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Roland Corporation is a 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, and was named after the
French epic poem, Le Chanson de Roland. Today Roland has
factories in Japan, the United
States, Italy, and Taiwan. As of March 31, 2003, it employed 729 employees.
Roland use a number of additional brand names for their products:
- BOSS (guitar effects pedals, effects units, rhythm machines)
- Edirol (Desktop Media Production or
'DTMP')
- Rodgers Instruments (electronic and combination pipe
organs)
- Roland Digital Group (Roland
DG).
Roland company slogans:
- Inspire the enjoyment of creativity
- Be the best rather than the biggest
- We Design the Future
Timeline of noteworthy products
- 1973 - Roland SH-1000:
Claimed by Roland to be Japan's first commercial keyboard synthesizer
- 1973 - Roland RE-201: Renowned
'Space-Echo' machine - arguably the most popular tape delay-based echo machine
ever produced
- 1977 - Roland MC-8 Microcomposer: A ground breaking digital sequencer. The first product in the musical instrument industry to utilize a microprocessor.
- 1981 - Roland TR-808: One of
the first and most popular of the programmable drum machines; its
distinctive sounds have become pop music cliches, heard on countless recordings
- 1982 - Roland TB-303: Defined
the "acid" sound for rave
music
- 1983 - Roland JX-3P: First Roland
synthesizer to support MIDI
- 1983 - Roland Jupiter-6:
Second Roland synthesizer to support MIDI
- 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: Was
(during the 1990s) and arguably still is the most popular drum machine for use in modern
electronic dance music
- 1986 - Roland D-50: A popular
synthesizer; Roland's first all digital synthesizer implementing their "Linear Arithmetic" synthesis (a form of sample-based synthesis).
- 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 VA-7.
- 1989(?) - Octapad
- 1991 - Roland SoundCanvas: The world's first General
MIDI synthesizer
- 1996 - Roland MC-303 The first
non-keyboard drum machine, sample based synthesizer and sequencer combination bearing the now generic term "Groovebox."
- 1998 - MC-505 Successor to the MC-303 with more powerful synthesizer and sequencer. Featuring "Megamix."
- 2002 - MC-909 2002 Successor to the MC Groovebox series featuring a full 16 track sequencer and sampling built in.
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