jaxager's Reviews

Blown Away

At the time of writing this review, I am new to the pedal community. So I cannot compare it to other space echo pedals, like the kind Boss makes to digitally reproduce the classic Roland Space Echo unit from the 70s. I use mine with drum machines and synths. I love this little guy. I mainly use it to get some of the spacy psychedelic sounds found in dub reggae. I'm not disappointed.

Loving this little sucker!

This is a very fun mixer. It is best if you have other Aira gear to go with it. I have a TR-8S, an MC-707,and an MC-101 plugged into it. As soon as I plugged my Aira gear into it, it recognized it right off the bat. No settings to fiddle with. The FX you can run through all of the channels or individually per channel. It is like it's a whole new instrument. Love it!

Blown Away

This groovebox is an absolute beast. The sound engine, powered by Zen Core, is fantastic. You can manipulate any sound you throw at it. If that is not your thing, it comes with almost 4000 presets right out the box.

Eight tracks is more than enough to lay down an entire song. It does sampling too. Granted, you get 62 seconds of stereo sampling to work with. I have not really gotten into the sampling side of this machine yet.

The pads are responsive and the sensitivity can be adjusted too. There is very little menu diving, which is a big deal for me. I hate having to menu dive. I also have an MC-101. I absolutely love the 101 but there is a lot of menu diving.

I got the 707 because it has twice as many tracks to work with and there is a lot less menu diving. If you are debating whether to get the 101 or the 707, save your money a little while longer and get the 707. While the 101 is a great groovebox, you will inevitably want to expand on tracks and a smoother workflow. I wish that I'd gotten the 707 right off the bat.

Also, the screen on the 707 is 100X better than the screen on the 101. It is very intuitive and easy to navigate.

Lastly, there are a lot more I\O connections on the back. The 101 does not have external inputs. The 707 does. There's also assignable out, return, and send inputs. The 101 does not have these. Oh... And you can plug a mic into the back and add a ton of FX to your vocals too. This is another thing that I have not gotten around to trying yet. I haven't even had it a month, so I will get around to it soon enough.

The 101 and the 707 are my first and only grooveboxes. So I don't have anything else to compare them to, personally. But, if you love the Roland sound, the 707 and 101 are a great bet. You won't be disappointed.

Pleasantly Surprised

I just got this little guy about two weeks ago. I really wanted a groovebox and was torn between this and the Novation Circuits Tracks. All in all, I am very happy with my purchase.

I make mostly electro and industrial type stuff. It works very well for both genres. I was initially concerned with there being only four tracks. This has not proven to be an issue, however.

From what I understand, 101 is basically a 707 in a more condensed package. And, being so, they had to make as much of the limited real estate on this tiny box. So there is a lot of menu diving. I have been using it nearly everyday I got for numerous hours a day. I work in an automotive plant, have my own office, and only deal with emergencies. So I have a lot of free time to fart around with this thing. In the less than two weeks since I've bought I have become pretty proficient with the menu diving. I can now load samples, tweak sounds, and lay down tracks and beats fairly quickly now.

I would have given it 5 stars but there still appear to be some bugs in the software. I get that this is to be expected. Unfortunately one of the bugs is pretty big. There are times where a track's audio will completely go out. And I think I've gotten proficient enough that I can tell whether it is user error or the machine is acting wonky. The only way I've found to fix this particular issue is to reboot the device. I also think that,for 500 bucks,they should've included external audio in jacks in the I\O. This thing could benefit from side chaining.

All in all I would recommend this groovebox to anyone looking for one. The Circuit Tracks is a hundred bucks cheaper and is supposed to be easier to get the hang of operating. But Roland has a lot to offer with the Zen Core engine and using it with the Roland Cloud Manager. There's a ton of free sample packs to choose from and the sound packs have some very groovy offerings.

Blown Away

I am a noob. I just got my first synth (Novation Mininova) in December, 2020. I've bought a Korg Volca Drum and an IK Multimedia UNO Drum as my first drum machines.

Then I got the Roland TR-8S. OMG, this thing is so sweet. I am overjoyed with my purchase and I haven't even scratched the surface of this bad boy can do.

So, being a noob, it's hard for me to point out all the great stuff it does that someone more advanced would want to hear about. If you're new to electronic music, and you can afford it, get this as your drum machine. It does everything and sounds phenomenal. There isn't a lot of menu diving. That's a big deal to me, and I'm guessing most everyone else, unless you're masochistic. Being able to load your own samples is very nice too. I've been scouring horror and sci-fi movies to jack dialogue from. I love Skinny Puppy and other industrial acts like them. This drum machine is great for producing super unique and fat beats and loading your own samples into.

Great Beginner Semi Modular

I just got this little guy a few days ago but I'm already really digging it. It produces some really crazy bass lines. I already had a Volca Bass which, for the money, produces some very cool bass lines. I was reluctant to get the Crave because I wasn't sure how much better the bass lines would be compared to the Volca. Once I started using the patch baysi was able to get some really unique and killer bass from it. I just hope it isn't a gateway drug into full blown modular addiction. I've seen what modular synth addiction does to people and it's not pretty. Lol.

The "keyboard" on it can get you through a pinch if all you want to do is enter in some cool sequences or arpeggios. I am running mine through an Arturia Beatstep Pro and it really shines when I use it this way. Using it with a MIDI controller makes a big difference also. Hooking it up to my Beatstep Pro and my M-Audio Axiom Pro was painless.

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An easy DAW to learn

Acid is great for doing quick loop based projects. Honestly, I know it can do more than I use it for. But it was cheap (I got it for 10 bucks on Steam) and it is fun for farting around with. I like laying down premade loops into it to get inspiration. If you want something basic and fun, this is a cool little DAW.

Loving this little sucker!

Okay, I just got this synth this afternoon and I'm already in love with it. And I haven't even begun to discover all the cool stuff you can do with it. It has a very small footprint, which I love. I'm in an office for ten hours a night, in a factory. I respond to emergencies, and if there isn't any emergencies to deal with, my time is mine. So having a pretty dang powerful synth that can easily fit in my backpack is a godsend.

I will add more comments as I learn more about it.

Oh, and what drew me to this particular synth is because I got the UNO Drum and they are basically made for each other. I carry that with me to work too.