After shipping a number of popular instruments in 1995, Roland has done it again in 1996. Following hot on the heels of their superb, best-selling XP-50 comes the awesome new XP-80 Music Workstation ($2595 retail). Sporting a 60,000 note MPC Pro sequencer (with a new nonstop loop recording feature), a 76-note (over six octaves!) velocity and aftertouch-sensitive weighted keyboard, 64-voice polyphony, 16-part multitimbral operation, plus a truly innovative, second-generation arpeggiator (more on that in a minute), the XP-80 means business! Add to that the same 32-bit RISC chip-powered sound source as the XP-50 which is expandable via optional plug-in boards to a full 40 megabytes (which is the equivalent to a staggering 80 megs of 16-bit linear format thanks to the proprietary Roland compression algorithms) plus 40 stunning, studio-quality digital effects and you've got a massive amount of sonic power at your fingertips right out of the box.
The XP-80's arpeggiator function is like nothing you've ever experienced. It's both smarter and more expressive than arpeggiators you may have heard before. It's capable of producing everything from standard up/down and random arpeggiation to smooth glissandos, walking basses, rhythm guitar parts (including strums), keyboard comping and much more. Spend a few minutes trying out this new feature and you'll find yourself writing new songs almost instantly!
If you want many of the XP-80's features but aren't quite ready to invest your greenbacks or plastic on such an ultra- sophisticated machine, you can have a lot of the XP-80's most innovative functions (like the cool arpeg-giator) in an affordable package with the very cool XP-10 Multitimbral Synthesizer ($895 list). It's 16-part multi-timbral, with 28-note polyphony and full General MIDI compatibility plus effects. Using an optional cable, the XP-10 is ready to be hooked up to your PC or Macintosh. It's also quite user friendly, so check it out.
Now let's move on to the new flagship stage piano/MIDI controller, the A-90EX ($2995 list) which features incredible grand piano sounds, a full 88-note hammer-action keyboard (it feels fantastic!) and a wide range of powerful controller functions. But there's more sounds under the hood than just pianos. The A-90EX sports a huge wave memory capacity equal to 24 megs of 16-bit linear sounds, so it can produce stunning electric piano textures plus everything from strings, brass and synths to vintage B-3 and Clavinet sounds, all with 64-note polyphony. Expansion boards (like the VE-JV1 or VE-GS1) can also be added to expand your palette of sounds. You could say the A-90EX is a great synth that just happens to be an amazingly versatile MIDI controller.
Next up is a box that's sure to get a lot of notice in the next few months. It's the VS-880 Digital Studio Workstation. Imagine a 64-track digital hard disk recorder with comprehensive non-linear, non-destructive editing functions and instantaneous locate times. Imagine a built-in 14-channel fully digital mixer, MIDI compatibility, choice of storage media and digital in/out plus an optional on-board digital effects processor. Would you be surprised to learn that such a fantastic machine carries a list price of under $3,000? That's right, under! Oh, and since you're doing all this imagining, you might reasonably imagine that these units are going to be a bit scarce for a while. We won't tell you too much more about the VS-880 right now, since quantities will indeed be limited, but you can rest assured that as quick as the factory can make them, we'll be stocking them (and sending out units to those who were smart enough to order immediately). Of course, if you just can't wait to learn more, just call your Sweetwater sales engineer for more juicy details.
A clear contender for "most innovative product under two pounds" is the PMA-5 Personal Music Assistant ($595 list), a palm-sized composition tool with 306 built-in sounds (including a full GM/GS set), 16 drum kits, eight-track sequencer, Intelligent Arranger with 100 music styles, built-in computer serial port and more. Take a look at the photo to see how compact this unit is. But despite its small size, it's packed with great sounds and all the processing power you need to do your composing "on-the-run." Imagine working on your latest creation while waiting for your flight to take off or just relaxing on the beach, sipping a pina colada. It's a truly inexpensive way to make music anywhere, any time! Oh, and it's a blast, too!
Of course, no Roland story would be complete without mention of the exciting new VG-8 V-Guitar System upgrade, the VG8S-1 (check out our "Tech Notes" column for more details), and two amazingly versatile outboard units, the Boss GX-700 Guitar Effects Processor ($695 list) and the Boss SX-700 Studio Effects Processor ($645 list). The GX-700 does exactly what you'd think it might: It gives you all the guitar effects you'll ever need (including reverb, compressor, limiter, auto wah, EQ, flanger and phaser), but it also adds many features never offered in an effects box before, like wah pedal, intelligent (three voice) pitch shifting/harmonist function and the ability to produce an incredible array of amps/speakers (Marshall, Soldano, Fender, Boogie, etc.), microphones and mic placement emulations. Space prevents us from going into detail here (that's why your sales engineer is here), but it's very cool and super affordable!
The Boss SX-700 is a more "traditional" effects box (if you can use that word with a Roland/Boss product) which offers mainstays like superbly-detailed reverb and delay, chorus, flange and more. But it also gives you access to Roland's three-dimensional RSS spatial effects so you can move images pretty much anywhere within the soundfield. With 3-D panning, sounds can actually appear to be swirling around the room. RSS can even be combined with delay or reverb. On top of this, you have a four voice intelligent pitch shifter for creating super harmonist effects (make yourself sound like Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young). The CD-quality sampling rate and 18-bit A/D/A conversion ensures you're getting absolutely pristine studio quality sound.
To learn more about these and other innovative new products from Roland and for your special low pricing on the equipment you're most interested in, give your Sweetwater sales engineer a call right now!