ilovefuzz.com

Is it a good idea to get one of these with the intention of using it as a live drum machine? I'm looking specifically for 808/909 drum sets and the 303/505 have the samples and sequencers and they're relatively inexpensive.

Yeah I know I should use a laptop but I love knobs

I would go with one of the korg sampling electribes instead. Those early Roland groove boxes suck big time!

edit... Just remembered this- http://ilovefuzz.com/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=37596

Yes get one, the 505... They both have all the Roland Drum Sounds and are editable and Awesome and all that...

I just won a yamaha rm1x on ebay, went with that instead of a roland mc after reading lots about both machines online, seems to be generally preferred.
http://www.vintagesynth.com/yamaha/rm1x.php

my limited experience w/ mc303 was that it was not good for tweaking/making patterns on the fly, as u can't do it while the sequencer is playing.

MeSoFuzzy wrote:I would go with one of the korg sampling electribes instead. Those early Roland groove boxes suck big time!

edit... Just remembered this- http://ilovefuzz.com/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=37596

I'll have to check these out because I see them all over the place, so many different models looking through used listings

trace wrote:I just won a yamaha rm1x on ebay, went with that instead of a roland mc after reading lots about both machines online, seems to be generally preferred.
http://www.vintagesynth.com/yamaha/rm1x.php

Looking on ebay this is right around the amount I want to spend so will investigate.

Dr. Sherman Sticks M.D. wrote:my limited experience w/ mc303 was that it was not good for tweaking/making patterns on the fly, as u can't do it while the sequencer is playing.

That's a bummer not being able to add while it's playing like the TRs, I'll have to check if the 505 is the same. Also I'm reading that the 505s have a real problem with dead pixels :\

I've had both, honestly.. you better off with the SP404 instead. Get the one with the sd card, get yourself some samples and use the onboard fx, it's pretty sweet, easier to program and MUCH BETTER!