You're a cool dude. Did you know that you're a cool dude? If not, you know now. You're a cool dude. 👍

@sn1000k

9 ай бұрын

He is very cool. An mc-303 AND an mc-505? VERY COOL.

@anthonyhershberger8441

9 ай бұрын

He’s a very cool dude

@landspide

9 ай бұрын

Epic evolved next level dude...

@ryansupak3639

9 ай бұрын

Just dropped in to say I’ve always felt this way too. He definitely seems like he’d be a super chill guy to hang out with - super smart, but with no attitude.

@taliakuznetsova7092

9 ай бұрын

Excuse me could you repeat that my good sir? Did you say he was a cool dude?

I work for a mining equipment company and we use a penetrant dye and developer for locating cracks in structural steel for welding repair that works much the same as the Sharpie technique you discovered. The red dye seeps into the cracks and is wiped off the surface, which will then wick out when the powdery-white developer spray is applied, exposing all the cracks, which can then be air arc gouged and welded.

@nikelquint

9 ай бұрын

We use a similar trick in aviation, using dye that glows under UV.

@handlesarefeckinstupid

5 ай бұрын

Crack is a crack, clever trick though.

Nice trace repair. It's rare to find a KZreadr who can solder decently well!

@landspide

9 ай бұрын

That is an interesting and true observation, maybe the difference between soddering and soldering 😂

@user-yr1uq1qe6y

9 ай бұрын

@@landspideSOULdering rules!

This guy is a service to humanity, I work in the industry yet learnt so many tricks during this video.

This machine was core to many of my early teenage music making endeavors. A good friend decided to invest in this thing back when such a machine cost a multiple-year amount of savings to us, and I got to participate. We had it set up in my parents' basement, hooked up to a beefy PA (for the tiny room it was in), and took turns on making tracks, with the passive person chilling on the couch with a beer. Once the beer was done, we switched. There were quite a few rather cool sounding tunes that came out of this, and I can still recognize the overall sound of this machine here! These were some serously fun times. Thanks for taking me back to them! (And also wild to finally see what the insides look like!) I'm really glad you got it back into working order. That sweetie still sounds FAT!

You sound so happy when you say, "Got it!" I can relate. It's always such a high when you solve a gnarly problem.

5:53 can we just have these sick tracks goin during every tech repair from here on out?

Nice! The 505 was my first "pro" piece of gear - got it for Christmas '98 and I still have it! Its been through 3 displays now and I got a second broken 505 as a part donor, which I swapped the cpu board from as well. I'm amazed at how legible the LCD on this one still is - the displays on these ALWAYS go bad. Roland was nice enough to cover my first one many years out of warranty but I was on my own for the two. An aftermarket OLED kit is ideal - although the kits often cost as much or more than a secondhand 505 is worth. The funny thing is you can totally use this machine just fine without the display being legible, I use mine more or less as a MIDI sound module these days.

I was 13ish when these came out and I was getting into electronic music pretty hard. The guys at my local music instrument shop were cool enough to let me come in after school and jam with it. Dunno why I never sought one now I can afford it and don't have my parents to tell me it's a waste of time and money

@broklee

9 ай бұрын

Go buy a synth and have fun get something that has an arpeggiator

@dustmighte

9 ай бұрын

@@broklee way ahead of you bud :)

@broklee

9 ай бұрын

@@dustmighte Glad to hear it man! Enjoy! Wish I had gotten into it sooner too

@blakecasimir

9 ай бұрын

I would suggest an mc-707 instead tbh.

Love old sequencers. Roland MC-80 is what I use for channel music. Sometimes you need a rendition of some famous song, like a movie intro, but if you try anything found online, you'll get copyright flagged. However, if you mix your own composition on a sequencer - even if it's a standard MIDI, you'll end up with enough unique sound signature, that it'll be treated by youtube as an original piece. Those 404's sound so much like Prodigy. They were big into Roland groove boxes.

Roland commissioned a record called "At Home With The Groovebox" from Grand Royal Records artist. There's a Beck song called "Boyz" that's kinda hilarious.

Your hat in that intro was incredible.

@Pickelhaube808

9 ай бұрын

i agree, though it is a little hard to hear

@alwayschooseford

9 ай бұрын

@@Pickelhaube808 I’ll have what you’re having if you can hear that hat at all!

I love my 303 and 505's ...Got 2 MC-505's. bought new when they came out...One I used/use and one is still in its unopened box (NOS) And I have 1 MC-303...Recently bought the MC-101....The LCD is a very common issue...It is a "standard" 1602 display, only with a flatcable. I replaced it in mine after trying the "Ironing" solution...I also have a set of 5 new old stock memorycards for it...Thay are a pest to find nowadays... Oh yeah...You can still get all pots , knobs and faders as a service package. Numbers are in the service manual that you can easily download.

Bridging the connections was really cool to see.

Roland produced a lot of great devices back in the day. I have a few still in my collection :)

Nice, that was a fun watch. I've had one of these since new. The display started failing around 2004. I stuck it in its original box and pretty much forgot about for around 14 years. Ordered a blue screen for it off eBay around 2018 and just repaired it that way. At the time everything worked fine except then the cutoff potentiometer no longer did anything at all, which baffled me. I stuck it back in its box and forgot about it again for another 5 years. Took it out about 2 months ago because I finally regained the patience to disassemble it...turns out I had the same issue you did. When I reconnected the cables I apparently bent one of those pins. They are very thin, easily bent and one of them wasn't plugged in at all. Fixed that and now it works fine. I decided to use SampleRobot and just sample all the worthwhile sounds, and now it lives on in VST sampler format. It's now back in the closet in its box again. Great box, the preset demo songs are a real throwback!

I love how he rejoices in his little victories, ha-ha. Makes me happy every time he fixes a problem and gets closer to the finish line! 😀 EDIT: Wow, using the dot matrix printer at the end was dope! 😁

The Roland MC-505 was my very first professional rompler/synth. Mine originally belonged to my paternal Uncle who had it sent out to him to review but when he had it he accidentally broke one of the knobs so they let him keep it. My Uncle gave it to my older brother as a Christmas present in 1999 but my brother only used it a few times and it just sat in his window for 7 years until but in January 2007 my brother said I could have it so it's been in my room ever since and this device was what sparked my interest in Roland romplers. I don't use it as much as I used to but before I had a JV-1080 or an SC-88 Pro this device was the next best thing. I think my Uncle also borrowed an MC-303 back in 1997 as I remember him bringing it down to my paternal Gran's house for me and my brothers to play around with even though my Uncle claims the 505 was the only groovebox he ever owned but the 505 came out in 1998 and I specifically remember that happening in 1997 so the other one must have been 303 or possibly a Korg Electribe but I'm not 100% sure.

I love how you bring old things back to life. Great video and thanks for what you do. Very interesting channel.

Have you considered where the cracks are on the PCB to actually drill a small hole at the end of the cracks that don't already run to a cut out in the PCB? This works great for metal and plastic that has cracked in preventing the crack from being able to spread more under stress. Just a thought. Great fixing either way 🙂 👍

@xan1242

9 ай бұрын

Drill, patch, reinforce. 3 important steps in de-cracking.

@pablossjui

9 ай бұрын

couldn't that be a problem if this is a multilayered PCB? destroying unseeable traces

@xan1242

9 ай бұрын

@@pablossjui If you know it is more than 2 layers then yes, you have to be careful. Then you have to do the things that many skilled techs do and use solder mask and epoxy resin in carefully carved out areas inside the crack.

What a mammoth effort. Well done

that satisfaction in your voice when it finally works is great. i wonder how it scored on the healthy dopamine chart. good to see you tackle some audio gear in your particular way. you'll have to redo the intro music now

hi, Shelby 21:40 that's a great idea to put wire bridges instead of solder ones because you cannot reinforce the pcb and make it solid as it was out from the factory. this part of pcb will be always under stress cos keys will be pushed down. so if you dig that deep in the future you may wish to duplicate those hard solder bridges with flexible wire ones.

There's something so incredibly satisfying about troubleshooting and repair videos. I've spent hours watching someone poking at solders with a multimeter, swapping components and repairing traces. It never gets old seeing a broken device get brought back to its former glory.

That might actually be my old MC 505, had all of the same symptoms as yours (even the missing and wonky knobs) I sold it on ebay in about 2000-2001 to someone in the southwest.

The best KZreadr alive . Legit loves his craft .

Classic Roland hardware rules. My uncle had a TR-808 that I got to play around with as a kid. Wish I would have grabbed it from him before they jumped to insane amounts of money in the 2010's.

D-Beams 4 LIFE! (Just like my V-Synth)! As a fellow electronic music producer, and all-around fan of synths, drum machines and groove boxes, I was pleasantly surprised to see an MC-303 and an MC-505 show up on this channel! Very cool!

It's great to see you fix the 505. My MC-303 is still going strong ( bought 1997 ). The orginal power cable sometimes disconnects, but, once I stablise it's position it's fine. I'm not sure if it is the wire or the connection. The MC-303 sounds are dated, but, the drum machine, sequencer and arpeggio are still excellent and are still competative when compared to some of today's machines.

Love the vid. Very informative! I never had a MC-505 but about 10 years ago I bough a "like-new" Roland MC-909 on eBay and boy was it broken in multiple ways. Nearly all pads were complete degraded. Faders were sticky. And it wouldn't sample. I took to a music shop that had a good reputation for synth repairs and they advised me to get a refund since repairs would cost way more than what I paid. So I sent if back and got my money back. The experience kinda stifled my love of vintage grooveboxes.

The way you work... Respect.

Tech Tangents: uploading videos on obscure electronics that you never knew you wanted to watch.

505 is just a rompler... but DAMN it gave that special 90s sound... glad to see it can be restored coz Roland seems to not doing that anymore (MC-707 is not even close)

Everybody needs a 303.

I had a crack like that on one of the center keys on a Yamaha keyboard. Fixing it was a little tricky because the keyboards membrane laid directly on top of the area.

BRO. I didn't know you were into these Roland machines. Nice. 👍

You're motivating me to take apart my mc-909. A lot of the same issues with the keys and buttons.

That display fix is way better than the "solution" of nibbling out sections of the front panel to accomodate a non-correct display. I mean I like options, but I'd way rather just fix what's there or replace with factory part at least. Though the green backlight option for aftermarket displays is nice because it better matches the green and red theme of the rest of the LEDs, while the factory display is more orange than red. I have yet to begin repairs on mine. My d-beam is dead.

Thank you for this information. Had a 505 back when it was new and had to sell it when times got rough. I bought a REALLY hard used one on eBay and it works but has a couple knobs really loose and two missing. There is something special inside of these machines that come out when really working them hard but mine is a short bus special like yours. I’m going to try and follow your trail on acquiring parts and dig into it.

9:45 The Access Virus modules suffer the same issue with wobbly pots. The pots are supposed to be screwed to the front panel but they don't do it. I've heard its because it takes too long for the service department to remove and fit the boards then.

A doof doof machine!!! I got my glow sticks out at the end.

Thank you. From one tech to another.

Just realised a song I like from Davilex London/Europe Racer was a demo from a Roland keyboard :£

That's some Ben Eater level wire handling :D

How i hate Psy Trance 001 pattern . I must have spent hours hearing that when fixing my unit😂 nice repair though!

I don't know if its from something or just a sample song, but the sound coming out of this thing slaps.

Awesome machine, great job!

I really enjoyed this video. I have a Roland MC-505 since 2000. The display is missing dots of the matrix and the portamento knob is loose. I have many hours using it and have written many songs on it. Mine had the noise. It was a very interesting and unique device. Paid top dollar at the time for it.

Back in the day (95-02), I used to go to a lot of parties in NYC. To see groups like, Hux Flux, Logic Bomb, Growling Mad Scientists, Hallucinogen, etc. Their use of equipment like this was truly insane. To see a full stage of analog equipment and them running all over to make music like that live was awesome. Edit: Search "GMS - Juice (Live Version)" or "GMS - GOA ( LIVE RMX )" to see what I mean. Back when it wasn't just seeing a laptop live.

@dylanherron3963

9 ай бұрын

Mate, GMS GOA brought back some serious f*cking memories. 92-01 was the peak of analogue equipment innovation.

@xero110

9 ай бұрын

@@dylanherron3963 Yeah, it really was, I've seen them live 3 times. RIP, Joseph Quinteros.

@blakecasimir

9 ай бұрын

Hallucinogen, sir. The foundation of psy trance right there. Both albums are still incredible to this day.

@xero110

9 ай бұрын

@@blakecasimir One of my favorite shows was seeing Hallucinogen and Shobongle together.

@dylanherron3963

9 ай бұрын

@@blakecasimir mate if you know, you know

I always have my MC-909 close to me! Im hoping that some of this will translate over to it, I have some problem buttons on my velocity pads. Im always giddy when you do a Roland video!!

1:00 holy moly, such an japanese pop/initial D/eurobeat vibes, awesome devices

Love to see other people reviving these. 👍

Oh hey that screen fix was the same one old gameboys need

Cool Jam!

awesome job, man!

Loved mine back in the day.

cool fun repair! i find so satisfactory to fix lcd displays, sometimes it can take hours to get it just perfect because you do a line and another one dies hah, i normally use solder wick and very low temps to do it

Great job on the fix man. Never give up. I know I probably would have lol

@jimiphillips1170

9 ай бұрын

I got as far as probing the points, got confused and noped out.

Music gear? Ok. Now you're itching my other obsession.

I suggest in places where the plate is cracked, use a UV-cured solder mask. This will strengthen the structure and protect against further cracking of the printed circuit board.

Congrats, @ the end of the video you performed the stage music for the PC game "London Racer".... ahahah :D

great video very informative!

Nice video! Thank you.

Cool device, and cooler music.

well done man!

I actually think the moment the board broke there was in the shot where he was showing the board. He didn't support the other end, and it had about a 7 degree bend across the board.

Dude this thing is so cool, makes me want to rush out and buy one for myself! But they're a little pricey, soooo maybe I'll just create an eBay saved search for now. Also, I'm curious how long your hardcopy supporters list would be if you printed it on a thermal printer, one supporter per-line? Obviously depends on the size of the font, but perhaps it could be a fun way to print the list.

That thing is so cool!

I just repaired a Roland cube 60 with the same potentiometer-issue, also ordered replacements that turned out to be a little too short..

6:06 Wait is that just a default demo song that comes with the device? That's a song that's used in Autobahn Raser 2 and all the other variants of that game that Davilex released. With how low budget these games are, it would be really funny if that's where they got the soundtrack for the game from.

@TechTangents

9 ай бұрын

I just found a lets play of the game and Frankfurt definitely used the demo song built into this thing!

@andi36356

9 ай бұрын

@@TechTangents Just looked up a vid with all the other demos it comes with and it's very obvious they used this thing to make the music for the game, that's rad.

@gmaverick2k533

8 ай бұрын

London Racer by Davilex

I've done that heat ribbon cable fix on gameboy LCD's before

Hey man love the content. I've got a tip for future video's, could you lower the volume of your de-soldering tool. I find it to be very annoying/almost hurting my ears. Thank you in advance and keep up the good work!

That end beat... If I didn't know better from the start I would assumed it was "Yellow Line" from Redline

Acid Tangents 🤩

Great watching a video in high definition, any chance you know of any mods for tge RESONANCE pot/circuit to cut down that squeel at filter cut off ? Also ,just like yours alll the part mixer lights flash all at once except part 1 , but it lights when you part select "1" ? ✌️

35:42.. The feel of the 1990s.

@IntegerOfDoom

9 ай бұрын

Intense urge to play Unreal Tournament and watch the Matrix.

I have a pair of MC303's and both need work. I am hoping to make at least one work 100%.

Daaang...good stuff!

Very cool. Personally I'd love to have a Roland MT-32 and ether a SoundCanvus 55/55 mk2 or 88 for my dosbox battle station

@hicknopunk

9 ай бұрын

A phrase lab by Roland can do a lot of 505 stuff. It can do bass and drums. They are pretty worthless too. The expensive part is buying it a memory card unless you already have some. It is mono, but has 4 loop channels so you can do almost anything with it. You can even convert wave files on your PC to it so you can build a phrase (2 measures) with it to edit them on your PC and then reinject them into it. No song mode though. You have to set up patterns and manually load each in real time.

You were short shafted! Ha! Would thin c.a. glue help stabilize the cracks in the pcb?

oh this should be helpful, my roland mc-505 is also in need of repairs

That telephone...

Roland definitely makes good stuff. I do wonder about the cracks in the board, though. I wonder if they're going to be a concern going forward? It seems like they could crack worse over time.

@blakecasimir

9 ай бұрын

It is VERY unlikely that this was due to some inherent design flaw. It's much more likely that this particular 505 sustained some damage due to mishandling.

30:17 - that's a dangerous method to lift a component. Any stress that will go onto that knob will not go from the component to the top layer of the board and dissipate by the whole thinkness of it, but will transfer through the legs into the solder joint and copper traces, ripping those away from the board. If you go that route, at least put something under load bearing parts of the component, to enable forces to be transfered to the top of the PCB.

Great job. Has 2 Unlimited asked for it back yet?

Aircraft mechanics address cracks my drilling a hole at the end of the crack (in this case a very small bit), this stops the crack from migrating and getting larger.

I'm a little bit curious about the 2-in-1 laptop here in 12:20, is this a Surface or other device?

where do i start with repairing music gear ...soldering and diagnostics ...i really wanna get into this but i dnt nowhere to start boss

Stopping the video at the very beginning to comment: Cool hat. Resume video.

Could have the second pot you replaced be saved by re-tightening it?

i think this is the second machine hard to assemble after american audio versadeck . good work

1:15 Ha. Surprise, AZ. That’s where my mom lives.

@activelow9297

9 ай бұрын

Surprise!!!

Those demo tracks tho

@sn1000k

9 ай бұрын

Love this video love that you got it totally working

Looks like it got dropped or something dropped on it. Explains the crack, as well as the broken pots.

@BluePlanetMedia

9 ай бұрын

People always put stuff on top of it, especially when moving. Bends the pots until it or the board gives out

@JPBennett

9 ай бұрын

@@BluePlanetMedia yeah, that's true. Stack of books on it would do the trick.

Very much like!

I got a 505 cheap 10+ years ago and it had a broken screen. Fixed that and regrettably sold it. I just found it far too complex to work with being a traditionally software synthesis and daw guy.

What does “detented” mean regarding potis?

think you may need to support those keys better those cracks may have been induced by hard playing

That’s so funny that’s my name😂

That printer at the end is fast *and* rather quiet.