Roland MC-505

The Roland MC-505 was my first piece of kit, and my entry point to a new hobby in electronic music production. I was quickly overwhelmed once I had a look at the manual, it was huge and I had no idea what any of the features were. I didn’t even know the first thing about music production or music theory for that matter. All I knew is that this chunky groovebox made some cool sounds and you could tweak them and combine them in all sorts of new ways!

The 505 is a solid piece of kit if you get one that has been treated well. I purchased mine in March 2008 for $319 and it was damn near mint condition. The only issue I’ve had with it is the LCD screen going out, which apparently is a fairly common fault for most 2 line LCD’s from this era. I was able to get a new replacement screen, in green, for about $50USD in 2009.