Roland MC-101 Groovebox Music Production Workstation

Make beats anywhere! A super-portable sibling to the MC-707, the Roland MC-101 Groovebox is a 4-track beat machine with 16 pads and 4 hours of battery life.

Small size. Massive groove.

Produce and perform music anywhere, anytime, without clutter or complications. The Roland MC-101 has the sequencing, sounds, and effects of the professional MC-707, in a compact four-track version. It has the highest quality Roland sounds and churns out massive grooves with a huge selection of ready-to-go patterns, loops, and phrases. And you can make it your own by adding your own sounds and crafting your own style.

Roland MC-101 Groovebox Overview:


Pocket production studio.

The MC-101 is a professional production tool, sharing the sounds and many of the capabilities of its bigger sibling, the MC-707. And there are advantages to being small. The MC-101 is solid yet lightweight and runs for about five hours on four AA batteries. This means you can design sounds, create drum patterns, and compose musical phrases just about anywhere. And the MC-101 is not just a scratch pad for simple ideas. You can produce fully-fledged professional tracks or create backing tracks and accompaniment for live performance.

Expandable sounds, patterns and phrases.

Compose from a large curated collection of built-in beats, phrases, chords, and sounds, all expertly crafted by renowned artists and sound designers. And the MC-101 is part of an expandable platform. So, when you're ready for more, or want to explore genres and styles, you can easily change things up by adding content.

Turn a creative spark into fire.

The MC-101 has a four-track read more sequencer optimized for creating today's electronic and dance oriented music. You can use the 16 ultra-sensitive RGB pads to create drum, bass, and synthesizer patterns and create your own original music. It's your musical playground, where you can freely combine loops and one-shots with melodic phrases including your own imported audio recordings and MIDI sequences. Compose and trigger clips, rearrange, re-sample, record your knob movements, and more.

A portable studio full of vintage gear.

The MC-101 has the Roland sounds that have defined electronic and dance genres for over forty years. Legendary instruments like the TR-808, TR-909, JUNO-106 and SH-101 are all here, ready to replicate classic sounds or be combined, tweaked, and processed into entirely new sounds.

Play your own custom audio in perfect sync.

Each track can contain a powerful sample player that can also play your own custom imported sounds. Use your own voice, or the sound of your favorite instrument from your computer. Imported audio can sync with the MC-101's tempo or be processed with the arsenal of built-in effects and hands-on controls.

Produce tracks ready to stream or perform.

With the MC-101's massive effects palette, your music sounds polished and fully-produced. Each track has independent effects processors with a huge number of variations. Lush chorus brings depth to pads and other synth sounds. Delays and reverbs create evocative spaces and add movement to delicate sequences. Overdrive, distortion, and amp simulation add grit and intensity to synths, guitars, drums and more. You can also run your entire mix through master effects like filters, bit-crushers and a master bus compressor that glues it all together with punch and clarity.

Produce and share with the world. With one cable.

When you're ready to expand on your tracks, or share your creations with friends and fans, simply connect the MC-101 to your computer with a single USB cable. It has advanced USB audio interface capabilities and can record an entire mix or all four parts to individual tracks in your DAW. Or sample sounds from your DAW to capture backing tracks, stems, or the sound of your favorite software synth for your next live show.
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- Sound Generator
ZEN-Core (Tone, Drum Kit)

- Track Type
Tone, Drum Kit, Looper (Audio Loop)

- Maximum Polyphony
ZEN-Core: 128 voices (varies according to the sound generator load)
LOOPER: 4 (varies according to the available number of Looper track)

- Tracks
4 tracks

- Clips
64 clips (16 clips per track)

* Clip Type: Tone, Drum Kit, Looper (Audio Loop), it varies according to the track type.

- Tones
Preset Tone: 3,000 or greater
Preset Drum Kit: 80 or greater
User Sample (as a Tone or Drum Kit): available by importing form SD CARD
Looper Sample (as a clip of Looper track): available by importing from SD CARD

* Available total time for User Sample: 12 minutes in mono, 6 minutes in stereo (44.1 kHz)
* Available format of User Sample:
WAV 32--96 kHz/16 bits, 24 bits (mono, stereo)

* Available total time for Looper Sample: Approx. 60 sec (44.1 kHz)
* Available format of Looper Sample:
WAV 44.1 kHz/16 bits, 24 bits, 32 bits, 32 bits float (mono, stereo)

- Effects
Track Multi-Effects: 90 types
Track EQ
Chorus/Delay: 9 types
Reverb: 7 types
Master Effects: 90 types
Master Compressor
Master EQ

- Step Sequencer
Maximum Step: 128 steps

* Available on a Tone or Drum Kit Track

- Looper
Time Stretch, Pitch Shift

* Available on a Looper Track

- Display
16 characters, 2 lines LCD (with backlit)

- External Storage
SD Card (SDHC supported) for saving Project Data and Audio Data

- Connectors
PHONES jack: Stereo miniature phone type
OUT(L/MONO, R) jacks: 1/4-inch phone type
MIDI (IN, OUT) connectors
USB port: USB B type (Audio, MIDI)

- Power Supply
Alkaline battery (AA, LR6) x 4
Ni-MH battery (AA, HR6) x 4
Obtained via USB port (USB bus power)

- Current Draw
500 mA

- Expected battery life under continuous use
Alkaline battery (AA, LR6): Approx. 3 hours
Ni-MH battery (AA, HR6): Approx. 4.5 hours

* This can vary depending on the specifications of the batteries, capacity of the batteries, and the conditions of use.

- Dimensions
224(W) x 132(D) x 61(H) mm
8-13/16 (W) x 5-3/16 (D) x 2-7/16 (H) inches

- Weight (including batteries)
716 g
1 lb 9 oz

- Accessories
Owner's manual
Alkaline battery (AA, LR6) x 4
SD Card (installed in the product when shipped from the factory)
SD Card Protector (installed in the product when shipped from the factory)
Dimensions and Weight in Packaging
Base Item
Shipping Weight: 3 lbs
Shipping Dimensions: 13 x 8 x 4 in
Manufacturer Part Number (MPN): MC-101
Warehouse Resealed
Shipping Weight: 3 lbs
Shipping Dimensions: 13 x 8 x 4 in
Manufacturer Part Number (MPN): MC-101

For support or warranty questions, please contact the manufacturer:
Phone: 323-890-3700

Reviewers gave this product an overall rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars. (4 ratings)
Submitted December 7, 2022 by Hunter R in Chicago, IL

"Fun tiny machine"

Overall: 4.5 out of 5 stars
(see rating details)
Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.
Got this to create music on the plane or waiting for lunch. I really love the purchase I made! I like the sounds, lightweight,able to sample from a usb, controls and pad velocity. The sounds on this machine is amazing, I really thought I created a track with multiple vintage synths and a tr-909 drum machine. However, I found the menu diving a bit confusing at first but I got used to it in 24-72 hours. If you have a TR6S, this is a good companion piece for Roland’s drum machine because both can sync with midi.
Sound
If you love the classic Roland sounds and want a bunch of sounds for every genre, this is worth it. As a Roland product, the sound is so crisp and amazing!
Features
I use the chord mode (hidden in note). Daw support, and the clip feature a lot (clips are like different parts of the track). Least favorite is the menu diving and remembering the commands.
Ease of Use
It’s very easy to start creating songs but it’s a bit of a learning curve to use shortcuts and basic commands (creating a arp). Usually takes several trial and error to find some shortcuts but it’s worth it.
Quality
It’s well made!
Value
Yes, I found it as an affordable option to the Digitakt or The Roland Mc-707. Perfect for someone who wants a portable and affordable Groovebox under $1000
Manufacturer Support
Very supportive service had no problems with them
The Wow Factor
Yes I love the portability and the sounds it makes is phenomenal, I really thought I created my first track on my DAW.

Musical Background:

Drums,djing and piano

Musical Style:

House music
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