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Roland M-DC1

19-Mar-2024

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Roland M-DC1



Category:  Products / synthesisers / sample synthesisers

Added: 17-Dec-98  |  Author: admin

New price: discontinued (RRP £499)  |   S/H price: £250 - £300


Roland M-DC1



You'd forgotten all about this one right? Released in 1995 as part of Roland's new Sound Expansion Series for about £499 GBP.  All 5 modules in the series were loaded with ROM samples taken from Roland's JV-80 sound expansion cards.



 



The M-DC1 Dance Module (to give it it's full title) features sounds from the Roland SR-JV80-06 card, & both the card & this module were soon taken off the market due to copyright issues with some of the samples which were all done by British sample company AMG.



 



The MDC-1 is 28 note polyphonic contains about 50 stereo drum loops. You also get lots of vocal snatches, buzzes, blips, pianos, synths, basses, organs, scratches & sound FX too, a good all round palette of 'Dance' audio stuff with around 255 patches in total. The M-DC1 included a reverb & chorus effect, and the FX can be added to the 8 possible parts separately if you are using a sequencer to play the unit in multi-mode.



 



You also get all your analog drum box samples as well, including all the favourites from Roland's classic machines like the 909 etc... there's also plenty of percussion stuff too. All in all you get enough drum samples here to use it as a dedicated drum box, so think of this as a cheap Dance 'Orbit' type module.



 



Editing is via Sysex, but if you can get into it there's 80 parameters per unit that can be tweaked, including Filter, Envelopes, Modulation etc, and these units have cool Roland res' filters.



 



Other units in the Sound Expansion Series were the Roland M-VS1 vintage synth, M-BD1 bass & drums, M-OC1 orchestral, M-SE1 string ensemble & M-GS64 GM/GS module.



 



The M-DC1 is a forgotten bargain gem nowadays which can be had for very little money on Ebay.



 



 



 

Old Dancetech listing text



I first saw these Roland modules unit at a trade show a couple of years back, around the time of the Korg Prophesy release & they were pumping out loads of 'dance-music' noises.



These units didn't last long, probably because they are simply expander units as the title says..... These are not synths that can be edited from the front panel or anything like that...editing of sounds is via Sysex only..... They are simply boxes loaded up with roms worth of dance sounds......however as a cheap S/h purchase, maybe they are worth checking if you make any kind of dance tunes......and as you'll see, you can also use them as a drum box with a sequencer, where they will function better than most drum machines in providing a full dance-drums pallette of sounds.



The sounds of these units are taken from the JV1080 cards.....and also I would bet that quite a few also found their way into the MC-303... I'll talk to Roland & comfirm this soon.  Each unit has about 250 patches....You also get a basic reverb & chorus FX to add......The FX can be added to the 8 multi-parts seperately if you are using a sequencer to play the unit in multi-mode.



 

The M-DC1 Dance module



This unit contains about 50 stereo drum loops, all yer usual housey garagey & other stuff, but don't expect anything too radical, these units aint going to turn you into Tricky overnight.......You also get lots of vocal snatches, buzzes, blips, piano's, scratches, synths, organs, & sound FX etc etc.......a good all round pallette of "Dance" audio stuff.



You also get all your analog drumbox samples as well, including all the favourites from Roland's classic machines like the 909 etc....there's also plenty of percussion stuff too.....All -in -all, you get enuff drum samples here to use it as a dedicated drum box.



So all in all, think of this as a cheap Dance-Orbit type module, giving all yer drum sounds, plus ready to go loops, and all the other bitz you need... definately worth checking if a cheap S/H one appears in the paper.



8 part multitimbrel. 28 note poly. built in assignable reverb & chorus... Stereo outputs.. and also each unit includes stereo audio in sockets, so that you can bring another units outputs into these modules' inputs, and output the combined mix of the two from the Roland units' outputs. Basically, with these two it's like having a couple of JV-1080 expansion cards in a box, with editing facilities etc.... pretty cool huh?......If you see either one cheap in the small-ad's, definately check em out!



 













Product Manuals or Files

no user manual




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User Comments

Product:  Roland - M-DC1
Name: Peter
Email: Email supplied but hidden
Activity: part-timer
Date: 20-Jan-99

Use it allthe time. Does anyone know if there is an editor out there?

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Product:  Roland - M-DC1
Name: Matej Peternel
Email: Email supplied but hidden
Activity: part-timer
Date: 20-Jan-99

I think that M-DC1 has very good drum sounds, which help me in my music, better then drum sounds in my JV-1080.

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Product:  Roland - M-DC1
Name: Doc
Email: Email supplied but hidden
Activity: Professional
Date: 20-Jan-99

I have a M-DC1 dance module which has a good servant and

has loads of useable sounds and a few killer loops.

But if you ever see one for under 350 quid grab it up because Roland

had to pull this unit off the market due to the nature of

samples they used and some licensing problems so there are very few

about. Also I wonder where I could find some Sysex editor for my dance module

and even though I've been DJ'ing and producing House for over a decade, sysex is still

a mystery to me. Anyone out there care to advise???

Cheers!!

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Product:  Roland - M-DC1
Name: Simon Greenwood
Email: Email supplied but hidden
Activity: Hobby-ist
Date: 20-Jan-99

There's an editor called, oddly enough, the Roland Sound Expansion Series Editor available from http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/palweb/.



It works OK - needs a bit of effort, and I'm not convinced that all the sounds on the M-VS1 are controllable, but someone get the s/w and prove me wrong!



Simon

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Product:  Roland - M-DC1
Name: Spli Point
Email: Email supplied but hidden
Activity: part-timer
Date: 20-Jan-99

MVS-1 is a great do everything box. The sounds are first-class. The electronic drum sounds sound good and there is a large assortment of analog tones. The only thing that sucks is that you can't edit the sounds from the front panel and there is no computer editor commercial or shareware that I've seen for Mac or PC. I've been told that a JV editor can be modified so.....I'm going to get Sound Diver and give it a shot. I'll post again if I get it working. I paid $300 US new for mine and it was a steal at that price, highly recommend it!

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Product:  Roland - M-DC1
Name: Roy E. Taylor
Email: Email supplied but hidden
Activity: Hobby-ist
Date: 20-Jan-99

MVS-1 is a damn fine purchase-

picked mine up new for £199!

This Hammond Organ sound No. 69 is pure John Lord Deep Purple.

Get this modul;e for instant Hawkwind cred.

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Product:  Roland - M-DC1
Name: Matej Peternel
Email: Email supplied but hidden
Activity: Hobby-ist
Date: 20-Jan-99

I am using Roland M-DC1 and Roland JV-1080 for my

music.I am very happy that I have buy this modules,

because they sounds really great.My interest is to

making good trance and ambient music.

Buy, Matej

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Product:  Roland - M-DC1
Name: sauve christofer
Email: Email supplied but hidden
Activity: Hobby-ist
Date: 20-Jan-99

j'ai le MVS1 et j'en suis tres content,mais... mais.. je ne trouve pas un bon editeur pour creer ou modifier des sons !

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Product:  Roland - M-DC1
Name: Scott Akins
Email: Email supplied but hidden
Activity: part-timer
Date: 20-Jan-99

Hey,



There is a sysex editor for the PC. You can get

it from http://www.synthzone.com/roland.htm. Look

towards the bottom under 'Roland Software'. It is

called the 'Sound Expansion Module Editor - Win'

and it works pretty good. Controlling effects,

changing the performances, etc.



Later,

Hope this helped.

Scott

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Product:  Roland - M-DC1
Name: LogiK (George Cochrane
Email: Email supplied but hidden
Activity: Professional
Date: 20-Jan-99

I have the MVS-1. It has loads of cool pads

(great Jupiter-8 samples), nice mellotron, electric

piano (Rhodes) and organ sounds. The onboard

filter and effects aren't half bad, either! My only

complaint is an incomplete 909 set (just kick and

a couple snares.. No hi hats or crash), and the

short-decayed 808 kick (it sounds like a long decay

kick with a sharp volume envelope cutting it to

a shorter size). The rest is great, (except for

the fact that it's only 8-part multitimbral). I ]

traded an MC-303 for one with 100 bucks added. That

was a great deal!



Get one if you want to have alot of great synth

sounds but don't want to burden your sampler with

them. Very high-quality, sweet-sounding samples.

I tried the more expensive Emu Vintage Keys, and

it doesn't even compare.

Highly reccomended

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Product:  Roland - M-DC1
Name: Gengis Krahn
Email: Email supplied but hidden
Activity: Professional
Date: 20-Jan-99

check out this link if you have one of the above synths. the only thing the shareware doesn't control is the drums

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Product:  Roland - M-DC1
Name: Avery Brooks
Email: Email supplied but hidden
Activity: Professional
Date: 20-Jan-99

The MDC1 is nice, I use it all the time in my rig... nice pads, some nice drums too, but quite not enougm to settle my raging junglist desires for those prefect tweaked up snares/hats.

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Product:  Roland - M-DC1
Name: Buzz
Email: Email supplied but hidden
Activity: part-timer
Date: 20-Jan-99

The drum/loop patches are worth having alone. I'm still working on the SYSEX stuff to get to the nitty gritty, though.

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Product:  Roland - M-DC1
Name: Barry Woodward
Email: Email supplied but hidden
Activity: Professional
Date: 20-Jan-99

I have M-VS1, M-OC1, M-SE1 & M-BD1 units as well as a JV2080 and I can tell you that they all sound great, especially when played in 'patch' mode !

Do you know of a site where I can download Logic Multiset with preloaded bank names for the expansion units ? And by the way using SoundDiver alongside Logic Platinum (with Autolink on the Mac platform) really brings allyour units to life !



Barry Woodward, Mastering Engineer, EMI UK

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Product:  Roland - M-DC1
Name: Ferdinand Babst
Email: Email supplied but hidden
Activity: Professional
Date: 20-Jan-99

I've got a m vs-1 module and the sounds are great. The drum sounds do need a bit of fine tuning when you work with them. The base drums don't really have the kick that one needs. I have had some difficulty in controlling the unit with sysex but it's still a great module

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Product:  Roland - M-DC1
Name: rod
Email: Email supplied but hidden
Activity: part-timer
Date: 20-Jan-99

im looking for an editor for the m-vs1. help.

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Product:  Roland - M-DC1
Name: david levy
Email: Email supplied but hidden
Activity: Hobby-ist
Date: 20-Jan-99

hi

i am working with cubase vst and roland

m-dc1 sound expansion, and i am searching for

the studio module file associated to this

device

does it exist?

thanks...

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Product:  Roland - M-DC1
Name: Chris & Greg
Email: Email supplied but hidden
Activity: Professional
Date: 20-Jan-99

We have a M-DC1 DANCE MODULE and no Manual. Do you know where we could grab one off the net.



Peace *C-,

Youth Engine

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Product:  Roland - M-DC1
Name: Remco vd Berg
Email: Email supplied but hidden
www.theauroraproject.com
Activity: part-timer
Date: 16-Jul-02

I've got the M-VS1.
it absolutely kicks ass. I bought it 4 140 Euro (an absolute bargain).
The only problem is, I'm a filter maniac but there are no knobs. the only soun editing can be done by sysex (Iuse JVedit). does anyone know if you can use a midicontroller like "fatboy" to realtime modify the filters?

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Product:  Roland - M-DC1
Name: morphire
Email: Email supplied but hidden
Activity: Hobby-ist
Date: 18-Nov-02

Hello all
Where is the midi editor for the
MAC.SoundQuest will work but not
over USB.So come on Roland were
is it.The sounds need to be tweaked
and i've been looking for almost a
year now for an editor.Non about :-(
Pete

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Product:  Roland - M-DC1
Name: gaz
Email: Email supplied but hidden
Activity:
Date: 30-Nov-02

can someone find an editor for the m-vs1

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Product:  Roland - M-DC1
Name: Stuart
Email: Email supplied but hidden
Activity: Hobby-ist
Date: 20-Feb-03

Hi, Is there anywhere I can get a manual for thr M-DC1? PDF format would be nice.... :-)

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Product:  Roland - M-DC1
Name: clutch
Email: Email supplied but hidden
Activity: Hobby-ist
Date: 15-Mar-04

Recherche :sond cart `` Roland scc-1 ``

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Product:  Roland - M-DC1
Name: Paul
Email: No email added
Activity: Hobby-ist
Date: 19-Mar-04

Someone asked "does anyone know if you can use a midicontroller like "fatboy" to realtime modify the filters? "

The M-VS1 does not respond to the Midi CC 71-74 (filter and envelope controls) which is a pain but it will respond to the equivalent NRPNs. I set this up on a Peavey PC1600 and it worked OK if the unit wasn't receiving Midi notes. If I tried to tweak it with NRPNs during playback it went out of tune. I never got to the bottom of that before I sold the PC1600 but it should work in theory. The only possibility I could think of was that there was a weird mapping in the OS that detuned the oscs (or maybe I just messed up programming the PC1600? - nah!).

This can happen and the Novation Nova for example has midi expression CC mapped to Osc 1 fine tune - DUH!

All the Sysex addresses and the NRPN and CC responses are set out in the Expansion Series manual - note that there are two manuals. One generic one for the series which details all the midi stuff and a unit specific one giving all the patches and waveform data.

Cheers

Paul

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Product:  Roland - M-DC1
Name: Bastet
Email: Email supplied but hidden
Activity: part-timer
Date: 19-Sep-04

Hello!
I have the M-VS 1.
I think so it’s a very great music box but I have a little problem.
I have lost the table with the drums loop.
The one indicated us for each loop the bpm and the increase with each note…
I don’t arrive to find it.
Can I have a copy of it?
So, thank you for your help.

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Product:  Roland - M-DC1
Name: Blue Dome
Email: Email supplied but hidden
Activity: part-timer
Date: 03-Jul-12

My M-VS1 is still trucking on after 17 years and I love it.
I control it from my Novation ReMote 25 keyboard after painstakingly assigning the NRPN numbers in the manual to knobs and creating a template. Roland hid it all in Hexadecimal code which makes it feel like cracking the Enigma machine. It's worth it though, turns it from a preset module in to a synth! Some sounds respond far better to tweaks over MIDI than others, but on those that do it sounds great. Sometimes continuous realtime tweaking does cause it to go out of tune or lock up whilst it catches up, but being able to get inside and unlock the potential of the patches is really rewarding - it's a cracking good module that has aged better than the M-DC1 because it was less faddy.

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Product:  Roland - M-DC1
Name: synthmans
Email: Email supplied but hidden
Activity: Professional
Date: 20-Jan-14

Would your Novation setup work with an M-DC1 module as well?

[quote] Blue Dome wrote: My M-VS1 is still trucking on after 17 years
and I love it.I control it from my Novation ReMote 25 keyboard after
painstakingly assigning the NRPN numbers in the manual to knobs and
creating a template. Roland hid it all in Hexadecimal code which makes it feel
like cracking the Enigma machine. Its worth it though, turns it from a preset
module in to a synth! Some sounds respond far better to tweaks over MIDI
than others, but on those that do it sounds great. Sometimes continuous
realtime tweaking does cause it to go out of tune or lock up whilst it catches
up, but being able to get inside and unlock the potential of the patches is
really rewarding - its a cracking good module that has aged better than the M-
DC1 because it was less faddy. [/quote]

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Product:  Roland - M-DC1
Name: Blue Dome
Email: Email supplied but hidden
Activity: part-timer
Date: 21-Jan-14

[quote] synthmans wrote: Would your Novation setup work with an M-DC1
module as well?[quote] Blue Dome wrote: My M-VS1 is still trucking on
after 17 years and I love it.I control it from my Novation ReMote 25 keyboard
after painstakingly assigning the NRPN numbers in the manual to knobs and
creating a template. Roland hid it all in Hexadecimal code which makes it feel
like cracking the Enigma machine. Its worth it though, turns it from a preset
module in to a synth! Some sounds respond far better to tweaks over MIDI
than others, but on those that do it sounds great. Sometimes continuous
realtime tweaking does cause it to go out of tune or lock up whilst it catches
up, but being able to get inside and unlock the potential of the patches is
really rewarding - its a cracking good module that has aged better than the M-
DC1 because it was less faddy. [/quote] [/quote]

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Last added comment

Product:  Roland - M-DC1
Name: synthmans
Email: Email supplied but hidden
Activity: part-timer
Date: 06-Feb-14

Fair enough, the VS1 would be a great companion to the DC1... I wouldn't
mind trying out the Novation template if that's possible?

[quote] Blue Dome wrote: [quote] synthmans wrote: Would your
Novation setup work with an M-DC1 module as well?[quote] Blue Dome
wrote: My M-VS1 is still trucking on after 17 years and I love it.I control it
from my Novation ReMote 25 keyboard after painstakingly assigning the
NRPN numbers in the manual to knobs and creating a template. Roland
hid it all in Hexadecimal code which makes it feel like cracking the
Enigma machine. Its worth it though, turns it from a preset module in to a
synth! Some sounds respond far better to tweaks over MIDI than others,
but on those that do it sounds great. Sometimes continuous realtime
tweaking does cause it to go out of tune or lock up whilst it catches up,
but being able to get inside and unlock the potential of the patches is
really rewarding - its a cracking good module that has aged better than
the M-DC1 because it was less faddy. [/quote] [/quote] [/quote]

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