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This page is read from MIDI Instrument Definitions, a Python library used in the author's other projects, in which every number is traced to a document its maker published. Its source is on GitHub.

Roland MC-101 MIDI implementation

The MIDI implementation of the Roland MC-101: what it answers to, and the 28 controls it offers, on firmware 1.80.

At a glance

Firmware
This page describes firmware 1.80.
MIDI channel
Any one of 1 to 16.
Parts
Track, 4 of them: each on a MIDI channel of its own, taking notes, controls, and program changes.
Control Channel: on a MIDI channel of its own, taking notes and program changes.
MIDI mode
3: omni off, poly.
Voices
Not recorded.
Note range
0 to 127: C-1 to G9, counting middle C as C4.
Velocity
Sent and received. Release velocity is received.
Aftertouch
Channel pressure and polyphonic, each answered. It sends none.
Pitch bend
How far it bends is not recorded, and the range can be changed.
Program change
Received and sent, with 128 presets.
MIDI clock
Sent and received.
Start and stop
Sent and received.
Control change
28 controls, in the tables below.
NRPN
None.
System exclusive
Not recorded.

Controls

In the order the definition gives them, by part and group. Under each control is the name a program calls it by, once pymidiinstrumentdefs.load("roland/mc_101") has loaded them.

Track

Controllers

Control CC Values
Modulation
modulation		 1 0-127
Received, never sent
Breath Control
breath_control		 2 0-127
Received, never sent
Foot Control
foot_control		 4 0-127
Received, never sent
Volume
volume		 7 0-127
Received, never sent
Panpot
panpot		 10 0-127
Received, never sent
Expression
expression		 11 0-127
Received, never sent

Portamento

Control CC Values
Portamento Time
portamento_time		 5 0-127
Received, never sent
Portamento control
portamento_control		 84 0-127
Received, never sent

Pedals

Control CC Values
Hold 1
hold_1		 64 0-127
Received, never sent
Portamento
portamento		 65 0-127
Received, never sent
Sostenuto
sostenuto		 66 0-127
Received, never sent
Soft
soft		 67 0-127
Received, never sent
Legato Foot Switch
legato_foot_switch		 68 0-127
Received, never sent

Tone

Control CC Values
Resonance
resonance		 71 0-127
Received, never sent
Release Time
release_time		 72 0-127
Received, never sent
Attack time
attack_time		 73 0-127
Received, never sent
Cutoff
cutoff		 74 0-127
Received, never sent
Decay Time
decay_time		 75 0-127
Received, never sent

Vibrato

Control CC Values
Vibrato Rate
vibrato_rate		 76 0-127
Received, never sent
Vibrato Depth
vibrato_depth		 77 0-127
Received, never sent
Vibrato Delay
vibrato_delay		 78 0-127
Received, never sent

Knobs

Control CC Values
FILTER Knob
filter_knob		 80 0-127
MOD Knob
mod_knob		 81 0-127
FX Knob
fx_knob		 82 0-127
SOUND Knob
sound_knob		 83 0-127

Effects

Control CC Values
General Purpose Effect 1 (Reverb Send Level)
reverb_send		 91 0-127
Received, never sent
General Purpose Effect 3 (Chorus Send Level)
chorus_send		 92 0-127
Received, never sent
Rx ChoDlySend
chorus_delay_send		 93 0-127
Received, never sent

Where these facts come from

Source documents

How they were read

MC-101 MIDI Implementation Chart, Version 1.60, dated Sep. 25, 2020 - one page, and the whole of this instrument's published control map. Beside it: the MC-101 Reference Manual, 89 pages, edition eng01, which carries the channel and system settings; the MC-101 Update notes, 21 pages, edition eng09, which document every firmware release from Ver.1.02 to Ver.1.80 and name three controller numbers the chart has never carried; the Owner's Manual, 24 pages; and the chart's earlier edition, for what the current one gained.

TWO EDITIONS OF THE CHART EXIST AND THE MIDDLE ONE DOES NOT. eng01 is Version 1.00 of Sep. 1, 2019 and eng03 is Version 1.60 of Sep. 25, 2020; eng02 and eng04 answer 403. Read against each other (Notes/4360_extract_mc_101_charts.py), the same twenty-five controller numbers stand unchanged through both, with the same marks and the same names, and what moved is program change: at Version 1.00 it was x in both columns with a True Number of **********, and at Version 1.60 it is o in both with a True Number of 0-127 and the remark "Scene/Clip Change *1" (chart p. 1). Two footnotes appear with it, and the Note Number row gains a marker pointing at the second.

THE CHART SHOWS IN ONE STEP WHAT THE INSTRUMENT DID IN TWO, and the missing edition is why. The update notes put scene switching at Ver.1.20 - the Control Channel parameter and its three switches are listed under "Functions Added in Ver.1.20" (update p. 20) - and a fix for "being unable to control scenes 9-128 by receiving" (update p. 13) at Ver.1.60. So there was something to print between Version 1.00 and Version 1.60, the sibling printed it, and this product's equivalent is either unpublished or withdrawn. Where a maker numbers its editions, try the numbers: two of the four names here are live and nothing on the page says so.

THE CHART IS STILL TWO FIRMWARE RELEASES BEHIND THE INSTRUMENT. It is Version 1.60 of September 2020; the update notes document functions added in Ver.1.71 and Ver.1.80, and three controller numbers are named there and nowhere in the chart - CC 2, CC 4 and CC 93, each as a per-track switch deciding whether an incoming message reaches the track or is recorded into a clip (update p. 5). They are below, on the update notes' authority, and marked.

WHAT THE SECOND SEND REACHES IS NOT SETTLED, and this instrument has less to go on than its sibling. The chart gives 91 as "General Purpose Effect 1 (Reverb Send Level)" (chart p. 1) and 92 as "General Purpose Effect 3 (Chorus Send Level)" (chart p. 1). The reference manual's part parameters are "Delay Send (Delay Send Level)" (reference p. 45) and "Reverb Send (Reverb Send Level)" (reference p. 45) - and the only chorus it names is the master Chorus/Delay effect (reference p. 8), whose Dly Send in the MFX settings "Adjusts the amount of chorus." (reference p. 45) - and it gives no controller number for either. The update notes give 93, as a switch named "Rx ChoDlySend" (update p. 5) explained as "chorus send" (update p. 5). So the maker has a chorus send on 92 by the chart, a delay send with no number by the reference, and a chorus-or-delay send on 93 by the update notes. All three are below under the name of the document that defines each, and which of 92 and 93 reaches what is not recorded.

THE FOUR KNOB NUMBERS ARE THE ONLY ONES THIS INSTRUMENT SENDS, and three of the four are a factory default rather than a fact. Ver.1.30 made them settable: "Tx FILTER CC Number CC0, CC1, CC2...CC119 Specifies the CC number transmitted by the [FILTER] knob" (update p. 17), and the same for MOD and FX. The SOUND knob is not in that list - its number is fixed where the other three move - which is the one asymmetry between the four. Only the transmitted number moves either way, so 80 to 83 remain what the instrument recognises.

AND THE PANEL HAS NO KNOB OF THOSE NAMES. The MC-101 has four knobs, [C1] to [C4], one per track, and four buttons that say what they control: "[SOUND] button Assigns the [C1]-[C4] knobs to control the SOUND parameter of track 1-4" (reference p. 4), and the same for FILTER, MOD and FX. So each of CC 80 to 83 is a parameter slot on a track channel rather than a physical control, which is why all four are marked o in both columns where everything else is received only.

EVERY CONTROL BELOW NAMES THE TRACK, BECAUSE THE TRACKS ARE THE ONLY PART THAT TAKES ONE. The chart's footnotes give the control channel a scene change and the Scatter Pad's notes and no control change (chart p. 1), and no track's channel derives from a base. The one other channel that takes controllers is the Auto Channel of Ver.1.30, and it hands them to a track: "Incoming MIDI messages are sent to the track selected by the TRACK SEL [1]–[4] buttons." (update p. 18). So a control naming no part would mean a channel this instrument does not have. The update notes put both directions on the track, as they do on the MC-707: the Ver.1.80 receive switches arrive with "The following parameters were added to TRACK SETTING (MIDI)." (update p. 5), and at Ver.1.30 the numbers three knobs send with "The following items are added to the track settings (MIDI tab)." (update p. 17).

THE CHART CONTRADICTS ITSELF ABOUT MODE MESSAGES, in both editions. Its Mode row marks "Messages" x in both columns (chart p. 1) - it answers to no mode message - and eight rows lower its Aux Message block marks Omni Mode Off, Omni Mode On, Mono Mode On and Poly Mode On o recognised, which are the mode messages. Both readings found this independently and neither can settle it. Nothing here rests on it: none of the four is a control.

AND IT LEAVES OUT ROWS THE STANDARD CHART HAS. There is no Local ON/OFF row, no Active Sense and no System Reset anywhere in either edition - the Aux Message block stops after Poly Mode On and the System Real Time block after Stop. So this instrument's answer to those three is not published rather than negative.

ONE THING ONLY A READER LOOKING AT THE PAGE COULD FIND. In the Version 1.00 edition the System Common label collides with the row beside it and the final n is cut off, so the page shows what reads as System Commor while the file beneath it holds "Common:" (chart_1_00 p. 1). The current edition prints the word whole. Nothing rests on it, and it is recorded because it is the one place the two readings' methods came apart: the printed form is deliberately not quoted here, because a quotation of it would be checked against the text layer and the text layer is exactly what does not show it.

NOT RECORDED: