The YMO Music Computer

A look at the revolutionary Roland MC-8 from 1977 which was one of the earliest microprocessor-controlled digital sequencers. Around 200 of these units were made and they were extremely expensive. As I’ve covered the history of this unit several times, I thought it would be interesting to follow in the footsteps of a band that made significant use of the MC-8, which was Yellow Magic Orchestra. In the video we look at how the MC-8 works and use it to compose a track in the style of YMO using the techniques and (where possible) instruments that they used in the late 70s. Thank you to my Patrons for their support. The track, stems and MC-8 data are available there. You can buy the track on my Bandcamp: 0:00 Intro 0:47 YMO, Hideki Matsutake and the MC-8 2:25 The MC-8 Interface 5:12 Programming the MC-8 10:43 Transport and Saving 12:20 Overdub and Sync 13:15 MPX Programming 15:10 Summary 15:50 The Feature Track - Lovers in Tokyo