Grooveboxes: Which have you tried?

[treezy z]

what up, i'm looking at getting a groovebox. i started producing back in 2007 on an electribe emx and it was a lot of fun. i need breaks from sampling sometimes and think a groovebox would be perfect.
i'm basically looking for reviews of grooveboxes anyone has messed with.

i'm looking at right now roland mc series and the emx i had before, any insight would be great.

[ellaguru]

roland d2: fun, ugly but well sounding; limited (no pads, just a big one like kaoss pad series)
yamaha an200:great groovebox, fun to play but limited on sequencer (just one bar!!!), ...but this machine is a synth camoufled on a groovebox: it derives from the an1x synth (same engine): this is not a rompler this is a desktop synth, a good damn one...
roland mc909: ...well, this is out of category: very cool hybrid between groovebox and sampling worlds...the sequencer is astonishing...mixer section too, nice fx and sound...sampling section a bit contort but once entered you're ok...the 4 tones open you a new world...near this there is the roland mc-505, wich the 909 was "took" from...
roland mc-09: very cool tb303ish sounding, but lacks of many things...

[L.C.W]

I used to have the Yamaha rm1x groove box. I loved it the sequencer was pretty good it's layout with loads of keys that doubled as a midi keyboard and sequence selectors made it great for live performance, as well as the knobs for synth tweaking options, the only bad thing about it is some of the sounds will sound dated and alittle too simple by today's standards, but you can still edit them a bit, defiantly worth checking out though.

[Ill Green]

SP-505 - The original groove box that put the groove on the box. Lots of tweaking and mangling, you'll have lots of fun. Chop Shop and Pitch (which is like 16 levels on MPC). Nice sequencer, better than the 606 because you can edit bars. Only thing no pitch tuning nor good timestretch.

ESX- The bastard child of the MPC and SP-505. Like the EMX but with sampling.

[blavatsky]

Used: Roland D2, Korg EMX, Korg ESX, Korg EM-1, Yamaha RS7000, Emu MP-7, Roland MV8800

Yamaha RS7k wins all day, its an amazing piece although sampling on it is a little limited. Great sequencer, effects, MIDI remix, great chop, decent rompler sounds/drums onboard, easy to use. Saving/Loading is slow due to smartmedia cards

MV8800 is fantastic but the size a buick, and lacks the cool MIDI remix stuff and chops w/ different decay types of the Yamaha RS7K...but its more of a production battle station.

[tape smoke]

mc 307 - good for hiphop or soundtracks, has some decent patches, but
more of a beginners groove box. its basicalyy the hiphop version of the
mc 505 but the presets are warmer.

mc 505 - a little better than the 307, it has super wicked filters and
analog style synth patches, it is cool because you can assign any
function to the sliders, so if your knobs break off you can just use
the sliders, a neat technique is to use the sliders for pitch with
strumming with the arp and get awesome horror movie effects.

mc - 808, pretty decent box, saving songs and patches is a nightmare,
never figured it out, made a couple gangsta beats on it, not worth 800
bucks for motorized faders and a couple cool samppples, the drums are a
little to sharp sounding, mostly 808 drum based, it samples too. i
didn't like it.

sp 505- one of the best sounding samplers iv'e used, lots of sample time
, good effects and awesome workflow, this is the sp groove box to get.

[ellaguru]

Used: Roland D2, Korg EMX, Korg ESX, Korg EM-1, Yamaha RS7000, Emu MP-7, Roland MV8800

Yamaha RS7k wins all day, its an amazing piece although sampling on it is a little limited. Great sequencer, effects, MIDI remix, great chop, decent rompler sounds/drums onboard, easy to use. Saving/Loading is slow due to smartmedia cards

MV8800 is fantastic but the size a buick, and lacks the cool MIDI remix stuff and chops w/ different decay types of the Yamaha RS7K...but its more of a production battle station.

Man, can i ask you some questions about the Rs in pm? I took this machine just 2 days ago and i couldn't use it until now (changing house).
Thanks

[cartesia]

no mention of the elektrons yet.... undoubtedly the kings now. pricey, but if you can afford it I would highly recommend.

[formal]

no mention of the elektrons yet.... undoubtedly the kings now. pricey, but if you can afford it I would highly recommend.

You can buy EVERY korg electribe for the price of a single elektron machine. To be honest I haven't really heard much stuff that blew my mind or sounded any different from other gear out there. If they priced them at $600 I would be a lot more tempted to try it out, but as it is I can't justify spending that much on one. Same thing goes for the tenori-on. They now have a cheaper version, but it's still too pricey to impulse buy. A tenori priced at $400 would be the sweet spot.

[springwater]

Whats the deal with those elektrons. I dont hear much either besides dude rocking out to techno and trance beats. Does anyone have any experience with any of those machines. They have this new analog 4 which looks pretty and the price is probably justifiable for someone making club music for days but im really curious as to what other things they have to offer besides a step sequencing analog setup.

[postbreakmelody]

Ive had the mc 909 for 4 years
Before switchin to the triple 5ives
But the mc 909 is a little powerhouse
loads of patches and easy pattern saving
step sequencer the only thing is its on smartmedia
Cards for expandable memory. Other than
That its awesome i think rza used it as his
workhorse for killbill 1 or 2

[ellaguru]

the only thing is its on smartmedia
Cards for expandable memory.

...i use the Xd card trick for this, now my 909 has 256mb memory

[Mr. Davenport]

Yes the mc 909. I bought it when it came out in like '02 then I sold it like a moron now I cant find one for the life of me. Incredible machine.

[treezy z]

i ended up getting the mc-307 because i found one for 100 dollars on craigslist. have the pickup and all that exchanged for later this week, dudes coming to my place so i can fuck with it to make sure it works. anything i should know?

[jetson]

I had the JX-305 for a few years...it was basically a 909 with a keyboard - 61 keys. Got bored of the sounds, and the LCD started glitching, so I sold it for the SX.