GrooveBox Editor for Roland MC-505, MC-307, JX-305 and D2

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GrooveBox Editor Beta– Standalone and VST Editor for Roland MC-505, Roland MC-307, Roland JX-305 and Roland D2 series synthesizers

Multitimbral Midi Editor for Roland MC-505, MC-307, JX-305 and D2 Groove synthesizers. Complete control of all your synthesizer (8 Patch parts, Rhythm part, Effects, Part Common and System settings) from a single instance.

Beta release, any feedback will be welcome.

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Features:

Librarian

Load and save patches and rhythms from the synth’s banks and from files in .syx format, and create new soundbanks with drag&drop of patches between banks.

Data Storage

Save the synth status (all Patch, Part Settings, Part Common and System Settings) in a single .syx file. Backup Pattern and Patch data performing a Bulk Dump.

DAW Automation

Every parameter of the sound engine of every part is ready to be automated using the hosted version.

Total Recall

GrooveBox Editor lets you edit all the Patch, Rhythm, Part Common, Part and System parameters (up to 8848 parameters!) and save the latest edit status within the application. This means that you can easily recall the latest status of the previous edit simply by opening GrooveBox Editor.

Parameter Locking

Lock any section of the synthesizer sound engine. For instance, lock Tone 1 Wave section and Amplitude Envelope. When loading or receiving a
new patch, the locked sections will not change. Do you like the effect settings of a Part, or the filter section? Lock them and test any patch with those settings.

Patch Randomizer

GrooveBox Editor provides a Patch Randomizer with several functions to control the process. It can be used together with Parameter Locking section to select which groups of parameters will be randomized.

…and many more features like the Joystick Modulator (choose up to four parameters from any part and modulate them in a vectorial style), copy & paste Tones and Patches, multi-tone editing, scalable GUI, 11 skins to choose…

Instructions

The zip file contains both stand-alone and VST plugin version for 32 and 64 bit Windows systems, as well as a short manual.

Fixes v.02 (16/12/2017):

  • Parameter EFX Delay Send Level was missing.
  • Parameter EFX Reverb Send Level was missing.
  • Parameter FMX Color didn’t send it’s value.
  • Parameter FMX Depth didn’t send it’s value.
  • Parameter Tone 3 Pitch Envelope Depth didn’t send it’s value.
  • Skin Saturn fixed (was missing a color, resulting in broken GUI or crashes when this skin was selected at startup).
  • Modulation destinations are now correctly displaying their names.
  • Sending Part Info Data (pressing Send Data button) as a whole was causing problems (initializing patches), so now this data is sent in a different way.
  • Added missing CC tab to Drum part.

Download (Windows Only)


Donwload GrooveBox Editor

Downloads: 1276

106 thoughts on “GrooveBox Editor for Roland MC-505, MC-307, JX-305 and D2”

  2. Both .exes and .dll files are generated directly by Ctrlr when exported as instances. Exes are later modified to change the icon file, this is the only modification applied to them. I don’t know if this could confuse Avast. They have been scanned with AVG without problems.

    Anyway, if you don’t feel confident, don’t use it.

    • The file was sent to the lab and after a day I could use it without warning. So I guess they decided it was ok. Great editor! Posted it in the Groovebox group on Facebook.

  4. Just trying to establish connection with D2 and im crashing m head… editor says it is now online and im trying to send Bulk data…to the editor but something is obviously wrong… nothing happens.Reading 2 manuals at the time.. maybe it is not ment to work for me. I need to free up memory but i don’t want to delete my patterns. i guess i’ll see a donkey if i look myself in the mirror now Please help

  5. Did you read the Editor’s manual? You have to follow these steps:
    · Press “GET” button once. The button’s label will change to “WAITING”
    · Perform the Bulk Dump Send operation on the synthesizer.
    · Once the dump has finished, press “WAITING” button to save the file.

    I should add that this feature has been tested only on the MC505. Right now I don’t know if the Roland D2 will behave like the MC505.

  6. Avast tried to analyse for viruses. No problems. This has happened with other bits of software that i have downloaded direct from the software makers. This is a lovely looking editor. Can’t wait to try it on the 505. Many thanks!

  7. I’ve been using this software for a few days now and I must say it’s incredible! It put a whole breath of new life in this old machine. It’s so extensive and complete! Thank you so much. I shared it with a groovebox facebook group and opinions there are also very positive. Thanks again forthe huge amount of work!

  8. Glad you find it useful, and thanks for spreading it.
    I saw the Facebook post, and somebody talked about adding sequencer options. This is not possible as there aren’t sysex commands for it, just the dump operations. All that can be controlled thru midi messages is already included.

    Let’s hope people realize that Roland Grooveboxes are in fact fully featured synths with almost the same engine as Roland JV’s.

    • I was the one suggesting this. I edited my own post. Yes, it’s a decent synth but the synth section wasn’t exactly exactly easy to handle. You changed al that with your software. So thanks again!

  9. Holy Shit, this is exciting. I will provide detailed feedback. I hope total recall of everything works and that editing more than one tone at a time is possible.

  10. Thanks for your willingness!
    If everything works as expected, yes, total recall and multiple tone edit should work, but given the huge amount of parameters available it’s been poorly tested.

  15. Just got it working in Cockos Reaper with my Roland D2 as a VST x64. This is the most beautiful free editor I have ever seen…setup was pretty easy but only because of the manual (printed it for extra usability). One question, we were never able to make new rythmsets with the D2, there was nothing in the manual but there is a userdrumbank in there. So can you make your own banks? Can you modify every single drumsound with all the parameters in the rythm section? Or is it global for all?

    The last thing I would like to mention is the setup in the D2. You cannot edit Rx. PG or Rx. Bank Sel, but I think they are always on.

  16. Thanks for your words. The editor is based and tested only on the MC505 but in theory, the D2 share the same synth engine, so it should be possible to edit individual drum sounds, as well as creating new drum banks (at least you can store them as .syx files on your HD). Also, the state of the editor is stored with your project, so you could do some basic test by loading it in a new project, twist some drum sounds and save the project to see if the drum sounds are correctly stored.

  17. Hi dasfaker, I gave it a try today and indeed I can for example pitch the individual drumsounds which is exactly what I wanted but if I send them to the D2, the groovebox editor screen show the message “requesting rhytm part 8” and it is not send. Anyway sending and receiving works great for all the other parts. Receiving the rythm part is also no problem. Do you have any idea what goes wrong here? Al imitation of the D2? I will try to save the altered sound in the D2 as a drumpatch, let’s see if that works.

  19. I got it working dasfaker!!!! I had to load a userdrumbank in D2 before it could write to it. The other parts were all on a userpreset already 🙂 Thanx again for the great tool.

  21. Is this correct?
    *When tone switch 1 & 2 are on, the patch only exists out of those 2 and 3 & 4 are muted?
    *When tone select is on tone1 it shows the parameters for tone1, when you select tone2, the tone edit switches simultaneously but if you select tone1&2 under tone edit, and tone lelect is on tone2, tone1 is edited too?

  24. OMG this panel actually made me interested in complete Ctrlr platform. I just opened it and i am amazed on the work. Graphical interface is actually better then most of the commercial Roland stuff. A lot of work made in to this one. You are really great!!!

  27. Thank you thank you!
    Been using universal editor librarians since Dr Ts xor. Most recently still have a Mac 9 to use Sound diver. But with panels like this I feel I have hope to ditch xp.
    My question, what version of ctrlr should I use with xp
    sp3?
    Again thank you for what looks to be a killer editor librarian for the 305!

  28. knob twiddler: There are several bugs and functions poorly tested, being one of them multi tone editing. Right know I don’t have enough time to take a look at it.
    About the keyboard, it should be possible, just mess with the midi options available.

    zbieracky: Not in the short term.

    mpo: Thanks dude!!

    ahhdem: Not at all, different architectures.

    xor4life: Thanks. You don’t need Ctrlr at all, just the executable from the download link.

    • Thanks Dasfaker.
      Really outstanding work..massive.
      I have a 305 and some issues using your panel. For ex…system settings. No matter what I do the panel does not reflect what’s in the hardware. Tuning is always at 421 or something.
      When I get my user banks and try and save them, they are all init patch.
      I also tried to do bulk dumps but the panel continued to say waiting.
      I have sounddiver running on another computer and can do some captures if all this is not user error.
      Again thank you for a beautiful piece of work. I KNOW how much it takes! Did a few adaptations for SD back in the day.
      Thanks
      Guido

  29. Hi Guido, thanks for your words, yes it’s been a great effort.
    About fine tuning, do you change it on the synth or on the panel? Changing it from the panel works for me (just testing it now), the synth receives the correct value. But not the inverse way, due to an everlasting Ctrlr bug related to the checksum on modulator’s sysex formula. This bug makes the panel not responsive to sysex messages sent from the synth when the formula has a checksum.

    About the user banks, it’s not working for me at all. I’ve found the reason (a bug) and it’s working for the next panel update.
    Just for curiosity, what is SD?
    Cheers,
    Hugo

  30. Hi Dasfaker,

    I used a keyboard in between the editor and the Roland D2 midiconnections, so it works now. I am really looking forward to the update because I still love your work on this one, but as you said, there are still some bugs. Sometimes I think they are related to the D2,because of the differences with a MC-505. For example, when I go into the rythm section and go to library tab, I can see drumbank A but bank B is missing. The userbanks are acting strange as you suggested.

    • Another bug (i hope I am mistaken) is the MFX. If I activate it for part 1 you cannot hear it, doesn’t matter what I turn or press or choose. When I go to the hardware and try it there, it works. The reverb and delay are fine, it is only the MFX

  32. Thanks for the video. I’ve seen you press “Load Bulk Dump” button and later you press “Get Data” button. This is not the correct way to get data from the hardware.
    “Load Bulk Dump” button is used to load a .syx file of a bulk dump operation previously saved. In the video you press this button and there should appear a window to load the file, but that’s not the case, weird.
    To get current data loaded on the hardware just press “Get Data” button, and wait until the data is transferred.

    To get a bulk dump from the hardware, do the following as is explained in the manual:

    · Press “GET Bulk Dump” button once. The button’s label will change to “WAITING”
    · Perform the Bulk Dump Send operation on the synthesizer.
    · You’ll see a progress bar. Once the dump has finished, press “WAITING” button to save the file.

    About the Browser tab, you can’t drag&drop a patch from one window to the other if no bank is selected, on the video you drag to the lower window that has no bank selected, this will not work.
    Also, it’s not recommended (as explained in the manual) to interrupt or disturb a data transfer operation. If the editor is getting the patch list of a bank, you should not interrupt it to switch to another bank, this will lead to errors. I’ll add a mouse locker when a data transfer is being performed.

    About the MFX, this doesn’t happens to me, here it works as expected (at least with the standalone exe). Did you tried with the standalone, and before performing any data transfer operation?

    About drumbank A and B: On the MC505 there’s only one preset drumbank, one user drumbank an one card drumbank. Are there more drumbanks on the D2?

  33. Thanx for your answer. I tried the standalone too, but it has the same problem in standalone x64 & x32. I will try the rest of your advice later but the FX is the main issuie.

  34. Hi dasfaker,
    Thanks for the info on the receiving of the sys parameters from the synth.
    And good to hear about the user banks.
    SD is my abbreviation,sorry, for SounDiver which was a universal editor/librarian that was made by the guys from Emagic..which became Apples.
    It only runs on 32 bit PCs and is buggy on macs higher than os9.
    Thank you for this monumental effort!
    BTW..if you have an old Mac or PC, it might be well worth getting SD from eBay.
    It has a mode where you can write your own adaptations for specific gear. Esp w Roland devices, it couldn’t be easier. I did about 5 devices and I know NOTHING about coding.

  35. Another test: Pattern1 has only 1 sound on part1 and overdrive is activated as MFX. I try to get the data from that part only, because the rest is empty. I use the databutton on part1. But the MFX is part of the global data I suppose, so I press “get” again under global data. It now shows me the overdrive MFX in the EFX tab. I change it there to phaser and press the global data send. It now sends the data but when I check on the D2, the MFX always changes to EQ. that is the 1st one in the row of FX. Can someone check if that happens to you too? Even if you use another hardware device as the D2? Thanx in advance.

  36. absolutely love this! When it’s working it’s an absolutel dream… my only problem is that sometimes it seems to struggle to get “online” – some kind of “reset midi ports” button would be ideal, as often when I open a project it simply will not recognise that the 505 is plugged in and in slave mode.
    It also seems to crash ableton when trying to delete the plug in/close the project. Seems to happen with multiple MIDI interfaces unfortunately.

    Ableton 9.74/Windows XP

  39. thanks, that occasionally works, but not very often. The workaround I have found is always to save the project with different MIDI ports than I want to use, then when I open the project I can change to the ones I want and the vst reliably goes “online”. I am going to try using a different MIDI interface and see if this improves the problem.

  40. I’ve made some tests saving a project in Ableton Live and I can’t reproduce this issue. I’ve opened the same project about 10 times and the ports are always working as expected, the panel is always “online”, and no need to change ports before saving the project. I don’t really know why you have this issue.
    Remember that the ports used with the panel can’t be used by any other app or panel instance.

  41. Having trouble with getting my GrooveBox Editor (for mc 505) to have an online status. I have followed all SYSTEM settings on 4. Configuration in the manual, as well as set the mc505 to SLAVE. Any other suggestion would be much appreciated!

    • dasfaker, sorry for the late reply, I will be more attentive to the chat here. I’m not exactly sure I understand your question, I believe I am using the standalone program. I do not have a DAW like Ableton running. Is that what the VST would be for?

  43. Having trouble using an external usb keyboard controller, LPK25, to use the editor Part settings, instead only plays the current MC505 Part when set to Thru Routing…is this a bug? I will try a standard 5-pin keyboard if so.

    • (1) I have powered on my MC505
      (2) I have connected USB of my computer to the MIDI IN and MIDI OUT on the mc505 through this cable http://bit.ly/2vVPYVp
      (3) Following the instructions in the manual on page 6:
      SYSTEM → MIDI → SYS-EXC → Rx. Sys-Ex = on
      SYSTEM → MIDI → Edit TxRx = MODE2
      SYSTEM → MIDI → SYS-EXC → Device # 17
      SYSTEM → MIDI → Rx. PG = on
      SYSTEM → MIDI → Rx. Bank Sel = on
      (4) I have put the mc505 into SLAVE mode
      (5) Still seeing “offline” editor, and when I open the MIDI settings in the editor, I am not getting the options shown on page 6 of manual. I am seeing “USB2.0-MIDI” as the only option for “Input device” and “USB2.0-MIDI”, “Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth”, and “MIDIOUT2 (USB2.0-MIDI)” as the options for “Output device”.
      (6) I have also gone to Device Manager and attempted to update all related drivers and they all say up to date.

      Hope this helps us identify the problem. I’m super excited to get the controller working.

  45. If the editor is OFFLINE is because there is no communication between the editor and the MC, and this is related to your MIDI interface. If you have selected the “USB2.0-MIDI” MIDI ports as INPUT and OUTPUT devices and the editor is still OFFLINE, there must be a problem with your MIDI interface.

  47. Yes, it is. I don’t say it’s faulty, you should test it with some other software (MIDI-OX for example) to see if it send and receive MID data before getting another one.
    I’m not an expert with those MIDI to USB cables, never owned any of them. First be sure it works.

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