D'n'B liveset

A guy on the livepa.org forums shared a liveset he performed on MC307 with a few outboard effects. According to his description, it's an hour's worth of Drum'n'Bass performed live by Silverfilter back in 2002 at Verve Room in Malate, the Phillippines...he uses just the 307 as sound source, running into a Pioneer EFX500 and a Kaoss Pad 1 for FX plus Alesis Air FX / Alesis Ineko.

Download via Mediafire at this link.

Change of direction

Hi everyone. My PROFUSE apologies once again for virtually abandoning this blog. As I indicated in my previous post, a few things have happened in my life that distracted me from my 307. So now that I have a few minutes, this is as good a time as any to let you know my vision for the future of 307 beats.

I managed to scrape together enough money to purchase an Elektron MachineDrum UW+ and a DAW-based recording system, all of which has opened up a lot of doors in my music-making. Accordingly, I won't be using the 307 nearly as much, and almost certainly not as the centerpiece of my studio or live performances.

Does this mean the end of 307 beats? Not at all. I still plan to keep the blog active for the benefit of anyone who has questions. As you write in with questions, I'll post them and other readers' answers (plus mine if I have any).

I intend to continue using my 307 for sample generation, so now and then, I may post with tips and tricks I discover. (And as I've said before, if you send me ideas, I'll be happy to post them as full entries and give you credit.)

In any case, posts will be irregular at best...it's probably a good idea to subscribe by RSS feed if you haven't yet.

Happy beatmaking, and I'll see you around here occasionally!

OS updating options

Long time no posts -- my profuse apologies, life has taken some unexpected turns.

In the meantime, three readers have sent information about updating the 307's operating system (OS) that users might find helpful:

First, Roland's German site still has OS 1.03 available here as a ZIP file. Click the "M" from the orange alphabet below the image and it will take you to a list of all supported Roland devices starting with M (FYI, this includes the MC 505, 808 and 909 as well). Scroll down to the 307 entry and click the "1.03" to download the 1.5 MB of files. Instructions are available at the nearby "html" link but you'll have to copy the text into Google translator. Thanks to Anonymous for the tip!

Also, and if you have trouble at the Roland Deutschland site, Moonstarr has been kind enough to make a ZIP file of OS 1.03 available on Rapidshare here. Moonstarr says: "Can't remember where I found this but it worked for me from 1.02 to 1.03. Used midi-ox to transfer the SMF files. Instructions in the zip."

Lastly, Ovidiu Dobre has made his hard drive's copy of the OS available, which you can find here. A warning: This link opened a lot of unwanted pop-ups on my computer, so beware.

Thanks once again to all three of you for helping out! I haven't had a chance to try updating my system yet, but I feel better knowing I've got options now.

Unanswered questions

I've got a lot of questions about the 307 I can't answer yet. If you can answer any of these, please comment below.

If what you say makes sense, I'll post on the topic and give you credit for your answer. You can also contact me with your own questions. (I know this is a really top-down way to work, but until there's enough readers to start an English-language forum, it's also the simplest.)

This list will change as knowledge increases :)

1. When recording with TR-REC, why are notes automatically input with a velocity of 64? Is there any way to change the default velocity to 127 (or some other value)?

2. Is there an online version of OS 1.03 anywhere? (YES -- SEE NEXT POST FOR ANSWER.)

Realtime vs. TR-REC recording

It took me awhile to realize the advantage of having two different ways to record on the 307: Realtime and TR-REC. Both are useful depending on what kind of sounds you envision and how you approach programming. Here are a few thoughts for anyone just getting into them:

Realtime Recording is like using a tape recorder, and it's good if you want to enter data as a live performance. In essence, you choose a part and hit Record, hit Realtime, then hit Play twice. After the countdown, whatever you play on the keys (or your attached MIDI keyboard) gets recorded into the 307's memory, and you'll hear it whenever you play back the pattern. The video I mention here shows the basic process.

TR-REC Recording is for programming individual note data values by location. While it would be difficult to enter a complex piano solo this way, it's good if you want a sound that have a lot of repetition: Either a lot of the same note coming from a synth part or a lot of the same drum hit from the rhythm part. Enter TR-REC mode and choose the note you want to enter. The red lights along the keys will show you all the points where that note will sound.

If you can divide up a measure into its 16th notes and point to the spots where those notes or drum hits fall as the sequencer runs (for example, 3, 7, 11 and 15 for every upbeat in the measure), then it might be easier to enter the notes with TR-REC rather than perform them live, because you'll be sure the timing is right for every one of them and they will all sound exactly the same.

The methods can both be used on one part to save you time. Create a drum performance in Realtime. Then edit it in TR-REC, so you can see the red lights indicating where the hits are as the pattern plays. Press the 16 buttons to turn the red lights off and on to move the hits around...this might be easier than looking for note data in Microscope mode. Or create a simple repetitive bassline in TR-REC, and then go back and give it some life by adding embellishments to it in Realtime.

The Pattern Save asterisk (*)

One thing I like about the 307 is the little asterisk that appears in the window whenever you've changed a pattern in some way that will be lost if you don't save it. The * reminds me to Pattern Save before doing something else.

But only some changes result in it appearing...Strangely, others do not! Before you grow dependent on this reminder, note the differences.

These actions DO make the asterisk appear:

-Entering/changing note data -- pitch, gate time, etc.
-Making changes in either EDIT mode (Track Edit or Microscope)
-Hitting REC then PLAY (even if you make no actual changes)

While these actions do NOT:

-Adjusting SETUP parameters (Part Mixer, Reverb, Delay, or M-FX settings)
-Altering BPM
-Changing the patch assigned to a part
-Modifying a patch's parameters; these include tweaking the Filter. LFO and Assignable Knobs (in these cases, the asterisk instead appears on the screen for the patch itself)

...A minor issue once you're used to it, but good to know when starting out.

User forum (in French)

As mentioned previously, I found a user forum for the 307 that as of this writing is fairly active. It's on a Web site called Audiofanzine, which from what I've seen covers lots of topics, EM and otherwise.

One potential linguistic issue: It's a French-language site, so you may want to use some sort of translation software. It's easy with Google translator:

Enter this word string into Google:
Forums Roland MC-307 Audiofanzine
Next to the first entry hit [Translate this page]. Voilà, you're there. (I've also posted the French version in the Useful Links at bottom.)

The current list of threads dealing with the 307 is about six pages long. I've posted questions a few times and I usually get answers within a day or so.

Google translator doesn't render the original perfectly, of course, partly because it doesn't recognize simple typos that any native speaker would gloss right over (cest rather than c'est, for example). Nor can you make an entry in another language and expect Google to translate it for you directly -- gotta go elsewhere for that.

But considering the lack of interest in the 307 in the English-speaking world, the Audiofanzine forum is probably your best bet for floating a question to a large number of users.

New year, new post topics

Short entry today...want to take advantage of a precious free weekend to make some new beats.

I've made a few more discoveries on the 307 that I'll post on in coming weeks. But for the moment, I realized I haven't asked for any feedback from readers since I started this blog. So I've got a few questions for you -- hit me back with comments:

-What topics can I cover that I haven't yet?
-What other information about the 307 would be useful to include?
-How else can I improve this blog?

...Till next time, good luck with your music, and I hope the new decade treats us better than the last.

Rhythm Groups and Part Mute setup strategy

One of the 307's basic features is its ability to bring percussion parts in and out using the Rhythm Mute function. It's great for adding drama to a track, but there's a limitation that is useful to know about before you begin any serious percussion programming, especially if you work with User Rhythm Sets (which I recommend).

For background, see Manual page 159, first column, where it reads "Rhythm Group". This lists each key's drum tone assignment (B1 - D7) and tells you that if you want to silence any and all tones in its Group, hit the corresponding Mute button. Those keys with, say, hihats in one Preset Kit (F#2, G#2, etc.) also have hihats in all the others, making life easy...if you limit yourself to the Presets.

But what the manual doesn't tell you is this:

It is not the sounds themselves that are covered by that particular Mute button, but the KEYS the Mute button is assigned to.

In other words, the BD Mute button only covers these six keys -- B1, C2, B2, C3, B6 and C7, as the Rhythm Group column indicates. And the CLP button covers three, TOM/PERC covers 25, etc.

Why is this important?

Because if you create a User Rhythm Set and assign, say, a kick drum tone to key F#2, you will not be able to mute that kick with the BD Part Mute button, because it's the HH button that covers F#2.

Now you can certainly mute that kick just by hitting the HH button instead. But...what if you've got hihats playing too, and you don't want to mute both them and that kick drum simultaneously? Sorry, you're out of luck.

If you don't work with User Rhythm Sets, this is less important to remember, since (as I say above) all the Preset Kits have the same basic layout. But you will probably decide eventually that you'd like to get more creative with percussion, and this will become an issue.

Since Roland does not allow us to change the way the keys and Part Mute buttons interact, it makes sense either 1) to assign your drum tones according to the same layout the Preset Kits have, or 2) to create your own system that somehow takes this layout into account.

...Why consider this? Because I've learned from embarrassing gig mistakes that the less I have to think onstage, the smoother a performance goes. If I know I can always mute my hihats with the HH key, I can concentrate on the music, not f@[king logistics.

Percussion tuning, toning and timing

Had a good beatmaking session last night. Really good. A couple of hours after I started, I had a polished eight-bar loop that had my head bobbing and my hands drumming like a sixth-grader's on my knees, my thighs, my tabletop, finally getting me off the couch, bopping around in my underwear as far from my 307 as my headphone cable would let me go. Still sounded great this morning; listening to it again (and again) made me late for work, but it was totally worth it. ...Yeah.

Thinking about it en route to the dayjob, I realized that what allowed me to get to this point was what I'd been doing the previous few nights: Accumulating a good set of percussion tones in a User Rhythm Set, and then tweaking each one so that they all go together -- i.e., when played as a group they sound like music, not just a bunch of individually awesome yet poorly matched noises.

Now this task took a lot of time and patience, and doing it was not fun in and of itself. But it was absolutely critical to making me enjoy what I heard both while composing and afterward. And that has to happen if an audience is ever going to enjoy it.

So for those of you who have been making EM for years, this may be old hat, but it's worth repeating something I learned years ago:

A good drum part is a complete composition in itself. It has more than just good rhythm -- it has good melody and harmony too.

Listen to any great techno composer, someone who can combine just four or five drum tones and still somehow make you enjoy listening to them loop for minutes on end. Some of the reasons this magic happens? Each drum hit 1) has a pitch that harmonizes with the others, 2) has a tone and volume that make it heard clearly but in balance with the others (i.e. it doesn't overpower), and 3) takes up just the right amount of time and space...it fills up some air but lets the rest of the pattern breathe.

Much of achieving this balance is an art that can't be quantified. But one key to controlling your art is by tweaking each and every tone you use, which on the 307 means creating and fine-tuning a User Rhythm Set. Once you've gathered your drum tones, the number of parameters available for fine-tuning them (pp. 105-112 in the manual) is a bit overwhelming, but you can do a lot with these four:

-Coarse tune: Each +/-1 you change it adjusts the pitch by a semitone, or the difference between two adjacent keys on the piano. If you know even a little about harmony, you can tune your percussion hits so they don't clash with one another or the synths. (Only mess with Fine tune if you get close but can't quite tune a drum hit perfectly.)
-Filter type and cutoff: Allows you to adjust how bright a drum tone is. Using an LPF with a cutoff of 80 or higher will usually give you a darker sound, for example. Filters can help to minimize those frequencies/overtones that can annoy the ears over time.
-Amp envelope time: Gives you control over how long a drum tone lasts. Cranking these down appropriately can turn a cymbal crash into, say, a short click.
-Amp tone level: Gives you far greater control over the tone's volume than you get through the Wave/Key: Gain parameter alone, which only gives you four choices (-6, 0, +6, +12 dB). Experiment with adjusting both parameters for a better mix/balance.

If these ideas seem relatively new to you, first get comfortable with what these parameters do, then try this experiment:

Take a cool but simple two- to four-bar percussion loop -- one that uses only 4-5 drum tones and preferably no distracting synths -- from a track you like. Copy it into your sampler/looper (if you have one) or keep your player's rewind button handy so you can listen to it and your 307 simultaneously. Now: How would you go about reproducing this loop on your 307? What drum tones would you bring into a User Kit in order to remake it? If the drum tones aren't quite the same as the loop's, how would you adjust them?

...I find that not only is it great practice and ear training to see how close I can get, but the beauty of it is that I rarely remake that loop exactly. I learn a lot, and I also end up with a loop and balanced set of percussion tones I can recast as I like for use in my own tracks.

Online 307 Music, #2

Here are a few tracks I've found that were made solely or primarily with the 307. The first two producers are 307 Beats readers.

As I've mentioned, I'll primarily post tracks that are made with the 307 alone, so that users can hear what can be done with it. But a few extra sounds are OK as long as we know what's what. Enjoy!

Gastón
...who says: "Two ideas made with the 307 only."
www.beatncore.com/mp3/exp/307jam.mp3
www.beatncore.com/mp3/exp/307jam2.mp3

Ytrium
...who says: "This industrial hardtek track entitled '29,4 km' was partly done on the 307 (the sound at the beginning, the beepy loop starting around 01:50, the pad in the middle part, another beepy sound starting at 04:18 and some drums -- the complete R part can be heard at the very end)."
rapidshare.com/files/307066372/2007_12_29_4_km.mp3.htm

Tek&Mat
A French producer who describes himself as a beginner. His MySpace tracks are all made with the 307 except for a few vocal samples.
www.myspace.com/tekemat

Checking your Operating System version

The manual does not indicate how to check which OS version your 307 uses, but it's easy to do:

With your 307 turned off, simultaneously hold the [SONG] + [SYSTEM] + [BPM] buttons. Then power up while holding them, and in a few moments the screen will reveal your OS version.

To the best of my knowledge, the latest version is OS 1.03.

NOTE: I recently discovered that my 307 runs OS 1.02. I bought my 307 used, and so far I have not found 1.03 online...Roland probably does not provide it anymore. Consequently, readers of this blog should be aware of two things:

1. Comments I post will reflect my experiences with OS 1.02. If you run version 1.03, there will probably be occasional differences.

2. If anyone knows where to find OS 1.03 online, please contact me and I will post on the topic, along with download instructions.

UPDATE: To find OS 1.03 online, see my post here. (As of April 2010 I have not updated my OS yet however.)

Using effects on individual drums

Here are a few thoughts on applying the effects (reverb, delay, & M-FX) to individual drum tones:

In general, effects apply equally to every tone on the Rhythm part; each tone's effects are not individually adjustable from the SETUP menu. However, I've found two ways to get around this.

The first way is to create your own User rhythm set (see manual pp. 105 - 113) and then choose how its individual drum tones receive each effect (page 112). This isn't too hard if you're only planning to adjust the effects on one or two tones -- say, your snare and kick drum. It's a bigger pain to do this for a large number of drum tones, but it can be done, and I suspect the extra effort could inject a lot of personality into a track. But if you do it, keep in mind that your new rhythm set's drum tones will now possess these same effects settings in every other pattern you create with it -- so plan ahead.

The second way is to dedicate one of the other parts (1-7) to the percussion sound you want, and then adjust the part's effects from the SETUP menu. This way is unquestionably easier and won't affect how the rhythm set sounds in other patterns. It also allows you to adjust the tone's volume, pan, etc. more directly. But in doing this you sacrifice a part, so be sure you can live with fewer synth voices.

...Thanks to reader Drewzle for his question about this.

Fun with drum tweaking

My recent string of houseguests has made it difficult for me to find much quality time to experiment with the 307...and I am still very much in the experimental stage.

When time is limited, I give myself a goal to focus on for those moments I have to spare. Still, many recent opportunities got squandered on digging into amp envelope settings and other less-than-useful minutiae, accomplishing nothing other than dragging me far into the synthesis weeds. (They're both tall and deep, folks.) But as the frustration grew, I finally had an epiphany, which was:

If I've only got 45 minutes, avoid scrolling through menus as much as possible, and see what can be done with the "surface" of the 307.

...This, it turns out, was wisdom. And it led me to a fun session of drum tweaking.

Some of the below ideas you may recognize from previous posts, but it was satisfying to put them all together.

Setup:

1. Choose a favorite pattern, and mute all the parts except the drum part. Save this "new" pattern to the adjacent slot (i.e. original at U.025 and drums-only at U.026, or whatever).
2. Using Knob Assign, set one user knob (F1-4) to adjust Key Shift.
3. On the drums-only pattern, using Part Select, choose the R part. Then hit Rhythm Mute so you are ready to bring the different drum parts in and out easily.
4. If you've got a Multi-FX setting you like to use on drums (Lo-Fi, Flanger, etc.), choose it via the Setup -> Part Mixer menu. Make sure that the R part is channeled through M-FX, and that the Grab switch is also enabled to affect M-FX.

What's cool about setting up this way: You now have lots of controls set to change the drum tones, and all you have to do to get at them is mess with the Red Arrow button occasionally. Tweak for drama:

-Cutoff and Resonance provide those "classic" filter sweep sounds
-F1/2 Reverb adds/cuts depth, F4 Delay adjusts echo feedback
-F1/2/3 M-FX adjusts that effect's sound
-The Grab switch is available to bring the M-FX in/out
-Whatever Knob Assignment you've set for Key Shift lets you create breaks (see previous post, "Easy breaks with Key Shift") and/or change the drum tones across the board
-The Rhythm Mute buttons are ready to cut/cue drum parts
-If you want to go back to the original drum sounds, hit DEC then INC in quick succession while the pattern is playing. When it loops back to measure 1, all your tweaked changes will vanish. Start tweaking again and head off in a different direction...repeat as desired.
-If you want to go back to your original pattern, all you have to do is hit DEC, and the synths come back in when the pattern changes.

With a bit of thought, a lot of these ideas can probably be applied pretty easily to synth soloing too. Enjoy...I did.

P.S.: If you really want to make things easier on yourself, select your four favorite parameters using Knob Assign, making sure to include Key Shift and a couple of Reverb/Delay/M-FX parameters. Then you won't even have to touch the Red Arrow Button.

Contacting the blog author

If you want to contact me, please read this...

Several readers have sent messages regarding previous posts. Thanks for your comments everyone! I started this blog hoping it would be a resource for everyone who creates with the 307, and I'm glad to see it helping.

As the readership grows, some entries will need to be updated... especially whenever I discover I am wrong about something. If you see something that needs to be changed or expanded, it's OK to comment below the entry. I'll test your idea and if it works, I'll correct the original entry as soon as possible.

A few notes:

1. I'd rather not force readers to go through every comment to find the information they need. For this reason, if you comment directly, especially about my errors, I will change the blog entry text, but I may not post your actual response...I don't want to seem rude, so please be aware of this.

2. Blogger does not allow me to reply privately to comment authors. So if you need to talk offline, please email me instead. You can reach me at NOSPAMdubathonic (at) gmail (dot) com

3. I'm very interested in tips/tricks from readers. If you send any, I'll blog about them and will credit you as the discoverer.

4. If you have created any music with the 307, please post it on another site (MySpace, Virb, etc.) so I can link to it. Blogger does not allow me to post mp3s directly.

I'm always happy to hear from you -- thanks again for your input!

Two notes on moving patches and parts

Two recent discoveries I've made concern moving patches and parts from one pattern to another. There are limits to what we can do here, but it's possible to use them to our advantage.


1. If you want to copy a part from one pattern to another pattern (see manual page 76), you have to copy it to the same part number it occupied in the first pattern. It is evidently impossible* to copy it onto a different part in the new pattern. (In other words, if you want to move the melody you wrote for pattern U.001 part 4 to pattern U.002, you can only move it to U.002's part 4.)

This limitation makes a good case for laying your tracks out in the same general way every time. So for example: If you always use part 1 for bassline, parts 2-5 for melody and pads, and parts 6-7 for extra percussion and sound effects, you'll be able to move parts between patterns with less restriction. It also means less to think about when you're muting parts on the fly for dramatic effect.

*UPDATE: Apparently you CAN move data to different parts if you run OS 1.03 (my 307 runs 1.02, unfortunately). Thanks to Gastón for pointing this out in the comments below.


2. If you're planning to make a series of patterns that will use the same group of patches, but that nonetheless are going to sound very distinct from one another (i.e. different rhythms, melodies, time signatures, etc.), here's a quick way to create the blank patterns using an easy MIDI trick. See manual page 126:

Get into the SYSTEM:MIDI menu and turn RX.PROG CHANGE to OFF. Then whenever you switch patterns, the patches you used in the previous pattern will be retained -- but not the rhythmic and melodic data. You can save this new blank pattern as many times as needed. (If, however, your patterns are going to be fairly similar to one another, it's easier to make one finished pattern, copy it, then alter the copies...this is just another trick for your bag.)

NOTE: Don't forget to switch RX.PROG CHANGE back to ON when you finish...or all of the 307's patterns will use the same patches, whether you like it or not!

Pattern editor for Windows

While surfing Web pages that mention the 307, I came across a French-language forum* dedicated to the groovebox. One post led to a site whose owner has created a free pattern editor for PC's.

To download it, visit http://glausinger.free.fr/ (site uses Flash) and look under the "Liens" menu for the "MyMC307" entry.

I'm a Mac user, so I'm curious to hear if anyone has downloaded it and knows what it can do -- please leave comments if you have. Whenever I manage to check it out, I will update this entry.

*More on the forum itself here.

Online 307 music, #1

When I find tracks made with the 307 as the sole or primary sound source, I'll post them for anyone who wants to know what the groovebox can do...and what others are doing with it.

For starters, four tracks are here: http://www.wat.tv/trancelucide

Check out savage garden, silent world, eagle, and key of dream. The producer describes them as trance / house / techno.

Save new patches first. Then new patterns.

Once you know the 307 well enough to make your own patterns, you will probably want to use customized synth patches too.

Cool. But there's something you should know before you start doing these two things together. The idea is obvious after you get used to it...but I'll post it here as a quick tip, in the hopes that you won't lose that nice pattern you just spent hours tweaking to perfection:

Before you can save a pattern using any new patches you have just created, you MUST save them to the 307's patch memory first. (Then of course you should also save the new pattern.)

If you don't save your new patches, the next time you turn the 307 on, the new pattern will sound different. It will default to the patches that were there before you started tweaking them...all your hard work will be lost.

...Like I said, obvious in retrospect. But if you're new to the 307, learn this now and save yourself some late-night frustration.

Knob assignment for Multi-FX

Each of the 25 Multi-FX's has several tweakable parameters, and you can use the assignable knobs to control them. The manual (page 48) has a memo indicating this, but as usual, I wish it explained the process better. For anyone figuring out why and how to assign M-FX knobs, this entry is for you.

You have probably noticed the second row of knob labels, reading M-FX CTRL 1-3. Now, if you look at the descriptions on pp. 48-61, you'll see below each M-FX that its parameters are listed with [CTRL 1], [CTRL 2] and so on. Roland has decided that the first three parameters in each list are the ones you probably will want to tweak most often while playing live, so they've made it easy for you by dedicating the second-row knobs to them.

If tweaking these three is enough for your needs, you don't need to do anything; just point the red arrow to this row and go to it.

But you may want to adjust other parameters instead, and there are many options. For example, M-FX 1, the 4-band EQ, has 11 parameters, the most of any list. To tweak [CTRL 4-11] easily during performance, Knob Assign is useful.

Before you do anything below, keep two things in mind: 1) Whatever changes you make to the knob assignments get saved to the User Set you have chosen without an easy way to Exit out if you change your mind. So if you're not completely sure you want to reassign something, remember what your original knob assignment was so you can change it back. (I like to reserve one User Set for experimentation.) 2) If you're not planning to tweak these parameters live, the knob assignment effort probably isn't worth it.

Procedure:

Hit Knob Assign, and you'll see the User Set (#1-10) listed up top along with its four current knob assignments. Choose the knob you want to reassign with button F1-F4. Scroll left-right until you highlight MULTI-FX, and hit its F button. Whatever M-FX you have assigned to the current pattern, its list of parameters will appear. You can then scroll down to the parameter you want assigned to that knob; hit Knob Assign and bang, it's saved to that User Set until you change it again.

Other notes:

1) This procedure assigns the knob a CTRL number, not an M-FX set. So if you assign it to CTRL 9 and then switch to another pattern that uses a different M-FX set, tweaking that knob will adjust the new M-FX set's CTRL 9 parameter (if it has one).

2) You can of course assign CTRL 1-3 to these knobs too, if it's more convenient to have them in your User Set (i.e. if you don't want to keep messing with the red arrow button).

3) If you tweak the knob and nothing seems to be happening, make sure you've got the M-FX Switch turned on for the Parts you want it to affect (via the Setup -> Part Mixer menus).