120 Years of Electronic Music
The Roland Corporation
The Roland Corporation was established in Japan in 1972 and released its first musical instrument, 'Japans first synthesiser', the SH1000 in 1973. The SH1000 was a portable and affordable analogue synthesiser.In the same year Roland released a domestic electronic combo-piano.
In 1976 Roland released their System 700 modular studio system synthesiser. Aimed at the broadcast market this synthesiser was used by NHK in Japan and BBC in England.
Roland continued to produce innovative instruments, in 1977 with their GR500 series analogue guitar synthesisers and the first commercial rhythm machine, the "Compurhythm" CR78. In the early eighties Roland released a range of inexpensive synthesisers, sequencers and drum machines, the MC202 sequncer, TB303 synth/sequencer, the SH101 monsynthe and the TR-808 drum machine which were compact and affordable yet had some versatile features that has ensured their popularity into the 1990's.
Early Roland Synthesisers
The Roland System 700 modular synthesiser (1976)
Roland System 700 modular synthesiser
The Roland System 700 synthesiser was Rolands first modular synthesiser released in 1976 and aimed at the corporate broacasting studio market.
The Roland System 100 modular synthesiser (1976)
Roland System 100 modular synthesiser
The System 100 was a modular analogue monophonic synthesiser, a more affordable version of the System 700. The System 100 with one VCO per voice (or 2 with an expander), the machine was controlled by a 37 note keyboard. The 1976 models modular units comprised of : 101, the synthesiser, 102 expander, 103 mixer, 104 sequencer, 109 monitors, RV800 stereo reverb, GE810 graphic eq and PH830 stereo phaser.
Roland SH101 synthesiser
Roland's popular SH101 was a monophonic analogue synthesiser with one VCO (with a sub oscillator for modulation) controlled by a 32 note keyboard housed in a light plastic casing with an optional 'guitar style' handle controller.
The Roland SH101 synthesiser (1980)
Roland SH2 synthesiser
The Roland SH2 was a dual oscillator analogue synthesiser controlled by a 37 note keyboard.
The Roland SH2 synthesiser (1976)
Roland CR 78 "Compurhythm" drum machine
One of the first commercial drum machines. The CR78 had a number of preset rythms with switchable voices.
The Roland CR 78 "Compurhythm" drum machine
Roland Jupiter 4 synthesiser
The Roland Jupiter 8 Polyphonic synthesiser
The Roland Jupiter 4 synthesiser
Roland Jupiter 8 Polyphonic synthesiser
The Jupiter 8 is an 8-voice polyphonic synthesizer with a 61-note keyboard with 2 VCOs per voice. VCO1 is switchable between triangle, sawtooth, pulse, and square waves and can be switched between 4 octaves. VCO2 has the same options with the addition of a noise generator switch. The Jupiter 8 allowed the VCO's to be synced.
The Jupiter 8 voice has two filters. In addition to its lowpass, resonant VCF it has an adjustable, non-resonant, and non-modulatable highpass filter. The VCF can be modulated by one of the envelopes, the LFO, and keyboard tracking.
The Jupiter 8 had a 64 patches and 8 "patch presets" memory. Patch presets can store keyboard splits, along with arpeggiator settings , voice assign mode, hold, portamento, as well as modulation settings. The Jupiter 8 features keyboard split or layer. Split allows you to assign a patch to 4 voices above the split key and a patch to the 4 voices below it.
Roland Jupiter 8 Polyphonic synthesiser
Roland TB303 "Bassline" synthesiser/sequencer
The Roland TB303 "Bassline" synthesiser/sequencer
Roland TR808 Drum machine
Roland TR808 Drum machine
The Roland MC202 synthesiser/sequencer (1983)
The MC202 was a 2 track sequencer and 1 VCO monophonic synthesiser with a 32 button key 'keyboard'
Roland MC202 synthesiser/sequencer
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