Roland
This Astonishing Digital Piano Uses “Flying Drones” as Speakers
Speakers for any modern devices are typically built right in to the device, but Roland is thinking outside the box—or piano—for their 50th anniversary. The fabled electronic musical instrument company debuted its ambitious digital piano concept piano at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. The piano features a sleek body made of Japanese oak with a touch panel in the lid, and it hides a 14-speaker, 360° system, per Engadget. But the unit’s standout feature is its innovative flying drone speakers, which “hover over the piano” and “bathe the player in a sound shower.” The speakers are said to float around and change positions, communicating with the piano on a low-latency channel developed in-house by Roland. Roland̵...
Roland Launches First-Ever Streetwear Apparel Collection With Dais Records
Iconic audio brand Roland is trading music for merchandise, teaming up with renowned label Dais Records on a limited edition streetwear collection. The capsule, which celebrates Dais’ 15th and Roland’s 50th anniversaries, will feature four designs across seven pieces of apparel and slipmat. The innovative collab marks the first time Roland has worked with a record label and its artists to design a streetwear collection while showcasing a musical instrument release, according to a press release issued to announce the partnership. The Roland JUNO-X Programmable Polyphonic Synthesizer is the newest addition to the company’s iconic JUNO analog synthesizers lineup, which dates back to 1982’s Juno-6. It was developed to bridge the gap between those vintage ...
Roland’s AIRA Compact Synthesizers Are Pocket-Sized, Powerful Hardware for Beginners
Everything is getting smaller and more portable, including synths. Roland‘s new AIRA Compact devices utilize Analog Circuit Behavior (ACB) instead of resistors and capacitors to make sounds. While you won’t exactly get the tried-and-true analog sound, you’ll receive powerful modern processors that closely resemble that of their analog counterparts. Additionally, you’ll also get the same amount of tweaking and manipulation. The AIRA Compact line includes the T-8 Beat Machine, J-6 Chord Synthesizer, and E-4 Voice Tweaker. The T-8 Beat Machine features classic Roland drum machines like the TR-808, TR-909, TR-606, and TB-303. The J-6 Chord Synthesizer is modeled after Roland’s JUNO-60 synth. And the E-4 Voice Tweaker features a microphone input for art...
Yuri Suzuki Creates Functional Online Studio of Classic Roland Synthesizers
Legendary music hardware company Roland is celebrating its 50th anniversary in a big way: by collaborating with renowned electronic musician and experience designer Yuri Suzuki. In honor of Roland’s annual “303 Day,” Suzuki has collaborated with Counterpoint Studio to digitally recreate some of the brand’s most iconic synthesizers. The experience is an ode to Roland’s seminal TB-303 synthesizer, which was first introduced in 1981. Roland and Suzuki have collaborated in the past, like when they joined forces for in 2020 for the web-based music tool “808.303.studio.” They’ve now added the classic SH-101 to the TB-303 and TR-808 interfaces. Yuri Suzuki presents his “Color Chaser 2010” project at the 2010 Lift Conference in...
Roland’s New Retail Experience Lets You Control the Lighting, Audio and Video In-Store
While the in-person shopping experience has suffered greatly since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, Roland is looking to change the way shoppers experience their products. The key to the legendary electronic music instrument manufacturer’s experience is their aptly-named Audience Specific Experience (ASX), which allows the stores to be tuned to customers’ liking the press of a button. The audio, video, and lighting are adapted to fit customers’ needs, allowing them to further immerse themselves throughout their visit. In addition to the ambiance upgrades, Roland has product experts on-site to assist with questions, hands-on demonstrations, and more. Check out some images from a handful of Roland stores below. <phx-gallery-image d...
New Browser-Based Beat Maker Lets You Create Algorithmic Acid House in Real-Time
A new web-based beatmaking software from independent developer Vitling allows users to create endless randomized acid house patterns and melodies through algorithms. The Endless Acid Banger is powered by a Roland TB-303 and TR-909 emulator, giving users the power to craft a classic acid house sound at random through an algorithmic process. Though manual input of notes is not a function of The Endless Acid Banger, the Autopilot and Notegen functions within the sequencer are built to produce pleasant and enticing melodies. The Endless Acid Banger landing page. vitling Other functions include modifications like filter cutoff, resonance, envelope modulation and decay for the TB-303, and the option to mute the bass drum, open hat, closed hat and snare drum on the TR-909. Delay and tempo ad...
Roland’s Verselab MV-1 Allows Producers to Create Complete Songs Without a Laptop
Roland‘s latest offering is a game-changer for music production, a powerful instrument encompassing a groove box, vocal processor, and sampler in one device. Best of all, it enables music producers to create an entire song in under ten minutes—no laptop required. The architects of the iconic TR-808 drum machine have another cutting edge product on their hands, a standalone music studio that conveniently aims to do it all. The instrument arrives with 3,000 sounds preloaded, but an endless supply remains at producers’ fingertips via Roland Cloud. Melody writing is made easy with key quantization and variety is oftentimes a button push away, allowing producers to easily add arpeggiation, pitch bend, and much more. The device’s song mode keeps organization easy, al...
You Can Win The Chemical Brothers’ Roland TB-03 Synthesizer
Want to own a piece of EDM history? You can now get your hands on a Roland TB-03 synthesizer owned by The Chemical Brothers. The legendary electronic music duo is giving away the synth to raise funds for #ILoveLive, a campaign developed to offer help to live music stage crew workers in the UK who are experiencing the financial pitfalls of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a new campaign published on Crowdfunder, The Chemical Brothers called those workers the “unsung heroes of the live entertainment world” and asserted that the funds raised from the initiative could literally save their lives. “The impact of Covid-19 has been devastating for the whole music industry but particularly for the stage techs, sound engineers, guitar techs, keyboard techs, drum techs,...
Roland Celebrates 40 Years of TR-808 with Mini-Documentary and Free DAW Plugin
In addition to the interesting history lesson published by Roland, fans can try out a digital version of the machine on their favorite DAW. Roland Corporation, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of electronic musical instruments and software, is celebrating the 40th anniversary of one of its signature devices, the TR-808. A backbone in the worlds of hip-hop and electronic music, the drum machine was used in many of the genres’ most iconic works. On their website, they uploaded a detailed infographic page showing off the history of the device, some famous users and works, and how it’s now integrated into DAWs in the present day. The list of TR-808 users is immense. Notable names include Marvin Gaye, Kayne West, Beastie Boys, Aphex Twin, Daft Pu...
