Sometimes More is Less, more or less. If the MX-1 had been billed simply as a mixing desk it would probably have sold more. But the added step sequencing, effects and the like seems to have confused the Average User, who had no aspirations to wobbly-warble their guitar licks. It also caused the MX to cost a bit more than other mixers. (Mine did not cost more, having been in a cupboard for some time. A very dusty cupboard at that. And they really liked button 4.)
It comes from the golden age of AIRA when Roland was building a farm of green-lit deep-black machinery – the System 1, TB-3 etc. If you had the whole set you’d apparently need a mixer to combine them into a monolithic beat machine (as with the Volca mixer in a more limited way). That pitch doesn’t seem to have caught on – so it was expanded to work with any of Roland’s devices with USB drivers post 2015 – boutiques, groove boxes, the JD-XA and so on. (Note – the Integra-7 will send USB audio but so far doesn’t seem to take MIDI from the MX-1).
Alas the poor MX-1 has since been ‘discontinued’ with some vigour.
I’m interested because I have more than a few Roland things and connecting them via USB to a central mixer might help organise my workplace. I’ve been ganging mixers from multiple workstations which had required an audio snake – now reduced to USB cabling – a bit tidier but experimental.
Although billed as having 18 inputs, that actually means 4 mono audio (which can be stereo linked), 1 stereo (using mini-jack), a digital coaxial, 4 stereo USB and a host computer. Again – the four USB must each be a recent Roland thingy. Coaxial is a little antique but it can be found on the Fantom XR, V-Synth, XV5080 which I have – and it works.
Problems and expectations
The main problem for me is no fault of Roland – the ASIO drivers used on Windows machines can’t work with multiple devices (unless they are clones designed to snap together). On OSX you can build a hybrid, on Windows you would normally try ASIO4All, but it can’t help me as the MX-1 is a 96KHz device and my usual desk mixer is 48KHz (in which case OSX resamples downward). So the MX-1 must become my primary sound interface – leading to higher expectations. (Update: the MX-1 is switchable between 44.1, 48 and 96 so this is something I can come back to later.)
First expectation – there’s no microphone input. You’ll have to get a preamp – in my case that’ll probably be my existing mixer. Second expectation is there’s a large difference between sound levels coming up those USB channels. The System-8 is loud, the JD-XA is quiet and you can’t ‘pump’ it up at the desk. The whole point is to keep digital signal through the chain so that’s going to need some re-programming at the keyboard end. Some users have reported the noise floor is high on the MX-1 – not my experience but I am probably going to have to swap interfaces when recording some sources (damn you Steinberg ASIO).
Lesser concerns. The faders are short but you do have numerous curves they can use to control the levels. They’re appropriate for performance, not so much for teeny little adjustments. EQ is not low and high end like normal desks but rather DJ filters at the top and bottom.
Then there’s the Beat Effects. These are changes to a filter or side chain or a slicer controlled by a 16 pad drum machine style pattern. When you start it up it controls all the USB connected devices which annoys me as the e.g. System-8 starts up any sequence attached to the current patch. Controlling this would need a bit more reading – if I was ever to use this feature which I’m not. Because the whole idea of a farm of AIRA animals singing in harmony has been superseded by the MC-707, MC-101 and siblings. Why patch together a bunch of boxes when the one thing (with similar drum machine style pads) does it all?
But then (I thought) isn’t it a lot easier to program a farm of things with physical controls than the cryptic 4-knob MC-707? Hmmmm. Experimental.
By the way, I once owned a EF-303. Roland either has staff who are determined to win this battle – or are too young to remember the 90’s.
There is another MFX unit at the end of the mix, not all of which you can select. No endlessly rising phaser for you, sunshine. You can however attach an external effect to the AUX send/return.
If you are keen you can use the MX-1 in a different mode where it controls the levels on your multitrack and they come up as four individual stereo sends from the DAW. Good for Ableton Live apparently. I’ll take that as a given for the time being.
Generally I think the MX-1 suits my needs to reasonable extent. I’ve now got Roland keyboards across the room which are receiving USB-MIDI and sending digital back to the desk. Each needs just the one long USB. (Update: beware USB extension cables that have data replication. This will not be accepted as Roland spec.). I’ve reduced the number of analogue ganged mixers, and moved the V-Synth over to coaxial.
I’m still learning how to set up the multiple ins and outs – my old desk was a simple stereo thing and I get confused between the 18 different ins and outs. Nuendo is smart enough to detect the inputs and set up an impressive array of hardware channels on the mixer which you can then bus to your tracks as desired. Not really sure about Reaper just yet.
