Just checked, I am amazed there is no mention of the passing away of this guy on Sunday. He was the last of the music boffins and he has claims on so much of the tech that lit the fuse for the electronic music explosion. I guess his best known baby would be the TR-808 drum machine, ubiquitous in the 90s dance scene, but he also pretty much developed MIDI.
Anyway, in memorial of his genius, how about some choons that incorporate his Roland instruments. Here is one of the first tracks I heard that had the 808 on it. Didn’t know what it was at the time but I loved the sound.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMjyzDZTPnc
An obituary which explains a little more about his achievements, including MIDI
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/03/arts/music/ikutaro-kakeshashi-roland-808-drum-machine-dead.html
and some funk from Afrika Bambaata.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hh1AypBaIEk
A giant. I dunno that I’d call him the last of the music boffins, though. The work being done in analogue synthesis right now is incredible, and I think Korg’s Tatsuya Takahashi has a claim to being a new giant of musical boffinry. Rolling Stone (I think it was them) called him the modern Leo Fender recently, which I actually think is fair comment: designing bombproof, budget-conscious instruments that put incredibly creative tools into the hands of kids. The Korg Monologue is 300 quid. When you look at what it can do, that’s insane.
True. Last of the founding pioneers I guess. People like Moog, etc.
One of my all time favourite albums. ..early Roland synth throughout, though opinions vary as to it being an ARP
https://youtu.be/nsH1thigF1Y
Had you twigged that they’ve reissued the Odyssey? I’m trying very hard indeed to resist.
Oh don’t. I’d love one, and a Mini Moog. I’m an Arturia junkie – the Mini V is fab, as is the Solina plug. And this bad boy
https://www.arturia.com/products/analog-classics/analoglab
I had a MicroBrute and didn’t really love it. While I appreciate the old-school thing a lot, there’s a balance to be struck and I don’t think there’s an excuse for not being able to save patches and settings in 2017. They do sound nice, though.
I have a MicroBrute and love it but don’t use it…if that makes sense. 😄
Ha, it does. I sold mine and funded a couple of pedals with it.
I bought it to get my head around how analogue synths work rather than clicking through presets and in that sense it’s been great. Not so great when you’re in a hurry though.
Ha yeah, fair dos.
In 1987 Roland produced the MT-32, an MIDI based sound unit, which used a combination of samples and FM synthesis to produce fairly authentic instrument implementations. It soon had another use as an optional music source for various PC video games, and for the next few years many major PC games had a Roland sound option, using either this device or one of its successors.
I’ll let this recent video from Lazy Game Reviews explain the device further.
Way over my non-gamer head, but fascinating nevertheless.
Some good stuff out of Roland lately too – the boutiques are pretty cool, but my favorite Roland synth is still the Alpha Juno 2.
Also reissued. Junos are GREAT.
The Aira series is properly brilliant, too. The new 808 has been sniffed at by a few idiot vintage snobs but it sounds superb, and the JDXi mini keyboard is wicked. Plus it all goes through the MX1 mixer which can do all kinds of ace stuff in perfect sync with any Aira machine and any audio or MIDI source. So. Cool.
My one hardware synth is a Korg X50 which I really like mainly for the feel of the keyboard, plus it is really light and easy to handle and has tons of sounds. Also it has a plugin with all the voices which you can load in your DAW and treat it as a sound module, save presets, edit etc. Very nicely thought through design.