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

Roland has been a staple in my studio since 1990, with my first Roland product being a DR 550. Later being a DR 660 ,Mc 50, DJ 70 and the list goes on.They have always found a different way of getting the job done.For those who know Roland and their history, this has hints of natalga written all over it.The TR 808 colors intro, Hints of the S-70 sampling engine. New projects default at 70 tempo. The styles button whispers at the Akai MPC. Over all really replacing my MV 8000. The proclaimed Mpc killer from 2003-4.Learning curve is frustrating as the Mv 8000, but that's typical Roland. Sampling editing is limited start and end points are slow motion.Update needed. Old sounds are definitely low fi.But after you learn it, it's Gold as the color of the Versalab is printed in.It's the most beautiful gear in my studio.Don't miss this one. Grab it while it's available.

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

It saw videos on YouTube a thought this was a bad idea to lease this. Now it’s the best investment in my hip hop career I’ve made this unit is absolutely incredible buy one before people realize! The buttons do everything I watched a bunch of tutorials and read parts of the manual now it’s about getting batter! I haven’t even recorded vocals yet must fun in years!

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

I don't want to bore you with all the things you can watch on you tube, but I want to capture your attention for someone that has had this for 24 hours.First of all, I came from Novation Products. Novation MK3, Novation Circuit Tracks, and Novation LaunchKey MK3. So I've used groove boxes before. But this Roland Verselab MV-1 is in a class all by itself! Ok. I'm used to using sequencing because of the Circuit Tracks, but to be able to sing, and modify your voice?? I'm not trying to make any songs yet, I just want to get used to the commands, and yes I made a song already. I haven't gone into song mode with it, because it was an accident. I was playing around with all the three thousand sounds, and used reverb, and delay, and panning, and effects. Do I need to go on?I haven't even read the manual yet, just watched the Roland Youtube video.The only limitations the Roland Verselab MV-1 has is......... your creative juices!!Get it, get inspired, and make some fire!Also I went mobile and used a battery pack with it, and a microphone!! haha

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