Keyboards

If you need an easy-to-use controller keyboard Roland's latest mid-ranger master could be the one for you. Nicholas Rowland takes a spin down the A33.

Roalnd's D50 became the sound of the late '80s. Does it still have a place in the late '90s? Paul Ward takes a trip around LA...

Much hard graft has been put in by electronic instrument manufacturers over the years in an attempt to transfuse the essence of the tonewheel organ into a MIDI-compatible keyboard. Nick Magnus dissects Roland's latest virtual modelling approach, and pronounces the operation a complete success.

When Roland announce a new synth, endowed with a new breed of synthesis, it's time to sit up and take notice. The 'Analogue Modelling' JP8000 appears to offer the power and flexibility of digital control applied to analogue-type sounds. Can it be too good to be true? Paul Ward tries to stop tweaking long enough to tell us.

Though Korg have been making some inroads lately, notably with the Prophecy, Roland is still the name to drop in dance circles, so the announcement of a new, analogue-style Roland megasynth stirs the blood like little else.