The one that didn’t suck.
Back in the day a MicroComposer was a big hunk of metal that belonged to people like Yellow Magic Orchestra. You would see pictures of such things in magazines but never think to own one. So the only thing that allowed me to forgive Roland for the TB303 was that they were selling a MicroComposer. That I could own. For real. Not that I didn’t kick the tyres on this one for a while just to be sure the guy that came up with the 303 wasn’t allowed near it.
Now you are not getting a simple tap and play instrument. No sir, it’s still a complicated thing, a bit like an old programmable calculator. When you tap the rubber keys each goes beep. BEEP. Link it up to an SH101 and there is a two part sound machine – if you are familiar with any olde Severed Heads record you will have heard the SH101 being the snare drum and the MC303 being the kick – because it doesn’t have a noise oscillator.
The other thing you would have heard was that high pitched squeal that the 202 sends to the tape recorder to keep synch. At the time that was a major miracle – the 202 would read synch from the tape and you could overdub more parts that kept time – it completely changed the music. A track like We Have Come To Bless The House was empowered by the MC202 running a bunch of KORG MS20’s.
People would ask whether that squeal was a psychological tactic and we would always say yes.
My original machine went a long time ago but here it is again, donated by a wonderful man who came to our last show in London. It is not fully working but will be soon.
UPDATE: It was repaired, and then I remembered to stop living in the past.
Hello Tom,
That was me. Sorry it wasn’t fully working but glad you got it back to operational standard and that you were able to use it to get something better!
When I was living in Namibia and ordered CD’s from you, you kept sending out parcels as they kept ‘disappearing’ in the mail system. When a package finally got to me, you had bundled in a few ‘music server’ CD’s as a bonus. Never forgot that and always wanted to give a little back.
Thank you for all the music you’ve created.
Kind regards,
Dan F.
Ah I hope you weren’t too disappointed I moved the machine onward. I did not love it as much as the person that now owns it. One of the sliders had corroded and some other thing I don’t recall but the guy that fixed made it sweet. The MC-707 is not my favourite thing but I feel I’m at least keeping up with the kids. Trying. You take care!
A year later!
I’m glad it went to someone who is enjoying it and that you got something out of passing it on. I used to walk around the streets of oxford some evenings with my sister, the mc202 and headphones. We’d swap the headphones between us and twiddle on the MC202, like we were making our own soundtrack while watching everything happening around us. Portable fun!
Just came back to say I have a Native Instruments Kore 2 that was handed down to me. Would that be something you’d like? Email me directly if so and I’ll find a way to get it to you. Currently in Malaysia and have a few Aussie friends here.
Dan F.