Instruments and Equipment by Roland Corporation

Roland Corporation was founded by Ikutaro Kakehashi in Osaka, Japan on 18 April 1972.

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Since then it has development numerous instruments and tools that have since gained legendary status.  Synthesisers like the Jupiter-8, D-50, Juno 6,60 and 106.  Samplers like the S-50, S-550, S-750 and S-770. Drum machines like the TR-808 and TR-909. Together with numerous utilities are known throughout the industry.

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Roland have never stopped with the current Fantom range being extremely functional workstations possibly occupying the King of the Workstations at the moment.

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If I were to look at my collection then it would be safe to say that this company feature heavily.  But then that really underlies the impact that the synthesisers, samplers and drum machines have had on the music industry over the years.

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My first acquisition following the divorce was the D-550, the rack mount version of the infamous D-50.  I was always taken by the factory sounds off this instrument which the artist Enya used to basically write an entire album.  

The D-70 Super LA Synthesiser followed no long after.  In addition to its rompler sounds this was used extensively by me as a 76-key MIDI controller.  I then had another lucky find which was a non-working D-50.  As with my Korg M1 story this was a road trip to Manchester over a weekend to find a D-50 that had lost its 'MOJO'.  But was quickly restored to working operations.

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Other road trips followed to pick up a S-750 sampler from Southend-on-Sea, S-50 sampler from Hull as the collection has grown along with many other AIRA and Boutique items as these were released.

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What I would say is if you wanted the 'Pop' sound of the 80's then somewhere you would be playing an instrument from this company.