MPC + Roland MC-101

Is there much love for this little Groovebox to work alongside an MPC?
I scored a super cheap used one 'just because' on the basis that I could get my money back
Does anyone have any experience with them working with their set up?

It is exactly my setup and I love it.
They complete each other perfectly.
Just keep in mind that synth editing on 101 is quite limited but you have so many great sounds (around 3000 or more) that you find what you need. The effects and sequencer of 101 are really high quality.
If you want more editing, go for the bigger brother 707.

Ah great, yeah for the price I managed to get it at I saw it as a great way of having a shed load of Roland sounds to hand.
May I ask how you have set it up - do you use it a separate source going to the mixer or do you sample it?
And do you sequence on the 101 directly or via the MPC

FlemChandango wrote:Ah great, yeah for the price I managed to get it at I saw it as a great way of having a shed load of Roland sounds to hand.
May I ask how you have set it up - do you use it a separate source going to the mixer or do you sample it?
And do you sequence on the 101 directly or via the MPC

I keep them separate and they both go to a mixer.
I import my samples on both machines, depending on the song.
You can connect them with midi if you want, you can slave mc101 to Mpc clock and you can sample from mc to mpc or the other way round.
I don't do it but it's quite easy to do it.
The beauty of mc101 for me is that you can play synth phrases, record them in real time, add effects and scatter, play with the sequencer (reverse, random etc), change the notes you played all in real time.
Synth sounds and effects are superb.
So I use Mpc for all the song structure while I use Mc101 to play in real time.
I find the combination just perfect.

So tonight I connected the 2 together via USB and the MIDI sync happened without any intervention and man they play well together, it's so much fun tapping out some melodies on the 101 and then when you do the same again with Chromatic Chords from the MPC it bumps it up to a whole new level (Obvs this may well be as easily achieved on the 101, but for now I now how to implement this on the MPC faster)
I'm going to need a mixer now, can you recommend any from the budget end of the scale?

FlemChandango wrote:So tonight I connected the 2 together via USB and the MIDI sync happened without any intervention and man they play well together, it's so much fun tapping out some melodies on the 101 and then when you do the same again with Chromatic Chords from the MPC it bumps it up to a whole new level (Obvs this may well be as easily achieved on the 101, but for now I now how to implement this on the MPC faster)
I'm going to need a mixer now, can you recommend any from the budget end of the scale?

Very good.
I have a Mackie Onyx 1220i which is good because it's a good analog mixer but at the same time it works as a firewire mixer if you connect it to computer.
So you can use it as a normal mixer or to send any channel to a multitrack with firewire.
Tascam model 12 is also very good, it has a multitrack recorder inside.
Anyway I really like Mackie mixers, they sound good and are built like a tank and you can find them cheap used.

Again, late for the show, but is it possible to sample the MPC into the MC 101 via USB?

Don't forget you can also do audio over USB too, sequence & sample into MPC over a single cable. Just make sure to have the generic driver set on the 101 and you would have to monitor via the 101, but the 101 is a 32 bit soundcard so in some cases actually sounds nicer.

I have the MC-101 and the TR-6S. I love them both and use both with my MPC Regularly. I usually use the Jupiter or Juno sounds from the MC-101, but there's plenty of other good ones that I've auto-sampled also.

FlemChandango wrote:So tonight I connected the 2 together via USB and the MIDI sync happened without any intervention and man they play well together, it's so much fun tapping out some melodies on the 101 and then when you do the same again with Chromatic Chords from the MPC it bumps it up to a whole new level (Obvs this may well be as easily achieved on the 101, but for now I now how to implement this on the MPC faster)
I'm going to need a mixer now, can you recommend any from the budget end of the scale?

I own the Tascam Model 24, so my best recommendation is the model 12. Mackie mixers are good also, I've just had a really good experience with my Model 24 over the past 3 months.

KaoticShock wrote:

FlemChandango wrote:So tonight I connected the 2 together via USB and the MIDI sync happened without any intervention and man they play well together, it's so much fun tapping out some melodies on the 101 and then when you do the same again with Chromatic Chords from the MPC it bumps it up to a whole new level (Obvs this may well be as easily achieved on the 101, but for now I now how to implement this on the MPC faster)
I'm going to need a mixer now, can you recommend any from the budget end of the scale?

I own the Tascam Model 24, so my best recommendation is the model 12. Mackie mixers are good also, I've just had a really good experience with my Model 24 over the past 3 months.

The Model 24 takes up so much space & you still can't use all 32 Force inputs & I don't even need most of the stuff like EQs. I just want a plain audio interface with 32 ins & outs or even a less bulky 32 input mixer.
Any recommendations?

enzyme wrote:Don't forget you can also do audio over USB too, sequence & sample into MPC over a single cable. Just make sure to have the generic driver set on the 101 and you would have to monitor via the 101, but the 101 is a 32 bit soundcard so in some cases actually sounds nicer.

Thanks. So do I get this right?
I can set the Mc 101 to generic, and connect the MPC via USB A to A cable with the mc.
Then I can stream the audio of the mpc into the mc to record in a looper track? And I have also midi control over USB?

That would be awesome.

UKUDO wrote:I can set the Mc 101 to generic, and connect the MPC via USB A to A cable with the mc.

No its A to B, the 101 is acting as an external soundcard. I've never tried sampling into the 101 but I've sampled from 101 to MPC a few times, much more scope in the MPC, the 101 sampler/looper can only record 8 bars.

Try it though, it should work but you'll have to figure out sending clock/transport from the 101 to the MPC to get your looper track recordings synced.

enzyme wrote:

UKUDO wrote:I can set the Mc 101 to generic, and connect the MPC via USB A to A cable with the mc.

No its A to B, the 101 is acting as an external soundcard. I've never tried sampling into the 101 but I've sampled from 101 to MPC a few times, much more scope in the MPC, the 101 sampler/looper can only record 8 bars.

Try it though, it should work but you'll have to figure out sending clock/transport from the 101 to the MPC to get your looper track recordings synced.

Okay. But I guess 8 bars would be enough, as I just want to have an easy way to get short loops from the MPC into the MC 101. For longer parts or sections I would use clips of the looper track.

I'd like to be able to use the roland effects on my MPC "mix busses"

Try it, it should work. You can set the 101 sampler to USB input so I don't see why it wouldn't, as I mentioned before you just need to get the 2 boxes synced so the recording starts on time.