Roland MC 505 Step Sequencing Tutorial

[@ItsTheBishop206]

yooo glad to see youre still doing these! i learn a lot from em

[@LousyFacelift]

Thank you!😊 There is still a lot to say about the MC-505.

[@muchomuchomaas]

Thank you for these videos! Such a great machine

[@LousyFacelift]

Thanks for watching!😊👍

[@spindlenine]

Really enjoyed this, please keep the 505 videos coming!

[@LousyFacelift]

Thanks for the nice words!

[@jumpstar9000]

My 505 arrived today. Lol, I had forgotten how crazy the thing is. I'm really glad you made these videos because I remember how long I had to stare at the manual when I got it in 1998, and I still didn't know as much as you do. Great stuff!

[@LousyFacelift]

I know exactly what you mean. I had to learn so much from other gear first and whenever I did I remembered feeling completely clueless trying to make use of the same stuff in the MC-505. It made me so curious to find out if I could make some sense of it now and yes, now it all seems to make sense. I'm glad I gave it another try.

[@jumpstar9000]

@@LousyFacelift i know right! I have this theory that the MC-505 was once a piece of "test equipment" that Roland used internally to test all the capabilities of the engine, and someone at Roland said why don't we put it in a box and sell it! Well it's a nice funny story even if it isn't true haha, they definitely threw the kitchen sink in that things :-)

[@LousyFacelift]

@@jumpstar9000 Hahaha... yes, there is so much in there! And the workflow isn't too bad for its complexity. Wish you lots of fun with it!

[@jumpstar9000]

@@LousyFacelift did you get that small freestyle jam I did yesterday? KZbin kept deleting my comment. :/

[@LousyFacelift]

@@jumpstar9000 What do you mean, did you try to send me a link?

[@stereodelay6601]

Thanks for creating more videos!

[@LousyFacelift]

Thanks for watching them!😊

[@MrHeadloc]

Thanks for another great vid. I've been getting into this machine again recently after a break of about 20 years. Your videos have helped get me back up to speed. I have encountered a strange issue though that i was hoping to ask you about. It relates to the timing between parts becoming very slightly unstable when introducing/unmuting a part containing pitch bend information. At least I think that might be the cause. Really not sure. If i play the part on it's own, (just accompanied by the beat) it holds time perfectly, if i bring in another part containing a 16th note arpeggio separately it also holds time to the beat perfectly. When I try playing both parts together with the beat I start to notice a timing 'wobble'. Have you ever experienced something like this with the 505? Any idea how to resolve it within the machine?

[@LousyFacelift]

That sounds interesting, so far I haven't come across this but definitely going to keep an ear open for it now... I noticed something similar though, when using the realtime transpose function. It seems to cause a very short pause before the altered parts start playing. Thanks for the comment!

[@andrewverran3498]

for sure thats why i bought the mc505 last week ,as i used to have one, i might do a Mc909 mc505 and my Fantom XA comparison video soon as they are all similar. peace from oz

[@RodrigoGE]

very nice work mate!!! thank you for your videos

[@LousyFacelift]

My pleasure, thanks for commenting!

[@RodrigoGE]

you Know, Im from Chile, and I have the MC 505 for a few years until now. but even though I have all de manuals its been very difficult to me to get to understand it... I really appreciate your effort and good will, it has helped me a lot

[@LousyFacelift]

@@RodrigoGE I know exactly what you mean, it's a great machine with incredible depth to it but its workflow is not intuitive and a trial and error approach can become extremely frustrating. I sold my first device soon after pixels in the display started dropping out before I got my head around most of its functionality. But that felt like giving up on a great machine and whenever I learned new things on other gear like the Korg EMX, I always wanted to bring this knowledge back to the MC-505 because I remembered it could also do all of these things. So I bought it again feeling a lot more confident, rediscovering so many things and bringing back lots of memories, I just had to make these videos. I'm always open for questions on this machine, just let me know if there is something I can help you with and I'll try as good as I can. Have fun with your MC-505 and thanks again for the nice comment!

[@vova_le_shch]

Thank you, man! so helpful info!

[@LousyFacelift]

Thanks for watching!

[@andrewverran3498]

hi , how come the display and tone select buttons look green? is that just from the camera? have you had a play with a MC909 yet? great drum and bass btw...dope. peace from oz

[@LousyFacelift]

Thank you! They don't look green in real life, must be the camera. I don't use my MC-909 as much as the 505 for some reason. I don't like the pads and the overall sound is very clean. It sounds good though and I probably should spend more time with it.

[@andrewverran3498]

Can the LFO rate be synced to a midi clock ? Cheers.

[@LousyFacelift]

Oh, sorry I had to edit this answer because I thought you were commenting on one of my MC-303 videos! So, yes the LFO rates can be tempo synced in the 505.

[@thezooportugalbanda]

amazing tutorials ! regards from Portugal. Its Possible in R mixing the Kits ?exemple use the Kick from TR808 with the Snare fromTR909 ? And its possible at back of the MC 505 Send the Kick for one Output and the snare for other output, because if i want put reverb in the snare , the Kick receive the same effect ? its its possible send for diferent outputs we can put difrent effects with outboard gear, in Snare and in Kick.Can you make a Video Tutorial ?

[@LousyFacelift]

Yes, the MC-505 has different effects on board, a reverb, a delay and a multi effects unit that are shared by its eight instrument parts and it has two sets of individual stereo outs for external processing. The instruments in the rhythm part can all be routed to the internal effects or to the individual outs independantly. I made a tutorial specifically for the effects section of the MC-505. Here it is: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ooPSeKd6oM5pa5o

[@thezooportugalbanda]

@@LousyFacelift please make a video about it will help a lot of people , me and other People because MC505 Its very confused !

[@thezooportugalbanda]

@@LousyFacelift now i see the Video talk about effects ! thanks !

[@LousyFacelift]

@@thezooportugalbanda Oh and here is the one about writing your own drum kits - kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y5fbgGqcrMuSiq8

[@doakinator]

Do I need a SIM card to make my own pattern? Manual says there’s a blank pattern before the presets on the dial but there is nothing before present 1

[@LousyFacelift]

You don't need a memory card. When you have preset pattern P:001selected and turn the value dial to the left here should be a "Temporary" pattern which acts like a buffer pattern for anything you create before using the WRITE command to save it as a user pattern.

[@hotchameanshotcha]

You have the problem of many amateur teachers, we know this from guys who explain computers: you Start an action and imstead of going through til the end you deviate into lots of explaining of parameters or ways you could also chose, which is the worst imaginable. Stick to one thing til complete, then go back and add the "you could also" blablabla. Because you make useful tutorials and by sticking to a story you can make a video with less failures

[@LousyFacelift]

@@hotchameanshotcha No, I don't "have a problem" but I appreciate your honest opinion and won't argue what you say. English is not my mother tongue, it's german. I never write any scripts and don't even have a single cut in my videos, not one. I just try to share my experience and knowledge with these machines in a more or less spontaneous way, for fun, whenever I feel like it. But I know what I'm talking about and get a lot of positive feedback. If someone has a problem because I didn't explain well enough I react to specific questions and help as good as I can, as you can see in the comments. I'm glad you find my tutorials useful and apologize for all the failures. Is there a specific problem I can help you with regarding the functionality of the MC-505?

[@qrdnk]

Cool!

[@LousyFacelift]

Thank you!😊

[@qrdnk]

@@LousyFacelift Geit kloar!

[@bram9498]

Roland mv8800 you can set custom ppq

[@LousyFacelift]

The MV-8800 has a higher resolution sequencer and allows you to adjust quantize via a percentage value but the overall concept is quite similar in the MC-505 with these three different categories of grid, shuffle and groove templates.

[@lawramono4860]

Agree a lot of new drum machines/groove boxes are less functional than the old ones.

[@LousyFacelift]

Yes, we want combinable scales back! 🤓👍

[@andrewverran3498]

Jesus Christ the different Quantize and PPQ values are hard to understand and remember, especially if you are not musically trained...I think I need to make a quantise and PPQ type chart. ? I reckon I have watched this over 15 times, it's slowly sinking in. ✌️

[@LousyFacelift]

Hi Andrew! Yes, it's a bit complicated but it helps if you keep in mind that the "q" in "ppq" is for quarternote and that one 16th note in the most commonly used scale has a value of 24. Having a resolution of 96 is quite ingenius in a way because this number is devisible by 2 and 3 and offers small enough values for extremely short notes in all the different scales.

[@andrewverran3498]

@LousyFacelift cheers, but the fastest step programming available , like in your first couple of measures sounds unreal... It's a brilliant machine, shame about the sound of the Resonance when pushed past 12 o'clock. Thanks for the reply mate.

[@SPAZZOID100]

Too complicated.

[@RodrigoLaffertt]

It starts At 19:08 and finish at 19:40

[@LousyFacelift]

You have absolutely no clue what this video is about, do you?

[@sr7bbird]

if all that information was was really necessary to operate this machine than I just wont buy one. (I dont think it really was ).

[@LousyFacelift]

Most of the comments I get are people thanking me for the info I provide. Without an MC-505 you don't even have a clue what I'm talking about. But yes, there is something truly unnecessary about this video and that's your comment.