Roland MC-202
Roland MC 202 5 skt (cv /gate / filter / portamento / accent)
£36.30 to £106.00 ex VAT
£43.56 to £127.20 inc VAT
Description
PLEASE NOTE: Installing a socket upgrade kit is a skilled job which should be undertaken only by a competent synth service engineer or installed by us at our premises in Tadworth, just outside London.
5 Sockets
Kit to add CV / Gate / Filter / Portamento / Accent sockets to the Roland MC-202
When used in conjunction with one of our MIDI to CV converters, such as the Pro Solo mk3 or Pro-2000 mkII, these five additional sockets will enable the synth to be played from a MIDI keyboard or MIDI sequencer.
The inputs are on 3.5mm mono jack sockets which provide the following control:
CV – provides Volt per Octave control over the oscillator frequency
Gate – controls when notes play (0 volts = note off / >3 volts = note on)
Filter – controls the cutoff frequency of the low pass filter (from aux out of converter)
Portamento – turns on or off the portamento feature (0 volts = porta off / >3 volts = porta on)
Accent – turns on of off the accent feature (0 volts = accent off / >3 volts = accent on)
The kit contains all necessary components and diagrams for connecting the wires / components, and mounting the five 3.5mm mono jack sockets.
Used with a Pro Solo mk3 or Pro-2000 mkII this kit will give you the following control over the synth from a suitable MIDI keyboard or sequencer:
Notes – at least 5 octaves range – (this is not limited by the kit or converter, but by the synth itself)
Pitchbend – range can be set in the converter
Modulation – from converter’s inbuilt LFO. Speed and waveshape can be changed in real time.
Portamento (slide) – rate can be changed in real time.
Filter cutoff frequency – can be controlled using any continuous MIDI controller (cc) or other MIDI message such as Aftertouch or Velocity
Low / High / Recent note priority – can be set in the converter
Single / Multiple note trigger modes – can be set in the converter
See the specifications of the Pro Solo mk3 or Pro-2000 mkII for further features.
More Info
MC–202
The MC-202 does have CV and Gate input sockets already fitted, which can be used with a CV converter, however these input sockets are not satisfactory in most cases. Firstly they are designed so that you can enter information into its internal sequencer using an external keyboard (or indeed, the CV converter), the significance of this is that it quantises the notes into discrete steps, in other words if you try and do a pitchbend, you will end up with the notes going up in semitones only, not smoothly. This isn`t a fault with the CV converter, but the action of the quantising process in the MC-202. Secondly, the fact that the note is quantised, sent to the internal sequencer & then played by the sequencer circuitry, means that the response is fairly slow doing it this way. Thirdly, you are limited to the note range that the sequencer can play. For the above reasons, we recommend that you have your MC–202 fitted with additional CV, Gate, filter & portamento sockets. We can supply a kit to fit your MC–202 with proper CV, Gate, filter, portamento and accent input sockets which do not suffer from the above limitations.
The MC-202 also has a 5 pin socket for sync input. This can be connected to the sync 24 output on the back of the CV converter ( see note #2 below ). This will enable you to run the MC-202 in synchronisation with your MIDI sequencer. In this mode, you will need to program the patterns you want to play, into the MC-202. You will need to program the MC-202 in the normal way, from its own front panel, you will not be able to use any added CV, Gate sockets for programming, although as mentioned earlier you can use the existing CV and Gate input sockets for this purpose.
When you start your sequencer, the MC-202 will play the patterns in time with your sequence ( see note #1 below ). You will always have to start the sequence from the top as the MC-202 will not recognise song position pointers.
If you only want to run the MC–202 in sync and/or you are happy with the performance of the existing CV and Gate input sockets, you do not need to get any additional sockets fitted.
Notes
- You need to make sure that the clock output is enabled on your sequencer, this is very often on a setup page or on a pull-down menu. The sync 24 output of Kenton CV converters cannot be disabled, so if your TB-303 or MC-202 doesn’t start with your sequencer, you can be sure that the CV converter isn’t receiving MIDI sync (see note 4) or you have a faulty lead (see note #2) or even maybe a faulty sync input socket on the TB-303 or MC-202.
- The lead you need for connecting the sync 24 output of the CV converter to a TB-303 or an MC-202 may look like a MIDI lead, but it is not. MIDI leads need only 3 connections out of the possible 5 on the 5 pin DIN socket, the sync connection requires that all 5 wires are connected, which means that the majority of MIDI leads won’t work. You need to get a standard 5 pin DIN to 5 pin DIN lead which is readily available or Kenton can supply.
- You need both CV & Gate signals to control an analogue synthesizer. The CV signal tells it what note to play (CV means control voltage). The Gate signal tells it when to play the note.
- MIDI sync isn’t on any particular MIDI channel, it’s on a sort of global channel of its own.
- A MIDI to CV converter, converts an incoming MIDI data stream into control voltages of various kinds for connecting to synths with suitable inputs. A CV converter does not convert the analogue signals back into MIDI, you would need a CV to MIDI converter for that.
- References to filter control, mean control of the filter cutoff frequency, sometimes also called filter sweep or VCF frequency control (VCF means voltage controlled filter).
More Links
How to connect using our MIDI to CV Converters
