Roland MC707 - Tutorial on Creating Ambient Drone and New Project Shortcuts

Here I go a little into basic drones, knob assignment, sound editing as well as some "quality of life" shortcuts to setting up a new project. Obviously, this isn't a final track, just a demo of what's possible very quickly on the box.

[@toddglacysacredsoundandliv7971]

Very interesting and useful video. Thanks for posting! My only other comment would be that it's really hard to hear your voice over the sound of the unit, and your hand blocks the screen whenever you are editing nearby controls so we can't see what your actually doing.

[@alextweedie2014]

Great work mate, subscribed :)

[@MrMWhitham]

Thanks love this.

[@TheIndieGameDev]

Excellent, subbed!

[@achillemarile8371]

this hand-on seesion was very useful

[@n.l.5274]

Thanx!

[@spenzakwsx4430]

what do you think about the filter and distortions? i am not sure if i should get an mc707 or an analog rytm (the filter and distortion there is amazing)

[@sohatyi]

There's a huge number of filter and distortion combos, you really can create some unique soundscapes.

[@iceblack24]

you can also copy entire channels (or what is the official name?) so first set everything up how you want it, tone track, clip ect for one track. Then copy that to the other 7 tracks. saves you some time.

[@rperaltar]

Have you already tried doing the same with the Tr8s? Thanks!

[@sohatyi]

The TR8S doesn't have the same kind of fine envelope control. I've managed to get some loops and drones to last a bar or two and hide any joins with beats, but you also quickly eat up the sample memory using long samples.

[@GrootsieTheDog]

Yes!!! Lol this is the first vid I seen that talks about deleting that dang automatic drum track. I just set up an initialized program.😀Great vid mate (as you say in old England) - You can also real time record a drone and stop recording BEFORE you release keys - that way it does not send msg off - no break in the drone👍🏽 Also, Question: is there anyway to get notes that sustain to not cut off in chain mode? Especially when it’s the same track and same tone? Kind of a bummer - the potential to make endlessly drifting ambient melodies with the 707 would be even more powerful. Using clip chain to make different instances of the same melody to wonderfully randomized each clip with subtle changes of clip parameters - length, octave, modulation and added empty clips to create space...is set back by jarring note cut-offs. It happens especially in Random mode when a note happens to land close to the end of a clip. Is this a feature of clips and not a bug?

[@sohatyi]

Hmmm, if you want it to sustain, keep it looping on the same clip, or do you mean a different clip with a different note?

[@GrootsieTheDog]

Jeff Watkins I’ve talked to the developers and they are working on it. See, looping on the same clip defeats the purpose of having a clipchain - clipchain allows you to create longer phrases rather extend how many steps per loop. But if it doesn’t behave correctly, it’s kind of useless. Happily, the guys at Roland agree and they are working on the fix - and hopefully creating more steps per clip!

[@LeonTrimble]

@@GrootsieTheDog how's that looking these days?

[@GrootsieTheDog]

@@LeonTrimble yes they fixed it! Makes all the difference in the world. I still hope in the next update they'll add more random functionality but overall I think it's a way underrated piece of gear it's very powerful both in the sequencer area and in the sound design capabilities.

[@spenzakwsx4430]

ah. yeah. here we go.. solved the question from before

[@spenzakwsx4430]

It would be still great if it were possible to create drones with the internal synth

[@johnhorrobin8560]

your voice is inaudible with the two drones together

[@Noise-Conductor]

Nice video but i could barely hear you.

[@sohatyi]

Yeah, I need a lavolier mic