Worried about MV8800

Well, from my experience, I can help.

I have owned the SP-808 (paid £949), SP-808EX (paid £1049), MC-808 (paid £799) and now own a MV-8800 (paid £1,499)!

With regard to the SP-808 buffer issue, I never had this problem on either 808 unless I had a lot of sample edits that were close together and in rapid succession (like 16th or 32nd note pad repeats) and was always able to bounce three tacks onto one without any issues.

The idea behind the MC-808 really went wrong. Roland tried to cut corners and rather than making an MC-909EX, made the 808 and decided that most of the features would then only be available via hooking it up to a computer. This was a big let down for many, as they still wanted the stand alone features of the 909. I got tired of the 808, as there were almost 25 stages to get a sample in there and playing it back correctly. Way too slow and a creativity killer.

As for the MV-8800, rest assured, there are no cut corners, no missing features (apart from the fact that the originals floppy disc drive has been removed), no "it said I'd be able to do this and I can't" issues, in short, nothing. I am totally happy with mine and if you live in the UK, I wouldn't hang around too much on trying to get one as Roland UK have no stock and are completely sold out until November (and all of that shipment is pre-ordered), so, if you can't find a store that has one in stock, you'd be looking at getting hold of one sometime in February 2008 when the next batch arrives. I only know this because I had it officially from two of my friends at Roland when I was trying to get hold of one.

SekondThought
"Computers are cool, but hardware rules".

ok, thanks for the thoughts.

My old sp808 before I re bought this one, i could bounce more tracks..I wonder whether it is the zip drive, or maybe just the zip disc i am using at the moment?
Never the less they lied about the '8 track recording' and the seq was never that reliable on long passages of audio even if it was one continuous sample.
I'll see if digital village has got any, but I reckon I will be waiting till Feb then.
I'm in no hurry to rush into anything, and by then even more mv8800 would of been tested.

Bang da box!

Hooker, I dont know how did you get that "bad Roland reputation". MC-808 is fine machine. You need to understand it like a budget machine, not like a "perfect machine". Dont forget you can get 808 for a price even less that second-hand 909 !!!

Simply there are always some problems and issues on each product. On the 808, there are some thing that pisses me off, but there are other good things as well and there is much more pros than cons. The problem is people always expect from a machine everything and even more, and they are disappointed than. Also the producer such a Roland enforce them to buy it and don't communicate bad things. But if you think 8080 is the perfect one, just go ahead and you will get disappointed too. Same with Akai MPCs, Fantoms, Motifs, Fusions etc.

All you need is to get familiar with instrument, try to bypass wrong things and try to get most of the machine, as much as possible. The results will come to you.

I don't have an mc-808 ?

I just said from the posts it looks like roland says there instruments can do certain things when they can't.

Yes I understand you have to get used to the little things that are not always perfect on a an instrument, what intrument isn't left with a fe bugs here and there.

But the problems that the mc808 seems to have would stop you from stringing a half decent tune together in song mode.

Roland lied about the 'SP' 808 when they said it had 8 tracks in there adverts. But there was noway of panning left and right for mono tracks, so you could only ever use 4.

Look the evidence is all there on their product page, bad updates..only when they need to shift something, lots of short term gain no support long term products.

I have now decided not to get the MV8800 as I don't trust thier O.S support. They make wonderful sturdy nice sounding products, bit if you do get an O.S prob, your on your own.

I'm staying with my software setup, where if something does go wrong, it is much cheaper and you have more hope of getting it sorted if you choose your software well.

In short 'screw Roland'

as for

'All you need is to get familiar with instrument, try to bypass wrong things and try to get most of the machine, as much as possible. The results will come to you.'

Your 100% right, I have done this with alot of my others, just not with rolands grooveboxes, too many wrong things to 'bypass'.

I kept my SP808, not because it was usefull in any other respect other than a good fx bank. As far as any of the other things that were fundermental to it, it was very backward. Hell you couldn't even name a sample :eyesroll: and for 1998 that wasn't even near ok.

Bang da box!

Lets get a few things cleared up here shall we?

First of all, Roland did NOT lie when they said that the SP-808 has eight tracks, it does, they are just linked together as four stereo pairs, if they weren't, each sample would been recorded to the track section in mono, not stereo. They were just stating a fact and it seems that you didn't like the way they did that, well fair enough, that's your choice.

You then go on to say that the product updates are "bad" with "no long term support"! I really don't agree. Let's look at the update history for the previous MV, the MV-8000 as an instance:

Roland start shipping the MV-8000, December 10th 2003
Roland updates MV-8000 to V2 & MV8-VGA expansion, July 23rd 2004
Roland updates MV-8000 to V3 software, January 10th 2005
Roland posts free TR-808 sounds, November 2nd 2005
Roland updates MV-8000 to V3.5 software, December 21st 2005
Roland offers more vintage TR sounds, April 13th 2006
Roland posts free CR-78 sounds, November 22nd 2006

If I were to list in detail all the things they added over the original spec, it would be pretty amazing, as no charge was ever made for any update. Next to a company like Akai - who once released a so called bug fix for the MPC-2500 and stopped 40% of them from even being able to power up - I would say that Roland were actually pretty good! Same with the Fantom too, a long list of updates. Your comment may have been true of Roland in the past (back in the 90's), but is really not true of Roland now.

You say that you've now decided not to get an MV-8800, well after looking at (and replying to) several of your other posts on the subject of the MV, I have to say that IMHO, you're starting to sound like someone who's had a bad experience with Roland and has an axe to grind (hence the "screw Roland" comment you made). I've been buying hi-tech music equipment for 20 years now and can honestly say that NOTHING is perfect, no matter which company makes it or how much it costs, but if you let a bad past experience prejudice you against a company for life, you just might be missing out on some great products that you could make great music with, which would be your loss.

SekondThought
"Computers are cool, but hardware rules".

That's the way how Roland lies: does not lies directly, but thry tell you facts that way it creates an false impression. We spoke about it in other place many times. Roland is a great master in marketing lies.

You need just to be aware of Roland's tricks and cosider carefully. Aside of that: 808, 909, Fantom is great instruments.

And the award for the company that uses no marketing tricks goes to...

...erm, no one because just about every company in the world is guilty of it.

My advice to anyone would be - do your homework, check the product out in great detail BEFORE you buy it, if it's right for you, then buy it and use it to make great music with rather than buy something that isn't right for you and waste your life on the forums ranting and complaining about it - life's too short!

SekondThought
"Computers are cool, but hardware rules".

Ok, so it is obvious to some degree that I haven't been happy with Roland, I must of just been lucky with Korg as there products have pritty much done what they have said on the tin.

As from what I read about the MV updates, they needed to be done , the product wasn't ready in the first place.

As for tr808 etc samples...come on I'm starting to think you are working for Roland .

When you look at the updates Novation do, and for the virus..they're not fixes, there extras.

Ok, the VGA but thats £300! Having as standered on the new model is a welcome move though.

I get you with the 8 outputs, technically yes, marketing yes.....pointless though as it has put me off buying more products.

I like honesty and some company's do do that, I'm thinking Novation.

Like you say it comes down to customer experience, people carry on buying Roland and you see their gear in all sort of profesh situations so it gets you an end product.

I could 'do my homework' but that means travelling to a store that will let me do my homework and use it for more that 30mins or something. As for ranting and waisting my life on a forum, please I have as much right to rant as you seem to have to defend Roland.

I'm just not willing to pay a lot of money with a company thats let me down and take pot luck in hope that it is one of their 'good products, even if that means missing out. I guess if I had more money it wouldn't be such a problem.

It will be interesting to see how the MV works out and how much of a classic it may become.


Bang da box!

Yes, there were updates that needed to be done to the original MV, as upon release, it was not ready, but they still added more to it at a later date than it was able to do in the first place, so my point is still valid.

I can also say (having owned many Novation and Access products), that there have been some major bug fixes in there too, not just product updates - I had serious issues with my Virus TI Polar and had to wait for a bug fix as well as issues with a Novation KS4 - you seem to be quite ill informed, I wonder where you are getting your information from. Have you owned these products or are you just guessing how they perform?

As for your travel time to a store to do your homework, well if 30mins (or so) is all you have to travel, you're lucky, as I have to take a train and travel for over an hour just to get to my nearest store. I am happy to say that they are great and let me spend as much time as I need to find out what I want to know about a specific product. You should try and find a more friendly store.

Oh, and yes you do have as much right to rant as I do to defend, but it's not that I am defending Roland here as such, it's that you seem to be damning the MV-8800 as a product unfairly due to your past experience with Roland as a whole. If Roland were in the wrong here, I would not be defending them, but arguing about how they promoted the SP808 and 808EX some years ago won't really solve your issue with the MV.

Anyway, due to having an album to finish, I really have no more time to continue to reply to this topic any further. Whatever you eventually end up deciding upon, I hope you find something that's fills your needs by 110%. Good luck!

SekondThought
"Computers are cool, but hardware rules".

Hey Sek,

I have a MC909. I've been thinking of upgrading to the MV8000, because all gripes aside, Roland makes the best user interfaces in my opinion.

Should I sell the 909, or keep it to use in tandem w/ the MV? I 90% love the MC909 for coming up with ideas, but to really obtain professional results I have to use it in tandem with my software DAW. Sometimes I'd like to be able to throw stuff together that can be mixed right off the board without the computer, the MV8000 seems to do this. I know I'd be using alot of nice performance features like D-beam, but a few things I'm wondering about MV if you can answer:

Are the 16 channels of EQ parametric, and do they lag the processer when using them?

I know it only has one MFX...would I be losing just one effects block, or are there effects in the 909 that aren't in the MV's effects list? Also, are controllers more assignable in the effects section than just the C1/C2 parameters of the 909's effects?

Is the AD converter better? I don't know if the MC909 does some sort of weird summing, or if the AD just isn't too good, but it sucks a bit out of samples, especially when sampling via the analog inputs.

Does the MV have the sustain quirk that the 909 (and apparently MC808) have?

Is the sample file, and file management management in general, better than the MC909?

Just wondering what your thoughts were as a previous MC owner. I too would like an MC909EX, but I'm not holding my breath on that one!

IHM

Keep it , it works great as a sound module along side the MV , plus you can add an SRX card to it for more sounds. It reminds me of the sounds in a 5080.

Thanks Mike, I might just do that. I understand some of the SRX patches can't work on the MC909 due to its design....but I usually create my own patches anyways, the drum SRX sounds really great and is the most attractive to me as I really would like to convert my MC909 to the centerpiece of an electronic drum kit.

Thanks for all your help, I really do appreciate your efforts, all product gripes aside. Roland needs a couple more people like you around.