Roland MV-1 Verselab Music Production Workstation

Roland MV-1 Verselab Music Production Workstation, New, Action Position Front

zZounds Gear Experts Say...

Beat-making redefined! The Roland MV-1 Verselab groovebox offers a fluid workflow with a mic input, and plug-and-play access to thousands of ZEN-Core sounds.

Overview

When inspiration strikes, Roland's MV-1 VERSELAB helps you capture, refine, and finish your ideas. The fluid, hands-on workflow simplifies music making with modern vocal recording, pattern generators, thousands of ZEN-Core sounds, mastering effects, and more. Plug-and-play integration with Roland's Zenbeats app expands your production capabilities using your computer or mobile device.

Specs

- MV-1 : VERSELAB - PRODUCT SPECS
- 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: 8 (varies according to the available number of Looper track)
- Vocal Take: 16 (varies according to the vocal take size)

- Tracks: 7 tracks and 1 vocal track

- Sections: 16 sections
- Vocal Take: 16 takes

- Tones:
- Preset Tone: 3,000 or greater
- Preset Drum Kit: 80 or greater
- User Sample (as a Tone or Drum Kit): available by importing from SD card
- Looper Sample (as a clip of Looper track): available by importing from SD card, recording via EXT IN/Tracks
* Available total time for User Sample and Vocal take: 12 minutes in mono, 6 minutes in stereo (44.1 kHz)
* Available format of User Sample: WAV 32--96 kHz/16-bit, 24-bit (mono, stereo)
* Available total time for Looper Sample: Approx. 60 sec (44.1 kHz)
* Available format of Looper Sample: WAV 44.1 kHz/16-bit, 24-bit, 32-bit, 32-bit 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 jacks: Stereo 1/4-inch phone type, Stereo miniature phone type
- MIX OUT (L/MONO, R) jacks: 1/4-inch phone type
- EXT IN (L/MONO/MIC, R) jacks: 1/4-inch phone type
- MIC IN: XLR type (phantom power: +48 V, 10 mA Max.)
- MIDI (IN, OUT1) connectors
- USB port: USB B type (Audio, MIDI)
- DC IN jack

- Power Supply:
- AC adaptor
- Obtained via USB port (USB bus power)

- Current Draw:
- 2,000 mA (AC adaptor)
- 500 mA (USB bus power)

- Dimensions:
- 354 (W) x 208 (D) x 60 (H) mm
- 13-15/16 (W) x 8-3/16 (D) x 2-3/8 (H) inches

- Weights (excluding AC adaptor): 1.165 kg / 2 lbs 10 oz

- Accessories:
- Leaflet "Read Me First"
- AC adaptor
- SD card (installed in the product when shipped from the factory)
- SD card protector

Dimensions and Weight in Packaging

Base Item

Shipping Weight: 6.5 lbs
Shipping Dimensions: 21 x 11 x 5 in
Manufacturer Part Number (MPN): MV-1

Documents and Manuals

For support or warranty questions, please contact the manufacturer:
Phone: 323-890-3700
Web: https://www.roland.com/us/support/

Reviews

(4 ratings)

Submitted February 27, 2026 by a customer from gmail.com

"If it's right for you, it's wonderful"

Overall:

(see rating details)

Verified Purchaser zZounds has verified that this reviewer purchased this specific product from us.

I bought this after reading a lot of conflicting reviews on the internet. I don't tend to hear much from people that stick with the mv-1, and I happen to be someone that really does like it, and I do plan on keeping it. I'm also pretty much exactly who they had in mind when designing it, so please keep that in mind.I am a composer, multi-instrumentalist, and singer, and I also get extraordinarily easily distracted working on the computer. I have a lot of hardware and I've used a lot of different boxes in this "all-in-one" marketing bracket, and I have to say I've learned some very important things from my experience. I've owned an mpc live II, hated it, found it extremely tedious, got rid of it. Owned a sonicware smpltrek, thought it was ok, ended up selling it. I owned an sp404, loved it for sampling, but I found it clunky for composing and sequencing. I have a dirtywave m8, love composing with it, and chopping samples, but actually fx and sound manipulation as well as polyphony is very lacking. The point where I decided the mv-1 was a good idea to try was when I decided what I was looking for was something with good presets (especially for drums, otherwise I was relying on my computer), good sequencing capability with a mature song mode for composing, and the ability to record and manipulate audio. I was hoping when I got this, that it could fill all of the nichesthat I wanted, basically a great preset box that I can use to compose, sample, sequence, and sing into, then spit… read more out the track as a finished wav file. This will absolutely do that with some caveats that could be deal breakers for some. First off, the sampler is hilariously underpowered compared to an sp404. I tried doing a resampling workflow with it, and it's just not worth it. The fx are very good but if you are wanting to use this to chop a drum break, put fx and resample, it's just not gonna be fun. You CAN chop your samples on a computer or another device and sequence them with this machine just fine, but the best way to do that is undoubtedly loading trimmed samples onto the SD card directly. Remember, this is Roland. If you want sp404 workflow, you MUST buy the sp404.Second, if you want deep synthesis and sound design, this is not your thing. You can do some menu diving, but trying to stretch it outside of its presets too much is just too much of a PITA. If you want sound design, get a real synthesizer or I guess use this thing with the zenbeats app (I don't). Third, the audio recording is very limited. You only get 12 minutes of mono total across all 16 vocal takes and both looper tracks. If you have ideas of layering many long guitar or vocal takes or even resampling them to bounce with ease, the task is better served by a multitrack recorder. If you just want to loop a guitar or bass, or record a single guitar part, a single vocal part, a single bass guitar part, or some combination of those no longer than 12 minutes mono total, then it's fine. For me, it's fine, but because I have somewhere to go if I need more space. One of the big lessons I learned from owning this is that there is likely no one device that can do everything. For me, it's all about whether or not a device can contribute something special better than any other device and whether it fills a niche in my setup. For me, the mv-1 contributes and justifies its place in my studio, but I probably won't use it by itself very often. It's a great ideas machine, the presets are phenomenal, it's fun to compose with, and I can make a whole song entirely on it if I felt so inclined, but to get "my sound" will have to involve other studio pieces like multitrack recorders, my m8, the sp404, guitars, basses, and work. Each contributes its own specialty to the workflow, be that a specialist sequencer, a preset box, an audio recorder, a synth or drum machine. I would rather work with a bunch of different pieces that each do one of those things spectacularly than one device that does many things with compromises (looking at you, Akai).TLDR: I love this thing, it sounds great and I am definitely keeping it. The learning curve is a little steep, but if you want something to write songs with, you like Roland zencore sounds, and you don't care about sampling or long audio tracks, this could be very very useful in your studio.

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