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Roland Corporation is a Japanese manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, electronic equipment and software. It was founded by Ikutaro Kakehashi in Osaka on April 18, 1972 with 33 million yen in capital. Today Roland has factories in Japan, the United States, Italy, and Taiwan. As of March 31, 2005, it employed 2233 employees *. That is over 200% rise from 729 employees in 2003.
Roland uses a number of additional brand names for their products:
BOSS (guitar effects pedals, effects units, rhythm machines, recording equipment)
Edirol (Desktop Media Production or 'DTMP')
Roland company slogans:
Inspire the enjoyment of creativity
Be the best rather than the biggest
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Structured/Adaptive Synthesis
Before 1986 attempts to reproduce the sound of the piano in digital instruments were based on sample based synthesis. This was done by Ray Kurzweil in 1984 with its K250. It was expensive and not as sophisticated as today's digital piano sounds. Just two years later, Roland introduced its Structured/Adaptive Synthesis.
SAS divided the keyboard into more than 30 zones where pitch, brightness, individual formant structures and string enharmonicities vary. It was unlike the pre-existing sample-replay systems. Roland engineers sampled and analyzed instruments' timbre with various pitches and velocities. They designed an algorithm that reproduced the necessary harmonics. It made possible to reproduce the sound of a grand piano better than with the other techniques available then.
The polyphony was 16, which was considered acceptable at the time.
Roland discontinued the original SAS in 1990 when Advanced SA was introduced. In 1996 a 64-voice stereo implementation was developed.
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Rolands name
It may seem strange for a Japanese company to have a Western name, but Roland was founded with export in mind. Ikutaro Kakehashi heard that the name of his previous company, Ace Electronic Industries Inc., was often mangled in pronunciation, sometimes unpleasantly; so he looked for a good-sounding name which would be pronounced roughly the same in all of his major export markets. He found the name Roland in a telephone directory.
Ironically, the name is difficult to pronounce correctly in Kakehashi's native Japanese, which does not distinguish the 'L' and 'R' sounds as in English.
Roland was not, as is often claimed, named after the French epic poem La Chanson de Roland.
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Timeline of noteworthy products
1973 - Roland SH-3A: Monophonic synthesizer.
1981 - Roland Jupiter-8: This synthesizer put Roland in the forefront of professional synthesizers. A hugely successful 8-voice programmable analog synthesizer.
1981 - Roland TR-808: Among the first and most popular programmable drum machines; its distinctive analog sounds, such as its cowbell sound, have become pop music cliches, heard on countless recordings.
1983 - Roland SH-101: Monophonic synthesizer designed to be worn hung around the neck with a strap, with an optional modulation attachment that protruded like the neck of a guitar.
1984 - Roland TR-909: An extremely popular drum machine during the early 1990s, the sounds of which (particularly the kick drum) are still essential components of modern electronic dance music. The first Roland drum machine to use analog sound synthesis combined with digital sample playback.
1984 - Roland Juno-106: A widely used synthesizer with digitally-controlled oscillators. Same synth engine as the Roland Juno-60 but with the addition of MIDI and the ability to transmit button and slider information through SysEx. Still, no MIDI control of volume in real time.
1986 - Roland RD-1000: Roland's first digital piano to feature Roland SA Synthesis technology *.
1988 - Roland E-20: Roland's first entry into the auto-accompaniment keyboard market, going head to head with Yamaha and Casio. The E-20's descendants include the E-70, E-86, G-800, G-1000 and the current G-70.
1996 - Roland MC-303 The first non-keyboard drum machine, sample based synthesizer and sequencer combination bearing the now generic term "Groovebox".
1997 - Roland V-Drums: Digital drums incorporating 'silent' mesh drum heads that realistically reproduce both the natural feel and sound of an acoustic drum.
1997 - Roland JV-2080: 64 voice, 3 effects processor, 8 expansion slot, synthesizer module.
1998 - Roland MC-505: Successor to the MC-303 with a more powerful synthesizer and sequencer.
2002 - Roland MC-909: Successor to the MC Groovebox series featuring a full 16 track sequencer and built-in sampling.
2004 - Roland Fantom-X: Music Workstation/Professional Synthesizer expandable to 1 gig of sounds.
2004 - Roland Juno-D: Popular entry-level synthesizer
2005 - Roland MV-8000 Production Station with 24-bit sampling capabilities. Designed to rival Akai's legendery MPC series, specifically, the MPC-4000.
2005 - Roland Micro Cube: First portable amplifier made by Roland. Allowed for A/C adaptor or battery use. 7 input effects, delay, and reverb options.
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