In this video, we're going to be talking about the MC-707 sound engine.
The 707 has our latest sound engine that combines
modern PCM, virtual analog and sampling —all in to one box.
It features iconic sounds from Roland's lineage like 808s, 909s,
even synth sounds like Jupiters and Junos and there's
even some digital classics like the XV-5080.
There is a massive collection of sounds built into the 707 with things like modern and classic electronic sounds,
hybrid sounds, acoustic sounds like piano and guitar and you could
really deeply edit these sounds to suit your own style.
Let's take a look at the sound browser. I'm going to select an empty track, select 'Tone',
and then select 'Preset' and I'll see that it's broken up into 3 windows.
I have the category of sound, I have the way that they are organized and I can scroll through and preview...
everything in real-time...
without actually having to load it into the session.
If I scroll further down the categories, I can see more acoustic instruments like piano
and then if I want to choose the sound, I can hit 'Enter' and now it's loaded into my session.
So let's hear what I have so far...
Now that I've imported a sound into the project,
I can edit that sound by going into this 'Tone' edit window.
Now the way that the MC-707 organizes its sound structure is through partials.
You basically get four partials—or in other words for waveforms—per tone.
And so I can see that the first partial is a sample, the second partial is virtual analog,
and the third partial is virtual analog and the fourth partial is not used.
Using the arrow keys I can also examine other aspects of the sound like
the filter, filter type, the VCA, any kind of EQ or FX settings, amongst many other things.
So if I want to start editing the sound, I can use
things like examining the sample and then pressing this C4 encoder and
looking at the waveforms, I can make these adjustments to...
make the sound a little bit more unique and interesting.
For example, maybe playing the sample back in Reverse
but keeping the rest of the partials playing back normally.
So now I have a little bit more of an interesting and elaborate sound using a
combination both the virtual analog engine and a sample that I've imported previously.
Now that we've worked on our sound a little bit,
let's take a look at the Advanced view to see where advanced users can go to
get really detailed sound editing parameters.
So I'll go into the 'Tone' edit view,
press 'Enter' and I can look at just the sheer amount of options that are available to adjust different things.
I can go to where the amp is,
I can go to where the partial is for our Bell sample,
and I can adjust things like random panning.
If I turn that all the way up and play it back...
that specific partial will start panning around the stereo field in a random way
whereas leaving the rest of the partials relatively in the center
and I can basically craft a sound that's a little bit more elaborate and interesting
to listen to in the context of the song.
The MC-707 lets you use presets and user samples for drum sounds
If I go into the 'Kit' edit screen, I can see a visual representation of where the pads are.
I could do things like select a drum sound and make my edits like Coarse Tune.
And do things like Panning or Reverb Sends.
So if I want to change or exchange a sound out, I can pick the pad, press 'Enter', press 'Select'.
I can choose whether it's a preset imported from a project, or a user sample.
Let's choose 'Preset' for now
and here I can browse much like choosing a sound from the Tone track.
So it's a really convenient way to mix and match different types of drum sounds
but for Advanced users, I can go into the 'Instrument' Edit screen
and edit almost every aspect of that waveform including layering things
by layering multiple drum sounds together we can create some pretty thick types of drum hits
and even do things like adjust Filtering, Resonance and other aspects of the sound on an individual level.
Like a Tone track, you have up to four sounds that you can layer per drum pad
so it really kind of expands as you dive deeper into it.
You know in general it pays to be super curious when you're using the MC-707
because you're going to uncover a lot of really cool things that you can do with it,
that just don't exist in other pieces of gear.
As you're building sounds and clips in the MC-707,
you can take advantage of a really cool thing called sound source.
If I go back out to the Main view here and go to the top of the track,
and press 'Enter', I can see that sound source can be changed from Track
meaning that it's a global sound used for the entire track,
to Clip and that means that for each clip inside one track, I can change the sound or patch that it's using.
This is an excellent way to get variety or
longevity when you're using a project so if you're doing a live set, for example,
you could play for hours if you're just using the Clip setting as a means to change the sound.
Things can evolve and things can change over time and all you
have to do is use one project to make it happen.
So in context, I have this basic sound that I was using earlier...
but with a Clip sound source setting, I can change it to piano,
I can change it to a bell sound,
change it back,
and when you're using it across eight different tracks,
you can imagine just the sheer amount of variety that you can have with your projects.