Roland MC-8 Microcomposer
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The Roland MC-8 MicroComposer was introduced in 1977 at a price of around $8000 as the world's first digital microprocessor driven, CV/Gate sequencer unit (a pre-MIDI sequencing method used for electronic music). The MicroComposer could precisely adjust multiple sound producing and effects elements of a synthesizer, such as VCO, VCF, and other voltage-controlled components very rapidly, which is nearly impossible to do manually by a performer. The MC-8 was designed to work with the large complex modular synthesizers such as the Roland System 100 and Roland System 700. It could also be used during a live performance to control lighting by using pre-programmed, timed pulses, and pre-programmed timed voltage levels.
Richard James Burgess and John L. Walters from the band Landscape best known for their 1981 hits, Einstein A Go-Go and Norman Bates from the album From the Tearooms of Mars...To The Hellholes of Uranus were the first major commercial users of the Roland MC-8 MicroComposer. They began experimenting with computer-programmed music and Burgess's co-designed SDS5 electronic drums in the late 1970s making records in the emerging New Romantic, electronic dance music and synthpop genres. They triggered various synths such as the Roland System 100 and Moogs which were also one volt per octave. Burgess created the drum parts by using the multiplex outputs of the MC8 to trigger the prototype, breadboard version of the SDS5 drum synthesizer. Most of the Tearooms... album was made this way and Burgess produced many other tracks this way including the European club hit Angel Face for the controversial group Shock. Burgess and Walters demonstrated the MC8 Microcomposer on BBC TV's Tomorrow's World.
The MC-8 was based on a prototype developed by Canadian Ralph Dyck a composer and technologist who did R'n'D for Roland. Roland switched to the brand new Intel 8080 8-bit microprocessor and added 4Kb of RAM for a capacity of 8 ‘tracks’ or 1,100 notes which could be entered via the calculator keyboard (the preferred method) or recorded in real-time (not so easy). Backup was via cassette and could take 45 minutes to an hour for a three or four minute piece of music to backup and verify. The memory was dynamic so a loss of power meant complete loss of data. All parameters were variable so the scale and time-base could be assigned number values to suit the needs of the piece being programmed. This made the machine extremely versatile but somewhat unfriendly to approach for the first time.
Reputedly less than 200 units were sold worldwide but there is no doubt that the MC-8 Microcomposer was a watershed product. It provided: storage for the variables in analogue sound production, synchronisation capability for multi-channel recording - the time-code could be recorded onto a spare track, sufficient capacity for recording full compositions, editing capabilities and rapid access time.
The MC-8 provided eight control voltage outputs and eight gate outputs, as well as a six bit multiplex output with a special seventh bit set aside for portamento control.
