Creating swing feel on the Roland MC-4b

From the video description:

A demonstation of how to create swing on the Roland MC-4, you could also apply the same technique to the MC-202, MC-8 or other similar device, if this video proves popular I may do some more tutorials.

This is not a musical performance just a demonstration of technique so I have kept it to a simple 16 step sequence, of course you can use any length of sequence depending how patient you are.

First set the timebase to 48,12,6, this gives you 48ppqn so each 16th note will last for 12clocks, and enter your notes as normal. in the first part of the clip I am playing the sequence straight – so all step lengths set to 12.

Next we enter step time mode (shift 2) and change each alternate step to an offset of 12 but so that each 2 adjacent steps add up to 24, for example 14 and 10 as in the second example, or 13 and 11 (third example), higher difference = heavier swing feel. You can have the smaller number first or second depending on whether you want a rushed or lazy feel, also you can experiment with more complex timings for different types of groove, such as a pattern of 4 – 14,10,13,11 or whatever, just make sure that your total measure length is equal to 192 so that the sequence cycles correctly when synced. That’s pretty much it, hope you find it useful and thanks for watching.

YMO Programming the MC-8 in the Studio, 1979

Thanks to Zilog Jones and PinWizz for pointing me to a video of YMO in the studio in 1979:

PinWizz says:

There is a video of YMO members programming ["Behind The Mask"] on MC-8 back in the day! Album credits say “Computer programming by Hideki Matsutake“, so it must be him pushing the buttons in this video as well. The second (moody) piece which they code in video is “Insomnia” from the same album. Third song featured here is called “Solid State Survivor” as the album itself. Perhaps the best known song of YMO is “Rydeen,” but it is not in this video.

You can also see YMO here a couple years later, programming the MC-4:

As a side note, Matsutake also had his own recording project called Logic System. Here’s one track from Logic System’s 1981 LP, which featured lots of MC-8 sequences: