Roland A90EX and Mc-500 Sequencer. Connection BLUES !

[garry]

Hi All,
I have a hookup question.. I am using an MC-500 as a sequencer and ran into some problems.
A-90 out-1 going to MC-500 in
MC-500 out-A going to A90 in-1
MC-500 Out-B going to thru box and out to rack mount synths.
MC-500 soft Thru set to ON

when I play the A90 keyboard with an internal Patch and also play an external patch all locks up (Panic required). Any ideas how to resolve this ? If I set the MC-500 soft thru to off there is no lock up but also there is no external patch playing..

ANY help please
Regards,
Garry

 

[Ted Nicoson]

Check to see if you have the MC-500's Soft Thru set to Option-3, which is Soft Thru ON for both Out-1 and Out-2. If it is, you have a MIDI feedback loop from the A-90 thru the MC-500's Out-1 back to the A-90. Change it to Option-2, which is Soft Thru ON for only Out-2. That should break the feedback loop, but still give you your Thru for Out-2 for down stream patch changes on the rack mount units.

 

[garry]

Check to see if you have the MC-500's Soft Thru set to Option-3, which is Soft Thru ON for both Out-1 and Out-2. If it is, you have a MIDI feedback loop from the A-90 thru the MC-500's Out-1 back to the A-90. Change it to Option-2, which is Soft Thru ON for only Out-2. That should break the feedback loop, but still give you your Thru for Out-2 for down stream patch changes on the rack mount units.

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Wow Ted you hit it right on the nose!!. I did not see that option as I was running the older software version 1.01 as soon as I installed 2.0. Shazam !
Ted would you happen to know if there is a Quick operation Table available for Ver. 2.0 and where I might find it?
Really Big thanks.
Garry

 

[Ted Nicoson]

Garry

I found several forum posts from when v2.0 first came out, and the common complaint was that Roland was playing it really close to the vest and not talking about individual update items. I went back to the Roland Knowledgebase, but the only thing I found was the info on how to set the Soft Thru that I already knew was there from when I went looking for it for my MC-50MkII. That was the only info about the MC-500 (or the MC-50MkII) in the Knowledge Base. What you are actually talking about is the MRC Operating System Version 2.0. You can download a complete manual that includes the MC-500 MkII. You might be able to find something in there, but no guarantees, as the MkII was a hardware upgrade. The MRC upgrade was separate. I dont know anything about these guys. I don't know what, if anything, they might charge for a manual download. I don't even know if their downloads are safe. I will keep looking off and on over the next few days and let you know if I find anything promising.

Regards.

Ted

 

[Ted Nicoson]

Well, Gary! I am beginning to think that the info you are looking for, on the MRC v2.0 upgrade, never existed, like the forum posts complaints I originally found. I went through what the Roland Clan forums have, but they have the least of all. I downloaded the MRC 2.0 upgrade from the Roland Support Site. That is where you will normally find the info you are looking for - in an attached text file - but all I got was the install file - the same thing you already have, but I did pick up on something I need to caution you about. Resist the temptation to upgrade to Super-MRC, offered by many sites, unless your MC-500 was upgraded to MC-500 MkII with additional memory. Super-MRC will run as-is on the original MC-500, but song/sequence note capacity will be severely limited by the memory taken for the larger MRC OS, and operating speed will be severely slowed by frequent disk access as the larger OS swaps its various elements in and out of the limited memory.

Sorry I can not find any more info for you!

Regards,

Ted

 

[garry]

Hi,
1st thanks for all the help and I am sure many people will find your info very valuable. I downloaded the MRC Operating System Version 2.0 (Actually it is in the manual for the MC500MKII) all the info is there but I too had no luck to find a Quick operation Table. If I cannot find one I may go through the MC-500 Quick Table and just try and make one for the Ver. 2.0 OS. If I do ,ill share it here. So much faster to just punch in the numbers on the key pad.

BEST REGARDS
Garry