This page is read from MIDI Instrument Definitions, a Python library used in the author's other projects, in which every number is traced to a document its maker published. Its source is on GitHub.

Roland MC-707 MIDI implementation

The MIDI implementation of the Roland MC-707: what it answers to, and the 28 controls it offers, on firmware 1.80.

At a glance

Firmware: This page describes firmware 1.80.
MIDI channel: Any one of 1 to 16.
Parts: Track, 8 of them: each on a MIDI channel of its own, taking notes, controls, and program changes.
Control Channel: on a MIDI channel of its own, taking notes and program changes, each note working what is listed for it below.
MIDI mode: 3: omni off, poly.
Voices: Not recorded.
Note range: 0 to 127: C-1 to G9, counting middle C as C4.
Velocity: Sent and received. Release velocity is received.
Aftertouch: Channel pressure and polyphonic, each answered. It sends none.
Pitch bend: How far it bends is not recorded, and the range can be changed.
Program change: Received and sent, with 128 presets.
MIDI clock: Sent and received.
Start and stop: Sent and received.
Control change: 28 controls, in the tables below.
NRPN: None.
System exclusive: Not recorded.

Control channel notes

Each of this part's notes works what is beside it.

What it works	Note
`scatter_1`	60, C4
`scatter_2`	61, C#4
`scatter_3`	62, D4
`scatter_4`	63, D#4
`scatter_5`	64, E4
`scatter_6`	65, F4
`scatter_7`	66, F#4
`scatter_8`	67, G4
`scatter_9`	68, G#4
`scatter_10`	69, A4
`scatter_11`	70, A#4
`scatter_12`	71, B4
`scatter_13`	72, C5
`scatter_14`	73, C#5
`scatter_15`	74, D5
`scatter_16`	75, D#5

Controls

In the order the definition gives them, by part and group. Under each control is the name a program calls it by, once pymidiinstrumentdefs.load("roland/mc_707") has loaded them.

Track

Controllers

Control	CC	Values
Modulation `modulation`	1	0-127 Received, never sent
Volume `volume`	7	0-127 Received, never sent
Panpot `panpot`	10	0-127 Received, never sent
Expression `expression`	11	0-127 Received, never sent
Breath Control `breath_control`	2	0-127 Received, never sent
Foot Control `foot_control`	4	0-127 Received, never sent

Portamento

Control	CC	Values
Portamento Time `portamento_time`	5	0-127 Received, never sent
Portamento control `portamento_control`	84	0-127 Received, never sent

Pedals

Control	CC	Values
Hold 1 `hold_1`	64	0-127 Received, never sent
Portamento `portamento`	65	0-127 Received, never sent
Sostenuto `sostenuto`	66	0-127 Received, never sent
Soft `soft`	67	0-127 Received, never sent
Legato Foot Switch `legato_foot_switch`	68	0-127 Received, never sent

Tone

Control	CC	Values
Resonance `resonance`	71	0-127 Received, never sent
Release Time `release_time`	72	0-127 Received, never sent
Attack time `attack_time`	73	0-127 Received, never sent
Cutoff `cutoff`	74	0-127 Received, never sent
Decay Time `decay_time`	75	0-127 Received, never sent

Vibrato

Control	CC	Values
Vibrato Rate `vibrato_rate`	76	0-127 Received, never sent
Vibrato Depth `vibrato_depth`	77	0-127 Received, never sent
Vibrato Delay `vibrato_delay`	78	0-127 Received, never sent

Knobs

Control	CC	Values
FILTER Knob `filter_knob`	80	0-127
MOD Knob `mod_knob`	81	0-127
FX Knob `fx_knob`	82	0-127
SOUND Knob `sound_knob`	83	0-127

Effects

Control	CC	Values
General Purpose Effect 1 (Reverb Send Level) `reverb_send`	91	0-127 Received, never sent
General Purpose Effect 3 (Chorus Send Level) `chorus_send`	92	0-127 Received, never sent
Delay Send Level `delay_send`	93	0-127 Received, never sent

Where these facts come from

Source documents

MC-707 MIDI Implementation Chart, Version 1.60, dated 25 September 2020, its MIDI implementation, read on 3 October 2026 (the file read).
MC-707 MIDI Implementation Chart, Version 1.00, dated 1 September 2019, its MIDI implementation, read on 3 October 2026 (the file read).
MC-707 MIDI Implementation Chart, Version 1.20, dated 22 November 2019, its MIDI implementation, read on 3 October 2026 (the file read).
MC-707 Reference Manual, eng02, dated 9 October 2024, its user manual, read on 3 October 2026 (the file read).
MC-707 Update, eng09, dated 2 May 2024, its release notes, read on 3 October 2026 (the file read).
Roland - Support - MC-707 - Owner's Manuals, its download page, read on 3 October 2026 (the file read).

How they were read

MC-707 MIDI Implementation Chart, Version 1.60, dated Sep. 25, 2020 - one page, and the whole of this instrument's published control map. Beside it: the MC-707 Reference Manual, 121 pages, edition eng02, which carries the channel and system settings; and the MC-707 Update notes, 21 pages, edition eng09, which document every firmware release from Ver.1.02 to Ver.1.80 in sections of their own and define two MIDI channels the reference manual does not mention.

THE CHART'S COLUMNS WERE SETTLED FROM THE PAGE RATHER THAN FROM READING ORDER. Roland draws it as a grid, and each heading's own glyphs fall inside the column it labels, so Transmitted is the left of the two. That is asserted for all three editions rather than assumed, because a Korg chart in this corpus draws the same pair the other way round and a reader who trusts the order inverts every direction without seeing anything wrong.

TWENTY-FIVE CONTROLLER NUMBERS, AND THE INSTRUMENT SENDS ONLY ITS KNOBS. Every control change row is marked x in the Transmitted column except 80, 81, 82 and 83 - the FILTER, MOD and FX knobs and a fourth that arrived later - which are o in both. So 24 of the 28 controls below are recognised and never sent, and each says so.

WHAT THE KNOBS SEND IS A DEFAULT; WHAT THEY HEAR IS NOT. Ver.1.30 added a parameter per knob: "Tx FILTER CC Number CC0, CC1, CC2...CC119 Specifies the CC number transmitted by the [FILTER] knob" (update p. 13), and the same for MOD and FX. The parameter is a transmit one, so 80, 81 and 82 stay the numbers the instrument answers to and become a factory assignment for what it sends - the same shape as the microKORG's numbers, and worth knowing before treating a knob's number as a property of the model.

NINETY-FOUR MORE NUMBERS ARE USABLE AND NONE OF THEM IS ASSIGNED TO ANYTHING. The reference manual's Matrix Control and MFX Control source lists both offer them: "CC01-31, CC33-95 Controller number 1-31, 33-95" (reference p. 73) in the first, and "CC01-31 Controller number 1-31" (reference p. 74) and "CC33-95 Controller number 33-95" (reference p. 74) in the second, beside BEND, AFT and four SYS-CTRL slots. CC 32 is the one number the range steps over, which is bank select LSB. Nothing says what any of the 94 does, because that is a player's routing, so there is no control below for any of them.

EIGHT TRACKS, EACH ON A CHANNEL OF ITS OWN: "Track Channel 1-8 CH1-CH16 Specifies the MIDI channel of each track" (reference p. 54). The tracks share one pool of voices rather than having their own, which the system settings show from the other side - a VOICE RESERVE tab whose TRACK 1-8 parameter "Specifies how polyphony resources are allocated to each tone/drum track" (reference p. 18).

AND A NINTH CHANNEL THAT MAKES NO SOUND. The chart's footnotes name a "control channel" (chart p. 1) twice and the reference manual never mentions it; it is defined in the update notes, as "Control Channel CH1, CH2, CH3... CH16" (update p. 18) which "Specifies the MIDI channel that switches scenes" (update p. 18). Two kinds of message reach it and nothing else does.

EVERY CONTROL BELOW NAMES THE TRACK, BECAUSE THE TRACKS ARE THE ONLY PART THAT TAKES ONE. The chart's footnotes give the control channel a scene change and the Scatter Pad's notes and no control change (chart p. 1), and no track's channel derives from a base: even the MIDI Rx Auto Channel of Ver.1.30 passes what arrives on it to "the track selected by the [SEL] button." (update p. 13). So a control naming no part would mean a channel this instrument does not have. The update notes put both directions on the track: the Ver.1.80 receive switches "were added to TRACK SETTING (MIDI tab)." (update p. 3), and at Ver.1.30 the numbers the knobs send were "added to the track settings (MIDI tab)." (update p. 13).

PROGRAM CHANGE MEANS TWO DIFFERENT THINGS ON THE TWO KINDS OF CHANNEL, which is the most useful thing this chart publishes: "Scene change (0-127) on control channel, Clip change (0-15) on track channel" (chart p. 1). Both halves check out against the reference manual - "You can assign up to 16 clips to each track" (reference p. 9) for the sixteen, and the 128 scenes against the update notes' own CALL SCENE setting, one of whose options is to "Use the SCENE buttons to directly recall a scene from the bank that you already selected using the step buttons" (update p. 11) - sixteen banks of eight - while the other divides the same 128 as eight banks of sixteen.

AND THE CHARTS RECORD THAT COUNT GROWING. Version 1.20's footnote reads "Scene change (0-7) on control channel, Clip change (0-15) on track channel" (chart_1_20 p. 1) and Version 1.60's widens the first half to 0-127, with a True Number that goes 0-15, then 0-127. The reference manual still describes the eight the instrument shipped with, reachable from "a SCENE [1]-[4] button" (reference p. 5), with shift for 5 to 8; the update notes record the change from the other side, listing among the fixes in Ver.1.60 that being "unable to control scenes 9-128 by receiving program change messages was fixed" (update p. 10). Four documents, one history, and they agree.

THE SCATTER PAD IS SIXTEEN NOTE NUMBERS ON THAT SAME CONTROL CHANNEL, by the chart's third footnote, "Scatter Pad (60-75) on control channel" (chart p. 1), which the update notes put in words as "Use note numbers 60-75 on the control channel" (update p. 9), to turn each pad's effect on and off. Sixteen notes that work a performance effect rather than sounding a pitch, so the control channel below carries them as a note map of its own, scatter_1 on 60 to scatter_16 on 75. That pad 1 is note 60 is the reading of a span of sixteen notes for sixteen pads: no page lists them one by one.

THE TWO DOCUMENTS DISAGREE ABOUT SYSTEM EXCLUSIVE AND NEITHER ANSWER IS RECORDED. The chart marks System Exclusive x in both columns - neither sent nor recognised. The reference manual carries a "Device ID 17-32" (reference p. 54) parameter whose whole purpose is the other answer: "When transmitting and receiving system exclusive messages, the device ID numbers of both devices must match" (reference p. 54). A setting that exists only for system exclusive is hard to square with a chart that says there is none, and nothing published here chooses between them.

THREE CONTROLLER NUMBERS COME FROM OTHER DOCUMENTS THAN THE CHART, which is two releases older than the firmware. The Ver.1.80 notes add a per-track switch for each of nine controller numbers, and two of the nine are numbers the chart never mentions: "CC 2: You can select whether to apply breath control to a track or record it to a clip" (update p. 3) and "CC 4: You can select whether to apply foot control to a track or record it to a clip" (update p. 3). Six of the other seven - 1, 7, 10, 11, 64 and 91 - the chart already had, under the same names.

THE NINTH IS CC 93, AND THREE DOCUMENTS NAME IT THREE WAYS WHILE THE CHART GIVES ITS FUNCTION TO 92. The chart has "General Purpose Effect 3 (Chorus Send Level)" (chart p. 1) against 92. The reference manual's track parameter list has "Delay Send Level (CC#93)" (reference p. 48) and no chorus send at all - it names only three controller numbers in that list, "Pan (CC#10)" (reference p. 48), "Reverb Send Level (CC#91)" (reference p. 48) and that one. The Ver.1.80 notes have 93 again, in a switch called "Receive Chorus/Delay Send" (update p. 3). The MIDI specification puts Effects 3 Depth at 93, so the chart's label disagrees with its own number. Both numbers are carried below, each under the name of the document that defines it as a parameter rather than as a switch, and neither is chosen over the other.

NO NRPN, AND IT IS CHECKED. The chart names its controller numbers one at a time rather than in ranges, and 98 and 99 are not among the twenty-five; it has no NRPN row; and the words NRPN, RPN, Registered Parameter, Data Entry and Bank Select appear nowhere in the chart, the 121-page reference manual, the 21-page update notes or the support page, which was checked by counting occurrences in all four.

NOT RECORDED: the voice count, which no document here states - only that the eight tracks draw on one pool and that a track may reserve up to ten. How far pitch bend reaches, because the reference manual gives a "Bend Range Up 0-48 [semitone]" (reference p. 62) and a matching Bend Range Down per tone, plus a per-clip "Bend Range 0-24, TONE" (reference p. 64), and states no default for any of them. And a factory MIDI channel, since the chart's Basic Channel Default is the whole range 1-16 with the remark "Memorized".

THE SUPPORT PAGE WAS SAVED AND IS WORTH ONE WARNING. It renders a list of this product's documents, which is more than the JUNO-106's and the D-50's did - those two serve a page byte-identical to each other carrying nothing about either product. But it names no file URL: every link is built in the browser, so the chart, the reference manual and the update notes were all found by searching Roland's own domain. The chart's file name is MC-707_MIDIImpleChart_eng01_W.pdf, with no underscore between MIDI and ImpleChart, where the TR-1000's has one - so a probe built on the other product's pattern returns 403 either way round.