I really like the Roland MC-101. It doesn’t have a funky sequencer like the Elektron boxes. It only has 4 tracks. And the menu system is kind of a pain. But, it has literally thousands of excellent presets. It handles samples wonderfully (both loops and one shots). Each track can do a lot (16 samples per drum track isn’t exactly limiting). The effects are varied and mostly good. And, the “Scatter” function is a blast that you can customize quite a bit.
For this track, as all my tracks I guess, I kept it pretty simple. The opening is chopped up samples from some live drumming I recorded back in 2008. Track 2 is a Hip Hop drum kit preset on the 101. The two synth tracks were made with the random patch feature that came out in firmware 1.60. A really nice way to get sounds if you get overwhelmed by all the presets (which I often do). I really enjoyed messing around on this one. Again, pretty basic, but it just felt good.
Song Imagery from Miss BC
A suburban cul de sac with half-open garage door…you look under and see a little girl playing the drums. She’s about 7 or 8 and she’s loving it. Wearing all black with a red bandanna tied around her head. She’s good, really good, and she knows it too. Two big thought bubbles form above her showing images simultaneously.
In the first bubble are images of her growing up and going from gig to gig and jamming at night, missing some pivotal youth moments. You see her fighting with her parents to keep playing as she drops out of college and begins to tour on a local level…but soon enough, on an international level. She’s living out her dreams but comes back to an empty hotel room each night.
In the second bubble she continues playing the drums through high school and is part of the school band. She attends prom and you see her moving into the dorms and bringing her drum sticks with her as she tries to find time to play. She gets caught up in going to college football games and has traded her black clothing for a college sweatshirt. Next you see her in a business suit interviewing for some corporate job and climbing the ladder there. After a day of business meetings, she comes back alone to the same hotel room as the other thought bubble. The two versions of her sitting back to back.
