Yeah, so do I. Trying to scrounge the road trip money I need for late April with my dad, yet still have enough left over for the MC909, a synth and perhaps some fx pedals. GC doesn’t really allow deposits on something you see online. (Unless that store is in your area and you plop down your wad of cash.). So if some schmuck buys the cheapest one, fine, I end up paying more. eBay or Reverb are also possible places to look, but I better look at the fine print for those sites. Especially if it’s shipped from Japan. That’ll make the extra stuff I want probably not happen. This is the only chance the MC707 has if it’s a choice between saving a few hundred vs the inflated prices on a used MC909. Yeah, smaller, lighter, and a ok screen, and some sampling, but I’m convinced that’s where the similarities end. One will sound older and have cheesy patterns built into memory, the 707 will sound more current, cleaner, but will probably make me wish I just bought the 909. So, kinda just checking my bank every day I get outta bed for morning, hoping it came in.

If I wasn’t gonna wait until September/October to get a 404mk2, I’d order one. But we all know how crazy things have been going due to chip shortages. I’m sure most gear is on back order, and vintage gear is going to get scooped up quick because everyone with cash to splurge might buy old gear as well. Yeah, I’m well aware there’s no garuntee I’ll own one in 2022, but even if this just wasn’t my year, I’d have a chance to Score one.

I know it's hard when you want something bad, but when it comes to a choice between snagging one in time or taking that road trip with your Dad, you must go with Dad - so enjoy that road trip!

If it's any consolation, your concern about the sounds on the MC-707 are probably unfounded. The reason I say that is because I have seen a heck of a lot of people complaining in the comment sections of MC-707 videos that the sounds are "Too dated" and "Sounds like a 90s relic", that sort of thing.

Add to that Roland's own publicity statement:
"Have we reached peak 90s nostalgia? Or are we ready for a groovebox revival?"

So if anything, it kinda sounds exactly what your're looking for (if those comments are anything to go by I mean). Personally, the only issue I have with the MC-707 is the amount of Sampling RAM they gave it. The MC-707 is definitely capable of doing everything I would ever want of it, but the amount of RAM they gave it just feels unjustifiably dumb, and it triggered a spiteful avoidance in me.

At one point I was back'n'forth deciding between the MC-707 and the MPC X. What I don't like about the MPC's are those fucking touch screens, because if I wanted a touch screen I might as well just buy a MIDI keyboard, connect it to my iPad and save myself a fortune. So then I'd start thinking about the MC-707 again, which is fully tactile, but like I said, the outrageously low amount of Sampling RAM they gave it has triggered a spiteful avoidance in me.

Then there's that stuff I kept reading about the pads, but to be honest I think that's down to the user and settings, I don't believe it's down to the MC-707. But yeah, from the sounds of it, the MC-707 might be exactly what you're looking for if you prefer the '90s sounds as a pallette to draw from.

For some reason, the younger generation appear to be drawn to ear-piercing squeals and shit like that. Personally I look for nice-sounding acoustic instruments, and the MC-707 definitely has an admirable set of waveforms covering that.

When comparing the 909 to 707, I was trying to loosely just say they have different but capable sound engines. The 909’s older Fantom based synth architecture and compare that to whatever’s the MC707’s running. (Too lazy to look it up, but Roland can explain it better than I can). And since the 707 is smaller, you know there had to be some corners cut. Not a deal breaker there’s no D beam or Pitch Slider. But it’s like deciding on a new vs used car kinda. Newer might be more fuel efficient, more features, but the older will rise in value, and both will drive you to your destination. That’s all I was trying to say. I’m only going to get a 707 IF 909’s just skyrocket up in price that I just can’t justify obtaining one for what I could get a 707 AND a synth with. But I’m aware somewhat on the compromises between the 2 groovebox’s.

As for the road trip, we’re not going too far, but we’ll have a vacation house rental where we can cook, watch movies, drink or smoke weed, and then return home after 3 days. We were supposed to drive to California, but his doctor nixed that due to his vision issue in his right eye. He won’t get tests until June or whatever, but until then he was told to not leave the state. I was kinda bummed, but in a weird way sorta relieved I can have more cash to keep. It’s another month away, so no biggee. But I’m really needing my cash. It sucks to wait, but every other American is as well. It takes time I suppose. I didn’t wait until the last minute but I didn’t file as fast as I’d planned to.

Just hoping that $600 909 just sits in the GC shop it’s at. But no way to know until I’m ready to order.

I got one finally! Just arrived from Japan. It’s in great condition, probably needs memory, and a SRX card for more patches, but now I just gotta sit down & hunker down with it. Haven’t sampled yet, so not sure how it compares to a SP. But it should serve me well. The presets are as cheesy as a bag of stale Doritos! Lol.

I took a break from this site, but I’m back. Just had a tooth yanked out today, so I’m in a bit of pain. But I can manage. So once I figure out the sequencer and how to trigger samples, I can give you all a honest opinion how it differs from a SP.

Peace!

I’ll be sampling once I pop the SIMM card I ordered. Sunday at the least. I’ll try to review this after I feel more comfortable with its features.

Got the SIMM card, sampled the RD6 into it, saved a sample, but playback after I write it sounds tooooo quiet! I’ll have to figure out how to play back samples so you can hear them!

One thing that’s cool, you can sample things at different notes/pitches, so you can be pretty precise with your samples. I did a sample chop of 7 pads and got 7 different parts of the 1 bar pattern I had going. I’d play with it more but I’m helping a friend move out today, so just have to experiment further later. Looks like you can use filters/LFOs to your samples if you want to get weird with it.

Anyway, it’s probably a SP505/404 mk2 on steroids. If I can just figure out how to hear it better!

the 909 is different from SPs, it's more a groovebox (mc303-505-307)+sampler, so it has things of a synth (Envelopes+LFO) and faders;
it has also 4tones per track, wich means that one tone could be build from 4 different sounds or samples, this derives from Roland JV-JX synths. You can also use the TMX (the tone mix table) to mix them in between per track.
One other cool thing is that you have a custom arpeggio/chords wich is great.
other:
you can also sequence tracks muting (in record mode).
with the 909 modded editor (not the roland one) you can choose 4 knobs or faders to control up to 4 tracks parameters per knob/fader