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: The renowned 'Space Echo' machine, one of the most popular tape delay-based echo machines ever produced.
- 1976 - Roland System-700 : A large modular synthesizer.
- 1977 - Roland MC-8 Microcomposer: A ground breaking digital sequencer. The first product in the musical instrument industry to utilize a microprocessor.
- 1977 - Roland GR500: The World's first commercial Guitar Synthesiser.
- 1978 - Roland CR-78: The world's first user programmable drum machine.
- 1981 - Roland Jupiter-8: The synthesizer put Roland in the forefront of professional synthesizers. A hugely successful 8 voice programmable analog synthesizer.
- 1981 - Roland TR-808: One of the first and most popular of the programmable drum machines; its distinctive analog 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: An extremely popular drum maching 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.
- 1986 - Roland D-50: One of the most popular post-FM digital synthesizers; Roland's first all-digital synthesizer implementing their "Linear Arithmetic " synthesis (a form of sample-based synthesis combined with subtractive synthesis).
- 1987 - Roland MT-32: Also using "Linear Arithmetic" synthesis, it was supported by many PC games in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a high-quality music option, until support shifted to General MIDI sound cards.
- 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 - The Roland Octapad, a set of visually distinctive drum triggers.
- 1991 - Roland Sound Canvas : 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.
- 2002 - MC-909 2002 Successor to the MC Groovebox series featuring a full 16 track sequencer and built-in sampling.
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