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Comments
I Think it's worth mentioning that Roland and Fender teamed up to create the brand new Fender VG Stratocaster guitar. No?
It may seem strange for a Japanese company to have a Western name
quote: "The Roland JV-1080 is a worldwide standard in high-powered, two space synthesizer modules. Used on more recordings than any other module in history, the JV-1080 boasts a full range of acclaimed Roland sounds, as well as four expansion slots."
Roland JX-8P & Roland GR700/707
I, too, find missing the rolands JX-8P, which was the basis for the JX-10 "Super Jupiter" (as the latter was merely two of the former thrown in with some extras) and the GR700/707 guitar synthesizer with MIDI out (I don't want to say the first since I need to check upon that yet, but I regard as positively the first in Roland). Also, a link for Roland's instrument list in Wiki is missing.
i took this out since its certainly in the wrong place, and doesnt really make sense with a tr-909 either. its quoted here, and should belong in an article on which ever piano synth its actually about. --timeheater17:48, 4 March 2007 (UTC)
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.
Recent Noteworthy Products
The list seems to contain a lot of recent products which aren't especially noteworthy, like the Juno-G/D, and some of the Phantom derivations. Imo noteworthy products should be either very widely used and therefor influential (which you can only judge after some time), or they should introduce a new technology, or a new direction for the company. In this regard, I miss the VariPhrase products.213.118.60.405:35, 21 April 2007 (UTC)
There should probably be a mention of their VS series multitrack recorders somewhere. Those things helped bring home recording into the digital domain in a big, big way. I'm not sure how to prove notability, but they've got to be more notable than half the devices listed. ~transmothra (talk) 07:25, 22 March 2008 (UTC)
Roland Corp. + Microsoft Corp.
What about giving permission to Microsoft to distribute with their OSes Roland SoundCanvas Sound Set samples?
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GMREADME.TXT
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The GM.DLS file contains the Roland SoundCanvas Sound Set which is
protected under the following copyright:
Roland GS Sound Set/Microsoft (P) 1996 Roland Corporation U.S.
The Roland SoundCanvas Sound Set is licensed under Microsoft's
End User License Agreement for use with Microsoft operating
system products only. All other uses require a separate written
license from Roland.
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