Roland MC-707

R
oland’s MC range of
all-in-one
grooveboxes has lain
dormant since the
release of the
MC-808 in 2007.
Much like their
counterparts in Akai’s MPC line, these
sampler and synth-equipped
sequencers fell out of favour with
much of the general public as
music-making software became more
powerful and modern tools like
Ableton Live and NI Maschine made
hardware solutions look old hat.
MC-707 lands as a member of the
brand’s Aira line, and design-wise it’s
more like the recent TR-8S than the
MC-808 or MC-909. (And no, there’s
no D-Beam here; for better or worse!)
In terms of size and weight, the
707 is almost identical to the TR-8S.
Its layout is fairly similar too, with the
central area occupied by a bank of
channel strips made up of faders and
rotaries. The major difference,
interface-wise, is that the TR-8S’
chunky step-sequencing buttons are
replaced here by a bank of 16 rubber
performance pads with a considerably
smaller step-sequencer row above
them. Also, the right-hand side of the
707’s panel is occupied by a screen
and range of selection buttons used
to navigate the instrument’s various
menus, parameter pages and
arrangement tools.
In total, the MC-707 offers eight
tracks, controlled and edited via its
central bank of channel strips. Each
track can be assigned either a Tone
(polyphonic instrument), Drum (multi-
part drum kit) or Looper (audio
recorder). Recording and sequencing
of these elements is then handled by
However, over a decade on there’s a
new interest in ‘studio in a box’ tools
that allow electronic musicians to
produce and perform full tracks
without a computer.
With the success of their recent
MPCs and Force, Akai have proved
that mass-market production stations
can stand up against a DAW. No
surprise, then, that Roland have
chosen now to breathe new life into
the MC line. While the name and
basic principle is the same, the
MC-707 isn’t simply an update to
those earlier grooveboxes. The
THE PROS & CONS
+
Packed with lots of
quality sounds
Great effects,
plus external send/
return loop
Very well
thought-out workflow
-
No one-shot
sampling or
loop-slicing
Lots of menu-diving
Roland MC-707 | Reviews
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FMU349.rev_roland_707.indd 81 04/09/2019 16:42