MC-505 Review

I just bought this beast from ebay. Yes I am a little late in the game…This machine is kind of old now, but its a good one. Roland outdid themselves way back in 1998. Its really nice to be able to afford it now because when it came out I was a kid with no money.

The MC505 very impressive when you first get your hands on it. It looks very good and intimidating, as well as fun. I was in heaven until I noticed something a little wrong…THE KNOBS WERE BROKEN. I had made the mistake of buying from a pawn shop ebay “powerseller”. More like power asshole. I was lied to.

Anyway, I promptly opened it up to see if I could super glue the busted Filter/Amplifier knobs back in place. After all the unscrewing I finally saw that the potentiometers were ripped right out of the circuit board. NICE. Well at least it only needed a resolder. I decided I would resell it on ebay to someone who wanted to fix it.

SOUNDS: Okay these are A+ sounds, I don’t care what anyone says. Awesome for making techno music. Just muddy enough to fit in any mix and with the right tweaking from the awesome envelope controls you can make some F-’edup sounds. It also has all the cheesy groovebox sounds you’d expect. Very silly voices and some analog style presets that are mind blowing. This thing is awesome for digital grimey sounding techno or dance. Just play with it for an hour and you’ll realize the sound shaping makes it not a toy. I am so into the envelopes that I wish that they had put this on the Yamaha series of grooveboxes.

Its been sitting in my room the past couple of days and whenever i get bored I just turn it on and start playing. Its waaaaaay more accessible than all the gear on my computer. Still its not in perfect condition, and compared to say a RS7000, its not good for sequencing. I have to give it up despite the awesome sounds. So its on ebay going to a new home. I’m glad I bought this thing its FUN.

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