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After the death of my beloved S1000, I was looking for a ultra-cheap sampler. I found the MC-09 new at a store for $169. I figured I couldn't go wrong at that price...
The sampling ability of this device is the absolute possible minimum that can be useful to a musician.
There is no junctioning of specific notes to one of the four audio "parts", or samples. You have to create a "loop control" pattern in Trigger mode, where each of the 16 steps can play one of the four samples (or no sample) - therefore this is a 1-polyphony sampler.
The only way to play more than one sound (or three when doing rhythm patterns) is to record it to a "part". So, the concept is to make a bassline, lead line, rhythm part, and switch on and off the parts in realtime, or merely have a loop going constantly...
But, like I said, it's still useful, even if difficult.
I like the synth a lot. Yeah, it's a digital, but one thing that's good is you have a lot of waves (as opposed to the actual 303 which has only two), and the filter can be set to LP, BP or HP. Good rough reso, and it seems to try to do that squelchy thing the 303 does. It's pretty okay. (The synth can be controlled by MIDI directly, by the way...)
I wish the drum sounds were more tweakable like the synth waves... (all you can change is volume). There are about 10 drum tone sets, they all have an electronic 90's-wanna-be-analog character to them, the kicks are kinda good. Nothing especially memorable though. And, you only have four tones: BD, SD, CH and OH. Again, the absolute minimum.
I HATE HOW YOU HAVE TO PRESS ENTER BEFORE THE PATTERN WILL SWITCH...this "feature" just plain sucks.
BIG NOTE: PRESS "SETUP" and then "REST" to clear a pattern: is isn't made overly obvious in the manual.
Those who are familiar with the Roland gear will notice there is no Song mode. That's because selecting patterns generates a MIDI program change, and vice versa.
I like this a lot though, it's kind of neat to have all this in one box even if one particular aspect isn't the most powerful. For this price, I won't complain. If you are a new musician who would like to figure out what the big deal was with all the old Roland boxes, this should give you some idea. (But nothing will ever be like the machines of yesteryear...)
Oh, and yeah, the interface is crappy, and the display sucks, but the lights are cool, and if you want to complain, try programming an MC-202, or an actual TB-303.
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