Thanks for those sweet and generous words. The PMA-5 played a large part on my sonic arsenal back in the 1990s and early 2000s, and to think how many times people asked me what I was 'drawing' on stage 😀 Great to see you celebrate this little gem here! Congrats!
cool to know you used this as a serious instrument Robin I carried mine everywhere as a sketchpad when I had a free moment in the late 90s, then later used the QY-100 a bunch - now the iPad and iPhone are serious multitouch instruments, good times :-) also I really enjoyed your "sonic dinner" performance with Hainbach last year :-)
@@SynthAddict Yes, as this channel suggests there's a lot hidden under the surface of even the poorest of instruments! That show with Hainbach was great fun. We wanted to replicate it in theatres too but of course that wasn't going to happen after all!
@@urfavoritehumanbean879 it's just confusion. German V can sound more like an F (Vogel, Vater) and like a softer V (Vase, Volumen). W most of the time sounds kinda like the english V (can also be silent). Then W in english exists and makes it all even more complicated. So most people think "there's something special to be remembered about these V and W sounds" but they keep getting confused and just use the English W pronounciation for everything. That is my theory.
@@mbbmbbmm interesting. Here in Norway we don't have the German V sounding like an F, we tend to use F for that. W is not a thing. But when some Norwegians learning English try to pronounce the V in words like Pivot, it can come out as sounding like we're pronouncing Piwot. I know I did these mistakes when we started to learn English back in the 4th grade.
Sad but true Roland is not so smart with re-releasing gear liike Yamaha and Korg. When tey reissue a piece of gear it is not so great in the digital age.
I have not one but two of these bad boys - one of them with the Hive Mind Synthesis backlight mod. Still don't know how to use them, but I have them. For anyone who stumbles upon these things: - The capacitors on the mainboard can go bad - you'll see the device crashing and doing weird stuff if they're toast. Regardless of whether this is happening or not, I'd recommend replacing them before they destroy the main board. You need 4x 100uf 6V (or higher voltage) surface mount caps. - I've had one of these with a bad LCD - the reflective coating disappeared. If this happens, it usually knackers the polariser too. Be prepared to replace both the front and back polarisers if this happens! - The battery will need replacing. It's a CR2032 in a 3pin configuration - you're looking for a CR2032 with horizontal PCB mount. Finally - the bit of info that is seemingly nowhere else online... To enter test mode, press and hold exit whilst powering the device on. Tap stop when the boot animation appears. There are two test modes, 1 with the host select switch set to MIDI, and one with it set to Mac. Finally, but for real this time - there's some PC software available that allows you to read/write data off of these things. There's even the ability to load a full 16-part MIDI track into the device (but you can't edit it, just play it. The downside? These things have naff-all memory, so you can fit a single decently programmed MIDI onto the device before you're out of memory. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
Welp, I have mine I bought in 1996, just now I fixed the overused headphone jack, added more solder to the midi in and spent an hour revelling in my genius with my epic synth wave jam (that I could have easily done on my Roland MC-707 that has ALL of the patches included inside)!!
Exactly. Is this just their implementation of the Sound Canvas / General MIDI on a PDA sequencer? Had trouble wrapping my mind around what this thing was. But it sounded GREAT in the jam.
I bought one about 10 years ago and although I am left handed it made me cry so I sold it six months later. I watched your video and realise I made a terrible mistake. I should have sold it earlier.
Another great vid bro. It seems that PMA-5 was really ahead for sure. And the fact that they could pack all that into that box is more amazing. I can't see myself ever trying to use something like that then or now, but if you were in a plane crash in the Swiss alps and in-between eating the dead passengers to stay alive, you could make some beats for the arriving to late rescue team to enjoy when they found it in your frozen hands, and your family playing it at your memorial , and they would tell the guest "he would have wanted this played at his funeral"
Florian, you look like a smooth genius controlling that setup with those steady stylus skills 🏆 ...and thank you for yet another world-class shout-out! 🤸♂️
So glad you found a PMA-5 and ran your magic over it. I will always fondly remember mine as more PITA-5 but I happily passed the time on it on many a long commute when I lived in Seoul, a city where nobody will think you are weird for using a PITA-5 out in public. I think I traded it in for a Roland Fantom FA76 (plus cash) obviously I couldn't get enough of the Roland sound back in the 00s, kinda wish I'd held onto it. Nice show as always, Fridays are officially my favourite day now :-)
At first I wasn't sure if it would tickle all the foxes, but by the end I was convinced it does, indeed, pick all the lockses. Seriously impressed at how you managed to make the PMA-5 seem like a viable instrument given its infamy.
I swear to god I'm not stalking you, I just came across your channel recently - I received my PMA-5 today, it sounds as good as I hoped .... great 808 kit and pads. Going to rule the underground scene with this bad boy!!!
After watching some of your videos, I though you were listing my old 90's tiny travel set-up: SU-10, QY10 (and qy20 later), Casio SK1 and PMA-5. So your rewiews pushed me to dive down in the geologic strates of my cave, found and old case labelled "obsolete", plug some cables and wow! resurrection!! they are still working, more than 30 years later! Since these days, I buried for eternity 3 Ataris, 7 PC tower, 4laptops, 2 macs and 2 Ipad ...
The PMA in PMA-5 stands for the fact its designer was Probably Mad Annoyed !! I still kinda dig it though lol… and yes, more Bobby Prince Meets EBM Null-Modem Cable Deathmatch 80s Sample Funk Gothwave bro!! It has a slapstick / steampunk vibe to it #PARTICIPATION 😎💓✌🏼 PS: Extra props for that Jeff Goldblum still from The Fly 🪰 💚
HUGE part of my music career! I have to admit it did take a lot of work to master it but I think it'll always be here in my studio. I think Roland deserves big praise for being so innovative and it's a shame that the PMA5 wasn't a bigger success :)
Some of devices are to ahead of its time. If some device is using something unusual for unusual sake, it will not get popularity. You have some standards for something, if you go against the current, make sure your device is really revolutional. PMA-5 sounds good on paper, but it is not practical as today's Novation Circuit despite later don't have a screen. Just like synths of late 80's and onward, manufacturers decided to ditch controls on their digital and analogue synths (Moog Source from 80's), some had programmers like JX-8P, but still M1, DX7, Wavestation, D-50 all of them without additional knobs or sliders to control or create sounds, JD-800 from Roland was move in right direction but to late. Preset machines for the most of people, no matter how great or complex their architecture and sound was.
damnnn i had forgotten about the PMA-5 never expected it to appear on bad gear(not that i consider it good gear i just thought it would come much later) amazing video as always
Extra points for the Bud Spencer reference! I don't think I'd have the patience for that bit of gear. I'd suggest doing a vid on one of the old early 90's Zoom effects units, but they are more of a guitar thing than for synths. I had a 9002, loved it.
This one got a bunch of much needed laughs out of me, I have to keep my cursor over the pause button so I don't miss any of the hilarity. Please keep up the great work!
@@AudioPilz I would've appreciated it back then because of its capabilities. My head wasn't in the musical space then that it is now. These days, it looks like a test of one's patience and perseverance. I have Cubasis on a tablet but rather use real hardware. The Roland is still hardware.
Actually working and pressi g / pushing with a pen is way more controllable, than accidently sliding over a non-resistive touchscreen. It's really a composing tool at it's best. You compose your music instead of playing it.
Best name for a memejam yet?? Fantastic video as always, I loved the zoom-out to the m-audio keyboard controller, just great timing. It's the finer touches in your edits that complete the comedic & entertaining package 👏👏
Definitely considering speedrun the entire library of videos from your channel! hahahaha You always came up with amazing jams using these devices, specially the "Bobby Prince meets EBM Null-modem cable Deathmatch 80s sample funk gothwave" hits super great on my audio system. As always, fridays became more special since AudioPilz showed up on TH-cam ♥ Lot's of love from Brazil 🇧🇷
i love your show. it's my favourite show ever. The only little detail that's anoying is that i always have to keep changing my soundsystem's volume up and down all the time during each episode :( generally the presentation blow my ears out and then i can't listen very well what you say :/ i suspect recent episodes are more consistent (louding speaking :P) than early ones, but i still find that out. I'm telling you this because i care u_u
You can always count on Roland for an over-complicated menu structure, which probably makes total sense to their engineers. But at least this thing should be good as a Sound Canvas alternative for vintage PC gamers.
That touch display from the days before real touch displays would turn me into Sauron in like 30 seconds flat. Thing is like a coconut... nice enough on the inside, but getting to it is a labour of Hercules.
1:23 - 😂😂😂 The bunny with the mullet was legit!! The genre was killer this week and even took me back to BEFORE the PMA-5 came out, as I was playing null-modem cable Amiga games with a mate in 1993. 😂
I remember seeing this for the first time in San Francisco in the late 90s. A Rhodes keyboardist/Singer had his entire album on it. I was like.. "what the...???" For the Neo-Soul/RnB he genre worked in it was perfect. Quite impressive at the time. I always wondered what that little black music wallet thingy he used was. Thanks for the memories.
@@AudioPilz Indeed. I could tell that it was his "weapon of choice" he was very comfortable with the interface and it seemed like an extension of his body. As we all ideally would have our favourite gear be for us. Now only if I could remember his name and look him up. Great episode. As usual my friend. Thank you very much for the "edutainment".
Back when I bought mine (late nineties? - used) I had high hopes of creating music on the go and using the PMA-5 as a sound canvas (Sound Canvas). I think I kept it only a few months. Back out on ebay it went (where it came from). Then I bought a couple of the Yamaha versions with their VHS tape shape (they also were bad gear, and I sold all but one). Thanks for the very amusing reviews.
I have a Yamaha QY-10 and QY-70 and I love them both. This is even smaller and sounds fantastic! That UI, though. Is it harder to use than the QY series? That shouldn't be possible.
Any music gear with a touch screen, even with my preferred style of touch screen that uses a stylus (I feel like a child finger painting using touch screen with a finger, I can work a pencil, dammit!) is a hard pass for me. I put up with it on modern tablets if I'm using something like Caustic, but in the end, touch screens are just...nope. Just from a logistics perspective, if it goes out of alignment/gets broken, you lose ALL interface. If a single button or knob goes bad on normal gear, you can work around it even if it's annoying and the repair will generally be easier to pull off than dealing with touch screen replacement. That said, it looks like they made battery powered version of the SC-55 with on board sequencer...?
@@AudioPilz yeah, those kicks and that snare would work well in a synthwave track. The snare sounds a bit like the one Metallica used during the black album
I recognise that GngRap-A pattern! I guess Five Iron Frenzy had one of these back in the day and used it on their _most serious_ tracks: th-cam.com/video/CKHLwkf3vSY/w-d-xo.html Did not expect that 🤯
@@AudioPilz You're welcome. I'll gladly share my knowledge of weird silly B-Sides of old ska bands 😂 I'm not sure it reflects positively on me that I immediately recognised it. 🙈
I came here to comment the same thing lmao. .0001 seconds into that sample I recognized it as rap pants. Now I have to wonder if all the pants songs used presets from this thing...
I was fortunate to have used one of these back in the day. For the time, this was an amazing little gadget. It was quirky, but it honestly was way more capable than it gets credit for. Those preset styles were pretty good, and the style editor was decent. You could actually put a decent song together with it. We used it to make backing music for small media productions. One of its strengths was how portable it was.
"Today on Roland Gear!" I had a Sound Canvas keyboard during the 90s and for when we played live I used black tape to cover the part of the R so it looked like "Poland." I mostly used it as a big ole midi controller.
nice job, some really cool tracks in there, especially the last one I bought a PMA-5 when it was new and I used to take it everywhere, then later I got a Yamaha QY-100 which was much easier to compose with (polyphonic 2 octave keyboard, and a real reso LP filter that you could control via CC, so I also carried around the Kenton Spin Doctor with a homemade battery pack) :-) when I was trapped for hours in a server room at work in the late 90s I would bust out the PMA-5 to make some quick little jams and demos to pass the time - to aid realtime recording I made some custom thumb styli with velcro wrap and a stylus tip glued to each one, worked pretty well and easier than a single stylus the FX were good, and like you said the drums too I bought my first battery-powered MIDI controller (Roland PC-200 mkII) because of this box, and they paired well together, also worked well with my Korg padKONTROL (and battery pack) on the drums where you can use the velocity pads and the XY pad with hot keys to do rolls, flams, and repeats - in that way it made a good brain for a setup another notable feature most people miss is there is a mode where it acts like a plain SoundCanvas module and you address everything through MIDI - perfect for hooking up as a game music box (LucasArts or Sierra) like you showed in a previous episode ( Bad Gear MT-32) but sounding better than the MT-32 mostly - try it out and let me know if that worked for you now I need to bust my PMA-5 out and relive the late 90s :-)
The PMA5 has my all time favourite manual. Quick guide has a bear catching a fish to illustrate song structure including zzzzz and BANG comic touches p29; and so you don't confuse a pen or pencil with your stylus, there's handy pictures on p6 with *No good* against the former. Did you help write it? My PMA5 only gets midi-sidechain sequencer duties now, but given its small size and what it can do I'm glad I didn't sell it. I watched the eBay sale of Vince Clarks PMA5s years ago, but he was selling a pair and 3 would have been an overkill... Your videos are a highlight of the week for me despite the embarrassment of the amount of gear I've had being covered here ♥️
3 minidisk players? I have no clue how he used them, but knowing that he did makes me very happy! I still have my one MD deck from the 90's which I used to make samples stutter. lol
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Thanks for those sweet and generous words. The PMA-5 played a large part on my sonic arsenal back in the 1990s and early 2000s, and to think how many times people asked me what I was 'drawing' on stage 😀 Great to see you celebrate this little gem here! Congrats!
Hey Robin, as a long time fan I really appreciate your support!!!
cool to know you used this as a serious instrument Robin
I carried mine everywhere as a sketchpad when I had a free moment in the late 90s, then later used the QY-100 a bunch - now the iPad and iPhone are serious multitouch instruments, good times :-)
also I really enjoyed your "sonic dinner" performance with Hainbach last year :-)
You were drawin in notes!
@@AudioPilz And vice-versa. And people need to support one another more than ever these days too! Keep up the very entertaining work indeed!
@@SynthAddict Yes, as this channel suggests there's a lot hidden under the surface of even the poorest of instruments! That show with Hainbach was great fun. We wanted to replicate it in theatres too but of course that wasn't going to happen after all!
Never get tired of hearing, 'master wolume'.
Always a pleasure;)
@@AudioPilz Is it an Austrian accent thing? Because I would expect a German to say it like "folume", cause, you know, vier, Volkswagen, etc.
@@urfavoritehumanbean879 it's just confusion. German V can sound more like an F (Vogel, Vater) and like a softer V (Vase, Volumen). W most of the time sounds kinda like the english V (can also be silent). Then W in english exists and makes it all even more complicated. So most people think "there's something special to be remembered about these V and W sounds" but they keep getting confused and just use the English W pronounciation for everything. That is my theory.
@@mbbmbbmm interesting. Here in Norway we don't have the German V sounding like an F, we tend to use F for that. W is not a thing. But when some Norwegians learning English try to pronounce the V in words like Pivot, it can come out as sounding like we're pronouncing Piwot. I know I did these mistakes when we started to learn English back in the 4th grade.
Slave volume …..lick that boot NOW!
The man is absolutely Roland in it lately
They just released as many instruments as all other brands combined;) edit: damn, I didn't get the pun at first😂😂😂
Mijc - great pun! 😎
They see him Roland-in', they hatin'.
We’re knee-deep in Roland over here!!!
It might be neat for Roland to re-release this as an app for Android or iOS. This would fit nicely on an iPad or phone nowadays.
Absolutely!!! I'd get one of these!
@@AudioPilz They do have an app called Zenbeats that is pretty much the modern version of this.
Sad but true Roland is not so smart with re-releasing gear liike Yamaha and Korg. When tey reissue a piece of gear it is not so great in the digital age.
you shouldn't use apps at all.
"It felt like answering emails"
Via midi.
Need email to midi adapter!!!
Still better than 2400 baud XD
@@mycosys Haha 31250 baud to be oddly specific!
“There’s a sysex for that.”
@@Roboprogs get a nice unconvincing general midi piano at the same time.
I have not one but two of these bad boys - one of them with the Hive Mind Synthesis backlight mod.
Still don't know how to use them, but I have them.
For anyone who stumbles upon these things:
- The capacitors on the mainboard can go bad - you'll see the device crashing and doing weird stuff if they're toast. Regardless of whether this is happening or not, I'd recommend replacing them before they destroy the main board. You need 4x 100uf 6V (or higher voltage) surface mount caps.
- I've had one of these with a bad LCD - the reflective coating disappeared. If this happens, it usually knackers the polariser too. Be prepared to replace both the front and back polarisers if this happens!
- The battery will need replacing. It's a CR2032 in a 3pin configuration - you're looking for a CR2032 with horizontal PCB mount.
Finally - the bit of info that is seemingly nowhere else online... To enter test mode, press and hold exit whilst powering the device on. Tap stop when the boot animation appears. There are two test modes, 1 with the host select switch set to MIDI, and one with it set to Mac.
Finally, but for real this time - there's some PC software available that allows you to read/write data off of these things. There's even the ability to load a full 16-part MIDI track into the device (but you can't edit it, just play it. The downside? These things have naff-all memory, so you can fit a single decently programmed MIDI onto the device before you're out of memory.
Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
Nothing says "the carefree spirit of rock n' roll" like holding a stylus pen.
Absolutely! Robin Rimbaud was always afraid that people might think he was smoking;)
😆
@@AudioPilz - jimcarrey_smokin.gif
Or nothing says badass musician like composing something at 30,000 feet in a jet.
You would drop that "spirit", if you made a Hit-song on it.!
Welp, I have mine I bought in 1996, just now I fixed the overused headphone jack, added more solder to the midi in and spent an hour revelling in my genius with my epic synth wave jam (that I could have easily done on my Roland MC-707 that has ALL of the patches included inside)!!
Incredibly, this sounds better than that boutique device from the last video.
Shots fired!!!😅
actually i have to agree
Exactly. Is this just their implementation of the Sound Canvas / General MIDI on a PDA sequencer? Had trouble wrapping my mind around what this thing was.
But it sounded GREAT in the jam.
@@bwgti yes it is. Pure SC sound at its best.
I bought one about 10 years ago and although I am left handed it made me cry so I sold it six months later. I watched your video and realise I made a terrible mistake. I should have sold it earlier.
Lol😂
Another great vid bro. It seems that PMA-5 was really ahead for sure. And the fact that they could pack all that into that box is more amazing. I can't see myself ever trying to use something like that then or now, but if you were in a plane crash in the Swiss alps and in-between eating the dead passengers to stay alive, you could make some beats for the arriving to late rescue team to enjoy when they found it in your frozen hands, and your family playing it at your memorial , and they would tell the guest "he would have wanted this played at his funeral"
Thanks! Story of my life;)
Florian, you look like a smooth genius controlling that setup with those steady stylus skills 🏆
...and thank you for yet another world-class shout-out! 🤸♂️
Hey, thank you so much!!!
So glad you found a PMA-5 and ran your magic over it. I will always fondly remember mine as more PITA-5 but I happily passed the time on it on many a long commute when I lived in Seoul, a city where nobody will think you are weird for using a PITA-5 out in public. I think I traded it in for a Roland Fantom FA76 (plus cash) obviously I couldn't get enough of the Roland sound back in the 00s, kinda wish I'd held onto it. Nice show as always, Fridays are officially my favourite day now :-)
Thanks! That's one of the great thing about Asian cities, stuff like that is completely normal.
At first I wasn't sure if it would tickle all the foxes, but by the end I was convinced it does, indeed, pick all the lockses.
Seriously impressed at how you managed to make the PMA-5 seem like a viable instrument given its infamy.
Thanks! Nothing wrong with a good ole Sound Canvas;)
But does it pickle all the loxes?
I swear to god I'm not stalking you, I just came across your channel recently - I received my PMA-5 today, it sounds as good as I hoped .... great 808 kit and pads. Going to rule the underground scene with this bad boy!!!
Yeah, way to go!!!
This is perfect. Only thing lacking is a simcard slot
Agreed!
Wow, that must be the largest Roland screen of all time!!
ROFL
Nukes fired
Man, the track and the silent film montage were great!
Thanks!!!
This guy can make anything sound good.
Thank you so much!
Haha, I have (quite recently) bought this unit for its GS Sound Canvas sounds. Nice battery powered device to use with a laptop and old DOS games :)
Agreed!
7:19 this sounds like it would fit perfect in blastcorps 64 or maybe even transport tycoon. That snare sample just sets the era so hard
80s Roland snares FTW!!!
That sound is giving me severe Command & Conquer flashbacks. I love it
Yeah, the 90s game soundtrack is strong with this one
There's barely any game that wasn't composed on an SC-55 in the 90s!
After watching some of your videos, I though you were listing my old 90's tiny travel set-up: SU-10, QY10 (and qy20 later), Casio SK1 and PMA-5. So your rewiews pushed me to dive down in the geologic strates of my cave, found and old case labelled "obsolete", plug some cables and wow! resurrection!! they are still working, more than 30 years later!
Since these days, I buried for eternity 3 Ataris, 7 PC tower, 4laptops, 2 macs and 2 Ipad ...
Yeah, some of these devices are built to last!
The PMA-5 was my first sequencer and was way ahead of its time. The sounds are still viable. I will always have love for my PMA-5.
I assume it was mind blowing back then!
The PMA in PMA-5 stands for the fact its designer was Probably Mad Annoyed !! I still kinda dig it though lol… and yes, more Bobby Prince Meets EBM Null-Modem Cable Deathmatch 80s Sample Funk Gothwave bro!! It has a slapstick / steampunk vibe to it #PARTICIPATION 😎💓✌🏼 PS: Extra props for that Jeff Goldblum still from The Fly 🪰 💚
Correct! Thanks!
The LMNC reference was perfection
Love his stuff!
That outro was one of your best tracks yet! Beautiful really
Thank you!!!
HUGE part of my music career! I have to admit it did take a lot of work to master it but I think it'll always be here in my studio. I think Roland deserves big praise for being so innovative and it's a shame that the PMA5 wasn't a bigger success :)
Hey Glynn! I wholeheartedly agree!
Some of devices are to ahead of its time. If some device is using something unusual for unusual sake, it will not get popularity. You have some standards for something, if you go against the current, make sure your device is really revolutional. PMA-5 sounds good on paper, but it is not practical as today's Novation Circuit despite later don't have a screen. Just like synths of late 80's and onward, manufacturers decided to ditch controls on their digital and analogue synths (Moog Source from 80's), some had programmers like JX-8P, but still M1, DX7, Wavestation, D-50 all of them without additional knobs or sliders to control or create sounds, JD-800 from Roland was move in right direction but to late. Preset machines for the most of people, no matter how great or complex their architecture and sound was.
@@303machine Good insight, thanks 303M :)
AudioPilz's a man of the people, with late nights programming that little PDA for content.
It's an honor and a privilege!!! Thanks!
damnnn i had forgotten about the PMA-5 never expected it to appear on bad gear(not that i consider it good gear i just thought it would come much later) amazing video as always
Thanks!
Extra points for the Bud Spencer reference!
I don't think I'd have the patience for that bit of gear. I'd suggest doing a vid on one of the old early 90's Zoom effects units, but they are more of a guitar thing than for synths. I had a 9002, loved it.
Thanks! I have a 505 multi here. Great little box!
@@AudioPilz hah! Awesome!
@@AudioPilz Great show as always! Speaking of Zoom how about the R8? Showcasing it's much vaunted "sampler" credentials?
This one got a bunch of much needed laughs out of me, I have to keep my cursor over the pause button so I don't miss any of the hilarity. Please keep up the great work!
Thanks!
the only channel i watch like its a real comedy tv show every week
Thank you!!!
This was a great idea that transforms into a bad product in usability. The modern tablet "tickles all the foxes" of a similar kind these days.
I think it was quite appreciated back then
@@AudioPilz
I would've appreciated it back then because of its capabilities. My head wasn't in the musical space then that it is now. These days, it looks like a test of one's patience and perseverance. I have Cubasis on a tablet but rather use real hardware. The Roland is still hardware.
Actually working and pressi g / pushing with a pen is way more controllable, than accidently sliding over a non-resistive touchscreen. It's really a composing tool at it's best. You compose your music instead of playing it.
Well, questionable usability is still part of Roland's corporate identity.
Yeeeessssss! Thank you for picking up my suggestion!
Always a pleasure, thanks!!!
It's always a good time when a new bad gear episode is out...
Thanks!
dang i actually really like the way that thing sounds! would've blown my mind with music making fun if i had this as a kid.
Absolutely! Would have loved to have one of these as a teen!
Best name for a memejam yet?? Fantastic video as always, I loved the zoom-out to the m-audio keyboard controller, just great timing. It's the finer touches in your edits that complete the comedic & entertaining package 👏👏
Thank you!!!
Man this is such a cool channel. Thanks for all you do.
Thanks for watching!
No one else on youtube can entertain me with so much eye and ear candy, and nowhere near as consistently.
Thank you!!!
Those drums sound perfect.
Yup, great kits!!!
Definitely considering speedrun the entire library of videos from your channel! hahahaha
You always came up with amazing jams using these devices, specially the "Bobby Prince meets EBM Null-modem cable Deathmatch 80s sample funk gothwave" hits super great on my audio system.
As always, fridays became more special since AudioPilz showed up on TH-cam ♥
Lot's of love from Brazil 🇧🇷
Obrigado!!!
7:15 man those drums really do sound good!
Totally blew my mind!!!
I LOVE Bebot!! I've been using it for years for all kinds of fills and things!
Classic app!
i love your show. it's my favourite show ever. The only little detail that's anoying is that i always have to keep changing my soundsystem's volume up and down all the time during each episode :( generally the presentation blow my ears out and then i can't listen very well what you say :/ i suspect recent episodes are more consistent (louding speaking :P) than early ones, but i still find that out. I'm telling you this because i care u_u
Thanks for the input!
You have a true gift for GS arrangement. Bad Gear forever! Happy Friday :) Damn, I have always wished my PMA-5 had a phone book and a calendar 😅
...or at least a game of Snake (THX, btw;)
@@AudioPilz Truth! (🙏🤘👍)
'Roland should boutique this' - LOL
Absolutely!!!
Agreed, why not put it all in the pen ! Micro usb should fit for charging :)
Behringer should clone it
@@AudioPilz Man I'd love an app that was a copy of the PMA5
The editing was on point for the silent era music video!
Thanks!
Aha! I just thought " I wonder if Bad Gear has posted". And voilà. 😁🙏
Thank God it's Friday;)
@@AudioPilz Yay! 🤸
Yes, you finally got one! I’ve hinted at this device a while ago. Thanks 🙏 my friend!
Thanks! It took me a little longer to find one for an affordable price
You can always count on Roland for an over-complicated menu structure, which probably makes total sense to their engineers.
But at least this thing should be good as a Sound Canvas alternative for vintage PC gamers.
The menu structure of the PMA is surprisingly straight-forward (there are other quirks tho)
Have you ever used Yamaha gear ?
Appreciate the Bobby Prince shoutout! One of the legends
Yeah, love his work!
Just in time
None too soon;)
cannot imagine anymore a friday evening without bad gear, especially after an annoying week
Thank you so much!!!
Did I miss the obvious "Kraftwerk- Pocket Calculator" joke? I mean, c'mon!
Great video as always, keep up the good work!
Thanks! Had the Kraftwerks in the last episode;)
That's reserved for the OP-1 / OP-Z
I love the bass tones! ...and yer right, that snare is amazing!
Agreed! Great drum machine!!!
5:11 a moment of silence for those Americans who don't know who bud Spencer is
Mmmmh, beans...
I'm a fan of portable devices and it's nice to see a review yet another one I didn't even know existed.
Thanks again for sharing :-)
Thanks for watching!
That touch display from the days before real touch displays would turn me into Sauron in like 30 seconds flat. Thing is like a coconut... nice enough on the inside, but getting to it is a labour of Hercules.
Nice analogy!!!
Thanks for introducing me to this piece of interesting gear. The interface brings me right back to the 90s.
It won't get any more 90s than that😅
a must have for the patrick bateman on the go.
I've got to return some video tapes
Let's hear Paul Allen's track
Underrated comment
1:23 - 😂😂😂 The bunny with the mullet was legit!!
The genre was killer this week and even took me back to BEFORE the PMA-5 came out, as I was playing null-modem cable Amiga games with a mate in 1993. 😂
Loved playing Duke Nukem 3d via Null Modem❤️
"Aw mate, drive you mental, never stopped talking about money." I miss old, semi-legal, Scanner :)
The legend!
The feature list at the end l notwithstanding; this is the perfect expression of this series' title. Cheers bro, good one.
Thanks!
That snippet from Sam’s vid tho lol
You can clearly hear the desperation;)
These videos have become the highlight of my Fridays.
Thanks!!
Thank you so much!
Sounds like a 80s unit from the 90s, packed in a pocketline swing format from early 2000 😋
That sums it up pretty nicely!
I wish I knew this piece in my childhood ❤️
Of course as every week: have a nice weekend with bad gear❤️
Thanks❤️❤️❤️
I remember seeing this for the first time in San Francisco in the late 90s. A Rhodes keyboardist/Singer had his entire album on it.
I was like.. "what the...???"
For the Neo-Soul/RnB he genre worked in it was perfect. Quite impressive at the time.
I always wondered what that little black music wallet thingy he used was. Thanks for the memories.
Yeah, I assume people like this guy were the main target group
@@AudioPilz Indeed. I could tell that it was his "weapon of choice" he was very comfortable with the interface and it seemed like an extension of his body. As we all ideally would have our favourite gear be for us.
Now only if I could remember his name and look him up.
Great episode. As usual my friend. Thank you very much for the "edutainment".
Back when I bought mine (late nineties? - used) I had high hopes of creating music on the go and using the PMA-5 as a sound canvas (Sound Canvas). I think I kept it only a few months. Back out on ebay it went (where it came from). Then I bought a couple of the Yamaha versions with their VHS tape shape (they also were bad gear, and I sold all but one).
Thanks for the very amusing reviews.
Thank you!!! Love the little Yamahas
I have a Yamaha QY-10 and QY-70 and I love them both. This is even smaller and sounds fantastic! That UI, though. Is it harder to use than the QY series? That shouldn't be possible.
I found it much more convenient to use than the QY-10
Incredible showing !!
Now it's time for Yamaha QY10 ;-)
You can do it, I believe in you!
But...but...the fear...
Yes ! Any QY will do.
@Chris Cheltenham QY20 and QY10 are very different things, when it goes about being user friendly ;-)
@@AudioPilz Fear is only in your head. 12 bit sample based cheesy sounds and useless sequencer are for real!
Dude, this last song of yours sounds frickin' epic!
Thank you!!!
Friday!
Weekend!!!
I still have mine! Reminds me me to take it out and play with it! Has some cool crystalline synth sounds that take me right back.
Nice! That one should be in every household!!!
Why hasn't Roland given you a sponsorship yet 😆
A friend of a friend asked them and the answer was, erm, frosty;)
AudioPilz Roland: “Am I so out of touch? No, it’s AudioPilz who is wrong”
@@tdzucker I feel like roland is extremely out of touch
@@ProSimex84 not out of touch, but in their own lane
Dude that jam at 6:14 ouf so good. Loving these vids as always 👍 looks like the groovebox of my nightmares, but you made it sound pretty damn good!
Thank you!!!
Geile Jams
Danke!
I'm so glad you called Bebot a modern music making app
Certainly more modern than a PMA5;)
Any music gear with a touch screen, even with my preferred style of touch screen that uses a stylus (I feel like a child finger painting using touch screen with a finger, I can work a pencil, dammit!) is a hard pass for me. I put up with it on modern tablets if I'm using something like Caustic, but in the end, touch screens are just...nope. Just from a logistics perspective, if it goes out of alignment/gets broken, you lose ALL interface. If a single button or knob goes bad on normal gear, you can work around it even if it's annoying and the repair will generally be easier to pull off than dealing with touch screen replacement.
That said, it looks like they made battery powered version of the SC-55 with on board sequencer...?
According to Sound on Sound the samples are supposedly taken from some SC based sound card
Used to buy them for 50 bucks on Ebay 5 years ago, love the concept and portability.
Yeah, all gear gets expensive now...
Roland can't catch a break.
My favorite brand❤️❤️❤️
I love love love that snare and the bass
Agreed, nice TR kicks too!!!
@@AudioPilz yeah, those kicks and that snare would work well in a synthwave track. The snare sounds a bit like the one Metallica used during the black album
I recognise that GngRap-A pattern!
I guess Five Iron Frenzy had one of these back in the day and used it on their _most serious_ tracks: th-cam.com/video/CKHLwkf3vSY/w-d-xo.html
Did not expect that 🤯
Damn, there it is😂😂😂 Thanks for posting!!!
@@AudioPilz You're welcome. I'll gladly share my knowledge of weird silly B-Sides of old ska bands 😂
I'm not sure it reflects positively on me that I immediately recognised it. 🙈
I came here to comment the same thing lmao.
.0001 seconds into that sample I recognized it as rap pants. Now I have to wonder if all the pants songs used presets from this thing...
Pretty sure that thing is what my guitar teacher used to use as a metronome...he seemed pretty pleased with it during lessons
I assume it was a fashion statement back then;)
Seriously, I've had at least half of your stuff on my table ... This too. It was fun small midi toy for a while...
Yeah, there's a hidden matrix of Bad Gear connecting people all around thr globe;)
I was fortunate to have used one of these back in the day. For the time, this was an amazing little gadget. It was quirky, but it honestly was way more capable than it gets credit for. Those preset styles were pretty good, and the style editor was decent. You could actually put a decent song together with it. We used it to make backing music for small media productions. One of its strengths was how portable it was.
Great for that application!
I had one and used it on gigs for years.
Roland never... err always disappoints!
Roland❤️❤️❤️
Bad Gear episodes keep getting better and better!
Thanks!
I remember when I first met Adam from Le Car/ Adult., he had one of these to compose ideas while he worked at the local Museum in Detroit.
Nice!!!
"Today on Roland Gear!"
I had a Sound Canvas keyboard during the 90s and for when we played live I used black tape to cover the part of the R so it looked like "Poland."
I mostly used it as a big ole midi controller.
In German speaking regions we had a lot of fun with Marshall Amps and duct tape😂😂😂
nice job, some really cool tracks in there, especially the last one
I bought a PMA-5 when it was new and I used to take it everywhere, then later I got a Yamaha QY-100 which was much easier to compose with (polyphonic 2 octave keyboard, and a real reso LP filter that you could control via CC, so I also carried around the Kenton Spin Doctor with a homemade battery pack) :-)
when I was trapped for hours in a server room at work in the late 90s I would bust out the PMA-5 to make some quick little jams and demos to pass the time - to aid realtime recording I made some custom thumb styli with velcro wrap and a stylus tip glued to each one, worked pretty well and easier than a single stylus
the FX were good, and like you said the drums too
I bought my first battery-powered MIDI controller (Roland PC-200 mkII) because of this box, and they paired well together, also worked well with my Korg padKONTROL (and battery pack) on the drums where you can use the velocity pads and the XY pad with hot keys to do rolls, flams, and repeats - in that way it made a good brain for a setup
another notable feature most people miss is there is a mode where it acts like a plain SoundCanvas module and you address everything through MIDI - perfect for hooking up as a game music box (LucasArts or Sierra) like you showed in a previous episode ( Bad Gear MT-32) but sounding better than the MT-32 mostly - try it out and let me know if that worked for you
now I need to bust my PMA-5 out and relive the late 90s :-)
Nice technique! Why didn't I come up with that???
The PMA5 has my all time favourite manual. Quick guide has a bear catching a fish to illustrate song structure including zzzzz and BANG comic touches p29; and so you don't confuse a pen or pencil with your stylus, there's handy pictures on p6 with *No good* against the former. Did you help write it? My PMA5 only gets midi-sidechain sequencer duties now, but given its small size and what it can do I'm glad I didn't sell it. I watched the eBay sale of Vince Clarks PMA5s years ago, but he was selling a pair and 3 would have been an overkill... Your videos are a highlight of the week for me despite the embarrassment of the amount of gear I've had being covered here ♥️
3 minidisk players? I have no clue how he used them, but knowing that he did makes me very happy! I still have my one MD deck from the 90's which I used to make samples stutter. lol
I can only make assumtions but I would say everything where timing is not so important
last track you made on this is a banger
Thanks!
Been waiting for this one! Very fun!
Happy to hear that! Thanks!
Loved it! Never thought you would like it haha, to anyone reading there’s a facebook group on the PMA5
Good to know, thanks for posting!
Endlich! Hast du doch noch einen bekommen. Nice!!!
Yup, die Suche war lang;)