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

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”

  1. Hi, was looking for a way to back up my 307, after i had a memory corruption and lost 10 years of patterns and patches … ggrrrr.

    Found this and it looks amazing – what a public service by Dasfaker!

    I can get it set up and ‘online’, all seems to be connected, but I tried to backup with a bulk dump by pressing “get” under “bulk dump”, it said “waiting”, and i set the 307 to transmit bulk dump (pattern & patch). somehow it didn’t work, and i wanted to try again but the buttons which said “get” now says “done”, and no matter what I do I cannot get it back to saying “get”!.

    I’ve tried closing and reopening the application, i’ve tried unplugging midi channels, turning the 307 off and back on etc.

    Any thoughts appreciated! πŸ™‚

    Thanks again.

  2. …just to add to the above, as I understand that there is no other way to get sequence data (patterns) out of the 307 and into the computer beyond the bulk dump approach? thx

  3. Hi danhaglund

    When you press “get” the button label change to “waiting”. Then you must perform the dump operation on the 307. When it’s done (there is no progress bar to indicate the dump status so you must look at your 307), you must press again the button labeled “waiting” to save the file to disk.

    I can’t reproduce your issue here. Sometimes the button “waiting” is pressed when I open the editor, but pressing again and reopening the editor fix the button.
    Try deleting folder GrooveBoxEd located in C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming and reopening the editor.

  4. Hi! I’m having some trouble getting the stand-alone program (.exe) program to recognize my MC505 as a MIDI device. Looking at my device manager, I think it might be an issue with having the right driver – showing up as a “USB Composite Device”.

    I took a look at Roland’s MC505 USB<->MIDI drivers but there seems to be minimal support. Looks like they only have drivers for OS X Yosemite. I also contacted Roland tech support and they don’t seem have any windows drivers.(https://www.roland.com/global/support/by_product/mc-505/updates_drivers/)

    Does anyone have any experience with MC505 drivers for Windows 8/10? Do y’all just plug your MC505 into your computer via USB and it works or what!?

  5. Hi dgarges

    The Roland MC505 doesn’t need a midi driver. What probably need a driver is your MIDI interface, where you connect the MC.
    What MIDI interface are you using?

  6. Thank you so much for this amazing editor. I have used every Groovebox editor and this is the best one by far.

    I am having an issue with the scale tune section. The scale presets and the individual cent tune boxes do not have any effect on the MC-505’s tuning. It does work with a different editor (“MC-505 editor”) . I also noticed that when I change the tuning manually inside your Groovebox editor and then save a patch, the cells for the cent tune default back to zero.

    For now I am running both editors simultaneously and using the other for scale editing, but would love it if I could do everything in your editor since it allows manual cent tuning.

    Thanks again for your great work and thanks for your time.

  7. Hi Apheleon.
    Thanks for your words and for your report.

    I can’t reproduce your issue here. Be aware that the scale tune boxes and presets works per Part, that means that any change you make is applied only to the current part selected, not all parts. If you want to assign the same values on all parts, click the menu button and select “assign current to all parts”.
    Also, don’t forget to activate Scale Tune button (click System button in the upper side of the editor to show System menu)

    About the second issue, I doesn’t happen here. It could be that you loaded the patch on a part that has no scale tune? Scale tune data is not part of the Patch data, it belongs to System data, so when you save or load a patch it does not contain any scale tune data.

  8. Hi Dasfaker,

    I’m using Bitwig 2.2.2 and it is trowing this error:
    ——
    “com.bitwig.flt.library.metadata.reader.exception.CouldNotReadMetadataException: could not read metadata: Could not read VST plug-in metadata
    64 bit plugin host reported errors: Pluginhost returned non zero exit code -1

    32 bit plugin host reported errors: Pluginhost returned non zero exit code -1”
    ——

    Previously in Bitwig 1.3 I was using the older version of the editor with no problem (it is not working in 2.2.2).

    Same goes for Studio One. Reaper is howerver reading it no problem as well as Cubase 5.

    Cheers,

  9. Hi Dasfaker,

    I have a really bad problem with loading the UI elements in x64 VST plugin version.

    Please look at this screenshot:
    https://i.imgur.com/623sjQh.png

    I tried all sorts of deleting the AppData/Roaming/GooveboxED folder, making it read only and vice versa, replacing the dll in the VST folder with new one, removin all other CTRL VST plugins from AppData/Roaming/, etc.

    Going crazy over this, can you assist?

    Thanks again for awesome editor!

    PS you have a typo in exports “Goovebox” R is missing….

  10. Hi Dasfaker, thanks a lot for your assistence!

    1. I did change the skin and it does not reload resources(images) only changes background color…
    2. I deleted the AppData/Roaming/GooveboxED folder and no avail
    3. I tried to delete everything in the system connected to the plugin and putting a new .dll and even that didn’t help…
    4. Standalone version loads normaly every time!
    5. I tried to copy config (text-file) from standalone to text file of the .dll in the appdata/roaming and no help as well…

    But it worked for a while when I stared to use it firstly and then suddenly stoped and ever since I can’t get it to load properly.

    Going crazy over this :/

  11. Also, I never actually changed the skin in the first place (before it broke) but looks like it’s using some path and going to Saturn skin on it’s own… What ever sking I chose, it will startup in saturn.

  12. Been investigating this a bit more and I believe that I have “how to reproduce”:

    1. Add x64 VST plugin to any project in your DAW of choice (tried: REAPER, Live 10, Bitwig 2)
    2. Delete the channel with plugin
    3. Add plugin to the project again as in step 1)

    As a result, the interface will load partially (no resources).

    Thanks

  13. I’ve been doing some test in Live 9 and 10 and this is what I get:

    With the old version, I can reproduce the issue if I select Saturn skin, save the project and reopen it. At this moment the panel lacks the backgrounds. It can be fixed if I select any other skin, save the project and reopen it. But I can’t reproduce it following your method.

    With the newer version, I can’t reproduce the issue under any circumstance (following your steps, my steps, nothing).

    The cause of this bug is due to a variable for a Saturn skin color that is missing. (In fact, there are no image resources in this editor, all drawing is done with code). That’s why when you select another skin and save the project, when you reopen it the variable for color is no longer missing, as any other skin has this variable assigned. This, as I said before, was fixed in the newer version.

    Try to choose any other skin, save the project and reopen to see if the skin has changed and if there is background. The skin selected is stored in the project as plugin data, so it should change after saving.

  14. Hi and thanks again for your support!

    First of all I’m using the “GooveboxED_Beta2_x64.dll” Created Monday, β€ŽSeptember β€Ž4, β€Ž2017, β€β€Ž4:48:10 PM 13,042 KB -> one that is available for download on this page. Is this really the latest one?

    1. Created a new project
    2. Added GrooveboxED: – standard problem with drawings (loads in saturn skin colors but it’s written “Rouge Two” skin name
    3. Saved the project
    4. Reopened the project
    ———————————————————
    And it WORKS!!!!!!!!!!
    – So you are actually saving the skin with the DAW project instance. OK but maybe there should be global preference in cfg file etc.
    ———————————————————
    5. Exited the Ableton Live and reopen
    6. Dropped GrooveboxED to empty project (ie. without firstly opening the previously saved project in steps 1-4 with changed skin)
    7. Same problem: “Rouge Two” skin in “Saturn” skin Colors

    In short, we can go around this problem by opening saved project with working skin prior to opening any other project or starting a new one.

    I mean, it is a hardly an elegant solution for this editor which otherwise looks like million dollars!! Would it be much work to create one -skin-only version that would wok 100% cases?

    Any other idea is also really welcome πŸ™‚

  15. Finally I could reproduce the issue with the latest beta, so it’s indeed the same bug (I’ll have to look if it was really fixed).

    Thanks for a really detailed help!!

  16. Hi, thank you for this great editor! Much appreciated!!

    But I do have a single question, ’cause it took me some struggling to get the editor’s connection status to ‘online’ with my MC-505..

    I first tried connecting the 505 to my laptop with a USB MIDI cable (like this one: https://img.dxcdn.com/productimages/sku_11277_1.jpg ) but that didn’t seem to work so well..
    The editor did recognize the USB MIDI inputs & outputs. But when I selected them as input & output devices in the editor’s MIDI settings, the connection status remained ‘offline’..

    So I borrowed the audio interface of a friend, ’cause of it’s MIDI in & out ports. I gave it another try and everything worked perfectly fine!

    So now I’m kinda curious, do I need to get an interface or is there a way to get things working with that USB MIDI cable too?

    Greetz

  17. Hi, Im just wondering if it will be possible to connect my mc505 to ableton without the use of the plugin. I have a mac and noticed that this is a windows only software for the moment.

    The main reason i’d like to connect it is to record the patterns i’ve made on the 505 onto ableton.

    Thanks

  18. Hello,

    first of all thank you so much for the amazing work!

    I was using your editor on my Setup and everything was working great, but i switched to MACOSX now and was wondering if you could make an .dmg version please πŸ˜€

    Cheers from Germany

  19. Hi, I’m trying to back up my patterns and patches on my 505 to my laptop because I want to perform a system update on the 505.
    But when I receive a bulk dump of a certain pattern on my 505, save it and then try to send the created dump file to the Temporary area of the 505(to check if the dump is created correctly) I receive a “Checksum error”. (I did set the 505 to ‘Waiting’ for a bulk receive btw)
    I also tried the Get+Save Data option but that file only seems to contain the right patches when I Load+Send it to an empty pattern on my 505.
    Is there a way to back up my pattern sequences too?
    Greetz

  20. Hi guys !
    Ok. I think that dasfaker is no more on this. I tried to make it works on OSX with parrallels ans Win 8 and it work perfect in standalone. I still have to understand how everything works … Perhaps a version editable in ctrl should be offer now ?
    Regards from France !

  21. Can anyone tell me what the SWITCH button is doing in the editor?
    You can find him on different tabs but most of all I would like to know for the drum section.
    There is a row of switches above all keys. The manual says it is a quick access to each rythm key’s switch parameter and indeed it disables or enables it, but what is the switch doing please?

  22. Hi there,

    Trying to connect the GrooveBox editor to my Roland MC-307. Not sure how to do the following on the MC-307:

    Following the instructions in the manual on page 6:
    SYSTEM β†’ MIDI β†’ SYS-EXC β†’ Rx. Sys-Ex = on
    SYSTEM β†’ MIDI β†’ Edit TxRx = MODE2
    SYSTEM β†’ MIDI β†’ SYS-EXC β†’ Device # 17
    SYSTEM β†’ MIDI β†’ Rx. PG = on
    SYSTEM β†’ MIDI β†’ Rx. Bank Sel = on

    • Looks like I figured it out. While the settings are not exact, diving into the SYS – MIDI menu I was able to adjust enough settings to make it work. As well, the USB to MIDI cable I have is mark IN and OUT, but I originally took that to mean plug those into the respective MIDI ports. However, what it really meant was those were the IN and OUTs of the MIDI – so IN goes into MC-307’s OUT and OUT goes into MC-307’s IN.

      Now to explore this great tool.

  23. I just got this for use with my MC-505.

    I can “get” individual patterns loaded and save them as syx files, but I want to be able to see ALL patterns in the editor library, just like you can see patches.

    Is this not possible?

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