This is where you can tell Roland what you want from the next MC707 firmware update

My last post on this topic, hope it gives you laugh...

Roland, I've made a tune using only the MC707. It's a worldwide, global number one hit. It's absolutely fantastic, everyone will love it. All it needs is a bit of sidechain compression to be ready for release. The one off the T8 would be fine. The tune is called 'Buy A Roland MC-707! (New Fantastic Sidechain Compressor Remix - Edit).

If that don't do it, people, nothing will. 😄

There's already a master compressor on the MC707. All it needs is a few more params and a trigger input, make-up gain etc and it becomes the much sought-after Sidechain Compressor. Two new params on each pad/tone/looper, 'Use Master Compressor (Yes/No)' and 'Send to Master Compressor (0-100). That's all the MC707 requires to be our favourite-ever piece of Roland gear.

The biggest thing that would make the 707 so much easier to program would be the addition of a shift 'switch' that changes the function of the 24 knobs to either preprogrammable or user programmable synth controls. Allowing you to use those knobs to edit the ZEN core engine parameters.

There are a couple of performance related improvements that I would like to see.


Momentary buttons for an interrupted flow


-pad mode buttons could be also momentary when pressed longer excellent way to quickly access mute menu without getting out of the process you're in
-pressed notes - and arpeggios! - to persist throughout pad mode menu changing, so once you play a long node and want to mute some track the note doesn't get cut. I think it is some of the flagship electrons had this but I'm not shown out. Likewise, you may be playing around with arpeggios when the machine is stopped. Come up with some great arpeggio, and you may want to restart your clips, or even improvise on different channel, then and some drums in this could all be building up beautifully without you having to think how to preserve happy accidents
-muting a single drum pad with track select button pressed is a killer feature already, however the track select button could be operating as momentary in such a case, so that you wouldn't lose the focus of the track you were on before muting a kick for example.

The pro launchpads and some firmware mods for the non pro make it possible, and it's very useful with no side effects.

There is an extra that would be possible if the above are implemented.
-when in note mode, press several keys to play a chord and without releasing, long press chord pad mode button to learn the chord :)

SCALES
MC 707 already has the bunch of useful scales and the implementation is nice, however it can be further refined with this simple trick.
When in note mode on a tone track, pressing mute and a key could mute this key for every octave for this track (or even maybe for all tracks?)
As a result you have this button inactive and greyed as in drum mode by the way, so you can trim the existing scales to obtain even more scales, at no extra cost. This would prevent you from playing notes that simply don't match the project you're in.

Project scale building potential
You could create a scale of your own from scratch by getting into a scale builder menu and lighting up the notes you like.
Rather than select your key and then scale and then see what comes out which, if you are not a musician familiar with scales by heart, is a trial and error process every single time, you could select the notes that you like and make them into a scale. Rolands affiliated musical theorists may here suggest whether the root note is of any use still in such a case.

Light feedback of the played notes
-just like in drum mode, lighting up the notes that are playing would give you instant idea of what's happening
-in case of arpeggio being on, it will be the input notes that light up, so that you can easily pick it up and maybe add another note or mute by pressing one that is playing on the input.

Recording an arpeggio onto a MIDI clip
-Whether playback is on or off, if you just struck the arpeggio you like, pressing record could lay it down into a new midi clip.
-the length of the clip could be said to maximal, because it's easier to crop if needed, or it could be set to the length that correlates with the number of notes played in the sequence

Octave selection per-track
-if you're improvising on two tracks in different octaves alternately, you end up having to switch octaves back and forth. A simple solution would be for the machine to remember which octave you are in for each track.
-there is a workaround, you can simply select the octave manually I think, but in the creative process you may end up in different octaves than planned and you shouldn't be pushed around as you get creative.

MC 707 already feels like pretty amazing piece of hardware, but those little tweaks could make the experience even more tactile, even more intuitive, the best theories on the market in terms of hands on experience.

Other improvements:
-duplicate clip in clip edit menu, as in ableton, so that you don't have to fiddle around with copy and paste to be in sync with clip matrix navigation.

Look at the number of posts on this topic! Plainly the MC707 is a much loved machine, even an idiot could see it (not you, Roland, perish the thought! 😎)
Sometimes, Roland, my dear boy, you can make much commercial headway in all routes, by listening to those impassioned by something great that you've already made. If we could modify the MC707 firmware ourselves, we would have modified the master compressor to be a sidechain compressor by now. We really would! If we could've modified the brilliant Scene Function to also store the mute states of the individual drum pads (Doh! Obvious!) we would have done that too! We could build an entire drum track from one clip, just using the Scene Function to switch pads on and off! How brilliant would that be for live use!?!? A HUGE tip for you Roland, our friend, the Volca Sample firmware was modified by enthusiasts to include bar reset and step probability. The later Drumlogue by Korg came with ....er.... bar reset and step probability, no shit Sherlock! 😎

SIDECHAIN COMPRESSOR!

These would be dream machines if they could edit partials directly over USB from a PC via a graphical interface instead of all the menu diving.

fungus wrote:

These would be dream machines if they could edit partials directly over USB from a PC via a graphical interface instead of all the menu diving.

Even if we could just adjust a few of the basic parameters via midi controllers it would make a HUGE difference.

eg. Amp envelope, filter envelope, filter cutoff, filter resonance, filter envelope depth, LFO rate/depth.

What I want from Roland is a Yamaha because I don't want new Roland hardware after this dumpster fire. Meanwhile Yamaha is crushing it out of the park with their new hardware I nearly had a orgasm hearing the new specs of their stuff like whoa seriously I think I came.

Roland, no update for years on the 707 that added any functionality. You suck as a company. And sidechain, sidechain, sidechain.

Yes, Wavestrike, I too have just about given up on Roland. When you see the number of replies on this post, every one from a Roland fan, and they can't even be bothered to update one of their best ever machines, with the amount of goodwill it would bring, you just think 'stuff you, Roland, it's the last thing I'm buying from you'. When people try to help the firm, like Behringer, to get it in touch with its users, and they can't even be bothered to make a comment, then the shareholders really don't deserve much in the way of profit.

It needed a sidechain compressor. It needed some extra options on the Scene Save (to save the mute states of the drum pads), a few other features and tweaks, and it would have sold, like the Microkorg, for twenty-odd years, a staple instrument that was as known as the 808. But they couldn't bothered to listen, even to people who've used it every single day for 5 years, who were telling them how to get 25 years out of a 5 year product lifecycle. If that's good business, wasting money on inferior new products that few want, when they'd already made the best in class, then business ain't for me...

I`d just like to be able to save individual patches onto the SD card.
There really no reason to withold this ability anymore since the code for zencore has already been reverse engineered and patch editing and saving to libraries already exists in 3`rd party s/ware.
There`s no longer anything to gain (or lose) by not giving us this ability.

For me the 707 (and 101) together with my FA-06 are the Perefct setup, I really couldn`t want for more... except the ability to make and store patches on my 101 to later import into my 707 for studio use.

Katie wrote:

I`d just like to be able to save individual patches onto the SD card.

It is possible to export and import clips. Clips contain the tones if the per-clip tone option is enabled for the track.

Still no update in 2025 for our beloved 😍🤩 machine....

- No side chain compression

- No editor/vst like the one issued for the TR-xS

- No ZenCore EXZpansions, ABM models of classic synths

- hence No real incentive to buy Zenology Pro

- Not much time spent on Roland Clan, Elektronauts rather...

I just switched to the MPC KEY 37. I like the MC-707 with 1.82, but AKAI MPC 3.0 is so easy to use and has multiple engines and nearly unlimited external HD space. Everything is tightly integrated and just works .. ok it still crashes from time to time. If only it had more than 2GB of RAM .. how much has the MC-707? A few MB?

I had an MPC live 2 with firmware 2.14.0 thinking of getting another as I regret selling that. It's far superior than anything roland has ever done. But if Roland ever made a box like this, I'd think about buying! When you look at the price of each box, the MPC blows the MC707 away. Far easier to sue, far better sounds, you can install any size SSD in it you want, connect external midi controllers, save patches like you should be able to record easily to any length and loop sections, etc, etc.

Despite all that, I like Roland sounds too and wish they'd get their act together and build an MPC killer!