there is so much you can do with the mc101... and yeah once you get used to things its pretty nice i found... I have just been using mine everyday and I find new things nearly everyday.. but yeah your videos have been very useful 👍

[@BenCoeMusic]

Thanks a lot, glad you’re enjoying the mc101 so much, I’m finding new things all the time too!

[@tastydolphinbrain]

Great walkthrough, very useful. Thanks for posting!

[@BenCoeMusic]

Thank you!

[@MikeH_PR]

I can't wait for your tutorial on effects. Just saying 😊

[@MrWDLopez]

Thank you so much for these videos man, you have taught me so much. I did a cover of new order's blue monday on the mc 101 with the help of your knowledge.

[@rootdown]

Make a tutorial please for this

[@kitsuneyoga1276]

Props on the drum roll! 😂 brilliant

[@dvdps85]

Thanks man it was very useful

[@beakbeak1682]

appreciate the videos

[@nilesh100975]

absolutely nice 🤗👍

[@dicenight1512]

Oh, BTW, you are a LEGEND...

[@ShaiUI]

26:00 was battling with this for sooo long, thank you!! I needed to change pad setting Delay Send AND Kit setting Delay Send. and for the delay settings themselves itself gotta hit shift->multi FX. so many secret key combinations.

[@BenCoeMusic]

You're welcome! The more you use it and learn to think like whoever programmed it the more sense it makes!

[@dlinnoedlinnoe]

Thanks a lot! This is very useful, extremely! (Btw, MTE is what it says - mute, not play. 0 - 0%, i.e. no mute, 100 - mute all the time, 35 - mute 35% of cases, play 65%, not vice versa)

[@alchemistrpm82]

You da man Ben Coe

[@FOREVERLY]

Soo I finally have my hands on the MC-101! I can’t seem to update the software. I tried updating it, I moved the file for version 1.50 onto my SD disk. Still nothing.

[@gabrielvalentin3106]

ROLAND if your listening give this man a MC-707!!!!!!!!

[@BenCoeMusic]

Haha that would be awesome! Thanks for the support!

[@Stadsjaap]

@45:32 oooh, now pan one hard left and one hard right!

[@laurentb.2064]

Hello BenCoe ! Thank you very much for your MC-101 tutorials. They are so interesting. Good job ! A general question about parameters values (Level, Cutoff, ...). Is there an easy way to "reset" a parameter value (not all parameters values as you did @32:00 for steps) to it "default value" (the one it gets when the MC-101 is turned on) ? Thank you.

[@BenCoeMusic]

Good question, and thanks for watching! Unfortunately to my knowledge there’s no simple/quick way to do it without going through and adjusting the parameters individually. You can always reload the drum kit I suppose to reset everything to it’s default but individual parameters on individual pads I think you just need to do one at a time.

[@RitonMachelard]

Hi! Thanks for the tutorial! Just have two questions : - if i change pad in a kit, can't get back to the init sound of this pad? - how can i create my own drumkit with wav import? Thanks 😉

[@tylon2999]

Is that the only way to do a roll? On most groove boxes that don't have a dedicated roll button I solo the drum I want to roll on and increase the bpms and velocity while the sequence is playing.

[@beaudjangles]

Thanks. I’m just getting started after coming from a korg electribe sampler. I’m looking for a way to automate hi hat dynamics like at @31:20. The korg had this feature called “groove” that took care of this.

[@BenCoeMusic]

Thanks for watching! I just looked up that feature and it looks pretty neat. As far as I know there’s nothing quite like it on the 101 unfortunately.

[@beaudjangles]

@@BenCoeMusic would it be possible using Motion or does apply to the whole track rather than each pad?

[@dicenight1512]

Hey Ben, I have a 6s, I purchased the 6s for percussion. And the 101 for base and piano melodies. I come from MPC, Hip Hop. I want to use the the 101 for the to create the 808 Glide. With the Piano Melody. Have figured out the 6s, though I really want to master the Glide, how would you create a Drill style Glide?

[@7177YT]

like! more pls!

[@skibaa1]

34:00 it is exactly the other way around: 33% to be muted. You could notice, that most of the time you demonstrated, the note played. At 0 it never mutes, at 99 it mutes almost always

[@BenCoeMusic]

Good catch, I think I got this right in later videos

[@kaydoubleyou6203]

Please do a tutorial on all the features of the new 1:60 update, cheers? :)

[@BenCoeMusic]

Should be coming soon, I was going to do it today and just got distracted playing with the new features haha

[@BenCoeMusic]

Done! kzbin.info/www/bejne/ambKeIhnbNSsr5o

[@r.lamboley1109]

Salut, est-ce que c'est possible d'ajouter un effet par pad sur la partie drum? Exemple : kick+ overdrive Hihats +delay

[@coolstef4767]

Hi, great review, thanks! can the mc-101 drum kits be sequenced with other gear (beatstep pro for instance?)

[@BenCoeMusic]

Thanks! Yeah the drums are sequenceable no problem. You just need to make sure the notes are set up properly, but each pad responds to a note.

[@coolstef4767]

@@BenCoeMusic nice, 👍 thanks.

[@blackflytr]

101 likes. lets groove :P

[@mikamulperi]

Hello! Have you tried entering drum notes via MIDI keyboard? There is more sounds on those kits than the ones on those 16 pads. I am wondering how to acccess them from the interface… if I record drums via MIDI outside of those 16 pads, I cannot edit or remove them

[@BenCoeMusic]

Yeah… those sounds have been known about for a little while and I don’t think anyone really knows why they’re there. It kind of seems like an oversight on Roland’s part. Unfortunately once recorded I don’t believe there’s a way to edit them. I think if you record them by accident you can undo them with the new undo feature if you catch it right away.

[@mikamulperi]

@@BenCoeMusic Yes I agree. I think they are like normal Zencore presets but the interface is designed to use those presets as Drum tracks with different kind of sequencer and editing abilities. But anyway, thanks for answering 🙏 Check out my MC-101 videos if you are interested 👍

[@gooneybird808]

Can you automate parameters by recording knob motion? I might be buying one soon...I have some questions haha

[@BenCoeMusic]

Sort of... knobs will be covered soon, but basically anything you assign to the knobs on a track can be automated in the step sequencer, with the “motion designer” (something like an lfo tool) or by recording the knob motion in while the track is playing (the last two are basically flattened into the step sequencer). Unfortunately, on a drum track most of the knob settings that I go through in this video cannot be assigned to the track knobs. Specifically, none of the individual pad settings can be automated, outside of how I show the velocity here, and that can only be done with the 4 options shown in the advanced sequencer section. Track settings that can be automated and recorded with live motion on the drum track are in the “settings” page instead of the pad pages and include things like track level, reverb/delay send, overall pitch, overall cutoff, etc. I hope that answers your question, if not let me know!

[@gooneybird808]

BenCoe Music my guy!! Thank you so much for taking the time...I sold my digitakt for the one o one and need to learn as much as I can about it so your information is key! I’ve read more manuals than books tbh but they never provoke inspiration like a good video tutorial. Keep it up dog, I may have more Qs for you to A in the future.

[@BenCoeMusic]

@@gooneybird808 I feel you! I read the manuals for the 101, deluge, digitakt, 1010 blackbox, electribe, circuit cover to cover probably 5 times each before I settled on the 101 haha. Feel free to ask any time, I'm glad these videos can be helpful!

[@dicenight1512]

@@BenCoeMusic very simple. 808 Glides... Please Please advise me.

[@gooneybird808]

Also I thought with the newest firmware you could edit the start and end points of your sample?

[@BenCoeMusic]

That’s correct! With user-added samples you can edit start, end, and loop points (though as of yet, you can’t automate any of them). In this video I stuck to built-in drum samples, which cannot be edited that way (I’m not sure why exactly you can’t, but I haven’t found myself needing to do it). The user samples and the looping will be covered in a video soon.

[@averyl6372]

@@BenCoeMusic 👀

[@nicolasbernard7687]

34:45 - correct me if i'm wrong but i think a flam on a drum is a note played with both sticks at almost the same time to make it kind of longer, right ? >>> kzbin.info/www/bejne/a6bNnpmuq9djmLM

[@BenCoeMusic]

Nope you’re right, thanks for pointing that out. Always learning!

[@abelortiz2721]

My BB

[@Drama-Traxx]

I can't get into your videos man.

[@MikeH_PR]

I can't wait for your tutorial on effects. Just saying 😊