ROLAND @ 50

 

Since this year marks the 50th anniversary of the Roland company’s journey through the world of electronic music, I thought it would be a good time to do a personal inventory of all the bits of Roland gear that have come and gone through my life since I first started to make music seriously in 1981. Going through their catalogues, my recordings and my personal documentation, I’m somewhat amazed by how many of these items have found their way into my music at one time or another.  I didn’t actually own all of them, but I often knew people who did, borrowed them or rented them for specific projects. Whatever the case, there’s a lot of kit that’s come and gone in my musical journey and a hell of a lot of it has had the Roland/BOSS logo printed on it. So here’s a rundown of what’s been in the mix for the past 40 years.

 

The following gallery includes 31 items I’ve used since 1981. There may be the odd thing I’ve forgotten, but I’m pretty sure this is a comprehensive list of all the Roland/BOSS gear I’ve put my hands on in a meaningful way. Where possible, I’ve included a link to a recording that offers a representative example of the device in action. 

 

KEYBOARDS & MODULES

SH-1 Synthesizer (1978)

This was my first synthesizer. I picked it up for $1000 in December of 1980 after convincing my brother to buy me out of the car we’d bought together for $400 a few months before. Once I saw this synth and discovered I only needed $200 deposit to get in-store financing, I knew I didn’t want anything to do with cars anymore. Once I had it in my hands, it became like a drug and I just wanted to dive more and more into the world of electronics and music making. I became fascinated by the engineering of it and quickly learned the basic theories of how sound was made, shaped and performed with it. It was responsible for so many wonderful sounds in my recordings over the years, from percussion to bass to noise to ambient drones as well as having an external audio in for VCF/LFO filter effects. That last was something I abused to the point of the synth needing servicing because I overloaded the input. I held onto it until I finally sold it off around 1997. By the time I sold it, the VCO was in rough shape and it could barely hold a pitch, but that kinda made it even more organic in some ways.

ANIMALS:  One of my favorite compositions, which exclusively utilized the SH-1, was this 1995 recording. The unstable VCO helped give the pitch a natural modulation that sounds uncannily like animal calls. 

 

SH-2 Synthesizer (1979)

I had this on loan for a couple of months in the spring of 1982 when I had to send my SH-1 off for repairs after I burned out the VCA by processing too hot of a signal through it’s external audio input. I loved the dual VCO feature of the SH-2, which made it possible to get a whole different range of sounds compared to the SH-1. Frankly, if I could’ve swapped the two, I would have, but didn’t have enough money to manage that at the time.

THE BASIC TOUCH DANCING SECTION:  As I only had this for a few months, I didn’t record a lot of tracks with it, but this one from the spring of 1982 gives a great example of it in use.

 

SH-1000 Preset Synth (1973) 

I had this on loan for a couple of weeks in 1982 after I blew out my SH-1 and before I got given the SH-2. It was a goofy old thing that was just pure cheese. I didn’t realize how old it was at the time that I was using it, but it was a real struggle to get something that sounded half-ass decent out of it.  I don't recall ever recording anything with it.

SH-09 Synthesizer (1980)

 

Another synth I briefly had on loan while waiting for my SH-1 to get fixed. Pretty much the same as the SH-1 with a few less controls, so not quite as fun. It still made some nice sounds though.

 

SH-101 Mono Synth (1982)

 

I got a chance to play around with one of these around 1986 and found it was pretty close to replicating my SH-1, but just in a smaller, cheaper feeling package. The sound was great, but it felt a bit fragile compared to the older SH models with their solid knobs and sliders. This was cute with the hand controller add-on for that “keytar” vibe.

 

System 100M Modular Synth (1979)

 

In 1990, my roommate at the time managed to find a super deal on a very nicely decked out 100M rack that was in mint condition. I’d never played around with modular before then, but knew enough about synth theory to be able to understand how to connect the modules to make sounds. What I didn’t know, I learned pretty quickly as I got into spending hours in front of this thing, patching cables back and forth. I totally fell in love with the rich textures and tones that could be created with it and coveted it deeply while it was in my home. I was in a bit of a gear drought at the time as I had to sell off a lot my toys to pay rent, so I was super happy to be able to play with this thing while I had the chance.

PERMANENT SMILE:  The period when I had this was one where I did not have any multi-track recording capability, so I had to record everything live to a VHS Hi-Fi deck. This piece shows off the step sequencer abilities of the 100M very nicely. 

 

SPV-355 P/V Synth (1979)

 

I had this for a few years in the 1990s after picking it up for cheap from a friend. It was an odd bird that I never really got too attached to nor did I ever figure out much to do with it. It was just something to make some weird sounds with from time to time. Its big feature was that it had pitch to voltage conversion so you could put any audio source into it and trigger the synth. It was sold as an early “guitar synth” as you could patch a guitar into it and it would sort of follow the pitch of the guitar, but it was pretty loose and lagging.  I may have used it mostly as an additional percussion sound source.

 

SA-09 Saturn Organ (1980)

 

This was a workhorse that I used with my band, The Mysterons, throughout the latter half of the 1990s whenever we played live. We were doing retro-surf instrumental music and this was the perfect keyboard to get the requisite cheesy organ sounds that were needed for that situation. I got it off a friend for $50 and I think I ended up selling it eventually for the same price. I don’t know why I sold it though. I should’ve hung on to it.

HEAD HUNTER:  This track from 1994 features a perfect example of this organ in action.

 

VK-09 Draw Bar Organ (1981)

 

This was a favorite home recording keyboard for the years I had it in the mid 1990s. As something of an organ aficionado, I loved the draw bars and the range of sounds I could get with them. It had a warm, rich sound and was great fun to play. It’s become one of the more obscure keyboards that Roland ever put out, with very little information on it available. Even finding decent pictures of it is hard.

THE STRANGER:  The mid 1990s wasn’t a particularly prolific time for recording for me, but I did dabble here and there and this piece is a lovely example of what the VK-09 could do. 

 

JUNO-6 Poly Synth (1984)

 

This was the first polyphonic synthesizer I ever got to work with. I went in on the purchase of this with my band mates who I was working with at the time. It was late 1984 when we purchased this and a Yamaha RX-11 drum machine to help set up the foundations for our experimental electronic band we were putting together. It was a joy to work with this keyboard and it was capable of a wide range of sounds, from pleasant to powerful. Actually, it was best at doing funky, stubby kinds of chords like you’d hear in a Talking Heads song or something like that. I got to use this for a couple of years before we split up and the keyboard went with one of the other guys.

SONG IN A PILL:  This 1985 recording offers a good example of the kind of staccato funky things this synth liked to do. The response on the keyboard was particularly good, so I found it possible to be pretty accurate with my playing, even without a sequencer.

 

JX-3P Poly Synth & PG-200 Controller (1983)

 

I only got to use this for a couple of weeks while working on a soundtrack project in 1986. There was a budget for me to rent gear for the recording and I picked this keyboard out for the job. I quite liked it, but it was a bit of a hassle to have to work with an external controller to edit the sounds. I much preferred to have it all self-contained.

 

DRUM MACHINES

 

TR-77 Rhythm 77 (1972)

 

While this was one of Roland’s very first electronic instruments, I didn’t get my hands on one until sometime around 1993 when I think I lucked into one as a gift or for super cheap. It was a horribly noisy beast and I had to always use a noise gate to record it, but I LOVED the sounds of its percussion. I still have a fetish for vintage rhythm boxes and this is one of my favourites. I have digital emulators for it now, so its spirit lives on. It was a clunky, bulky, heavy monster, but adorable in its way.

THE SLITHER:  This 1995 recording captures the slinky, serpentine seductiveness of this rhythm box beautifully.

 

BOSS DR-55 Dr. Rhythm (1980)

 

This was my very first drum machine and I purchased it at the same time I got my SH-1 synthesizer in December of 1980. At the time I got the synth, I realized I could push my budget just a little and add on a drum machine to the package. The good Dr. was cheap enough to squeeze in there and I was set with my little electronic duo. This was a very basic machine, but it did offer programmable rhythms, though you couldn’t program the hi-hat, which could only switch between 1/8th or 1/16th note constant metronome. I remember a lot of rock purists HATED the sound of this thing, but I was totally into it. I sold it off in the early 1990s to a friend and then it died on him, but he made a plaster casting of it for me, so the ghost of it still sits on my shelf in a place of honor.

VIOLINS:  This piece from 1981 is one of my earliest works with the Doctor. That familiar hiss of the hi=hat and the chunky boxiness of the bass & snare are unmistakable. 

 

BOSS DR-110 Dr. Rhythm (1983)

 

I got this upgrade of the Dr. in January of 1984 and it was a regular part of my arsenal for the next 2 years. It was a BIG improvement over the DR-55 with more drum sounds and full programability with the addition of song programming added to boot! The drum sounds were close somewhat to the TR-808, which was far more expensive, so this was a cheap alternative for a poor musician. I got some very funky grooves out of this box and it recorded very well.

THE UPWARD CLIMB:  This 1984 recording is one of my earliest porta-studio multi-track productions and offers a perfect example of the DR-110 doing its groovy thing. 

 

TR-808 Rhythm Composer (1980)

 

Given this is the “king” of drum machines, in many respects, it’s surprising I didn’t get to work with it more often, but I only ever got to borrow it on the odd occasion. Needless to say, I LOVED it from the start and it's surprising to me that I never managed to get my hands on one of my own. I did a bunch of backing rhythm recordings with one of these in March of 1983, but they were all lost.

 

 

TR-606 Drumatix (1981)

 

I got one of these along with the TB-303 sometime early in 1989. I was heavily into the whole Acid House scene by then and had been on the lookout for a set for a while. I got the pair for, I think, about $200 total and they were both in mint condition. It was at a time when there weren’t many locals into Acid House, so there was no demand yet for these devices. I found them at a flee market second hand. They became essential parts of my arsenal for the next few years until I sold the pair off sometime around 1997 as the 303 wasn't working properly anymore and I was looking to move into digital computer based production tools.

ECLIPSE 1:  This 1989 recording is one of the first tests I did when I got my 606/303 combo home and started to try to jack into the acid sound! 

 

TR-707 Rhythm Composer (1985)

 

I started using this machine shortly after it came out, but didn’t actually get my own until around 1988. It’s pretty consistent with the TR-808 in terms of programming, though the display helps a lot and, of course, the sounds are COMPLETELY different. This being based on digital samples, it tends to have a “boxy”, plastic sound to it, which can be difficult to record and warm up. I’ve had a bit of a love/hate relationship with it over the years, though I’ve recently been gifted one and do find the sounds kinda kinky again. I remember being very adept at programming it at one point, but I’ve lost all that technique over the past quarter century as I’ve worked exclusively with computer based production. Plunking away at patterns on this is a bit tedious now, but it was a lot of fun before computers came along.

PYRAMID:  This late 1989 track has me at the top of my 707 game in terms of programming and recording it to get the best sound.

 

TR-727 Rhythm Composer (1985)

 

Being the sister to the TR-707, my history with this runs parallel that and my feelings for it do to. At the peak of my Acid House production days, having the pair of them together worked great and I loved all the percussion sounds that I could use to augment the 707. They worked like a dream together, but that shouldn’t be surprising because they were made to compliment each other.

FAMILY VALUES:  This late 1989 composition has the percussion working well in this acid house arrangement.

 

SEQUENCERS

 

CSQ-600 Digital Sequencer (1980)

 

I didn’t have this for too long and didn’t use it a lot because it was pretty tedious to program and you really had to be able to think ahead in terms of composition to make it work properly. If not, then I'd just use it for basic sequences.  It was a big advance from the step sequencers that came before it, which I had some experience with from working with a KORG SQ-10.

 

MSQ 700 Digital Keyboard Recorder (1984)

 

I don’t remember much about this and I don’t think I used it a lot. I think it was much more straightforward to program than the older sequencers as you could record performances in real time and then quantize them in addition to the old style “step” programming method. This had multiple “tracks” for recording as well, so it could do more complex arrangements.

WHITE:  This 1996 track offers a rare example of this sequencer being put to its full use.

 

TB-303 Baseline (1981)

 

When Acid House came along, the first record I heard, Acid Tracks by Phuture, knocked me sideways because I knew exactly where that sound came from. I’d seen a demo of the TB-303 when it first came out and found it intriguing, but very alien. When it suddenly became the hottest piece of techno kit on the planet in the late ‘80s, I knew I needed to find one. I got lucky and scooped one at a flee market in early 1989 and set about mastering it. It was a rough learning curve, I must say. The programming layout was so NOT user friendly, but I did soon manage to get a grip on it and got to the point where I could dream up baselines on the bus and then come home and plunk them out in a few minutes. The best was when I had my hands on two of them at once and got a chance to SYNC them up for some real bendy magic. Having dual 303s playing off each other sent a track into extreme rubber mode!

RINGY DINGY:  This 1990 Akai 12 track recording allowed me to showcase the dueling 303 setup to perfection.

 

MC-202 MicroComposer (1983)

 

A friend had one of these weirdos and it was the MOST alien sequencing synth I EVER put my hands on. He was able to master it and do some crazy things with it, but I could never wrap my head around it. I thought the TB-303 was a mind fuck, but this thing was completely off the rails. I never could get it to do much of anything. It’s basically like the TB-303 and an SH-101 had a baby and it turned out to be a miserable brat.

 

FX PEDALS

 

BOSS DM-2 Analog Delay (1981)

 

In 1981, nearly a year after getting my SH-1 synth and DR-55 drum machine, I’d paid down my debt enough on that gear to think about adding something else to my arsenal and the first thing I knew I needed was a delay effect. I’d been recording on reel-to-reel for a few months and was desperate for something else to add to the processing palette. I had a spring reverb in my guitar amp, some distortion from being able to do overdrive, but that delay was essential for going to the next level. The BOSS DM-2 was a nice price and offered enough flexibility to really bring a whole new dimension to my sound. Plus, with the intensity feedback played against the delay time, it was virtually an instrument in itself!  I used this thing constantly and for many years after picking it up.  It quickly became my go-to effect for just about everything.

TOASTMASTERS IN ACTION:  This recording from August of 1982 shows how this delay helped add a whole raft of dimensions to the primitive recording process that was available at the time.

 

BOSS GE-7 Equalizer (1981)

 

This was the second effect I picked up around 1982 and I don’t know why I was drawn to it, but I’m glad I was because I discovered some surprising uses for it that I don’t think a lot of people would have stumbled upon. The EQ controls had enough range that you could drastically change the tone of any sound in extreme ways or just sculpt the tone a little. It was great for distortion too, but the biggest surprise was when I split a signal with a Y-cable and created a feedback loop into the pedal. What I discovered was that I’d created a sort of primitive VCO that I could control the pitch of by adjusting the frequencies of the graphic EQ. I was able to create some particularly menacing sounds, especially when combining it with other effects.
 

VCPD:  This 1985 recording demonstrates the feedback technique.  All the screeching, wailing sounds heard are created by the Y-split feedback looping technique.

 

BOSS BF-2 Flanger (1980)

 

This one came into the fold in 1982 as well and was purchased by one of the other guys in the band I was in at the time. It turns out this was an amazing device for modulating sounds and getting the effect which would become ubiquitous with so many post-punk bands like The Banshees, The Cure, and later on, core to the sound of Robin Guthrie’s guitar in Cocteau Twins. It’s like all the angst and heartache of the Goth scene was stored up in this pedal. You could create such dreamy resonances with it.

ENDLESS:  This 1982 recording gives a good example of the kinds of wild modulation effects that could be done with the flanger, especially when combined with the delay pedal.

 

BOSS DD-2 Digital Delay (1984)

 

Throughout the performing life of my band, The Mysterons, from 1995 to 2010, this was the essential delay pedal for my guitar for playing live. I didn’t use it a lot for recording as I had more advanced processors for that, but for the stage, it was solid, clean and versatile. I never had a problem with it in a live setting. As long as my cables weren’t shit, it was there for me.

 

RACK FX

 

SPH-323 Dual Analog Phase Shifter (1980)

 

This was pretty much a “vintage” effect by the time I got my hands on it in the mid 1990s when I picked it up used from a friend. I fell in love with it right away as it offered a lovely phase effect and had all sorts of possibilities for variations. The inclusion of dual LFOs meant that you could create some really complex modulation patterns and having a CV trigger input meant that it could respond to external controls. The ability to switch between varying stages for modulation range added even more versatility. It’s one of the most expressive, sophisticated phasers I’ve ever owned.

SLOP WOBBLE:  This 1994 recording features the phaser being used on a child’s drum kit to give it a warped, psychedelic modulation. 

 

BOSS RPH-10 Phaser (1986)

 

I rented this unit for a couple of weeks in 1986 to work on a soundtrack project. It was a nice effect rack, but slightly harsh sounding in comparison to other phasers I’ve used over the years. It had a very distinctive tone to it though and a decent set of controls. It’s best feature was that it had stereo in/out jacks.

 

BOSS RDD-10 Digital Delay (1986)

 

This was also rented for my soundtrack project in 1986 and was a very satisfying digital delay with some nice modulation effects and stereo in/out jacks. The BOSS Micro Rack series was a nicely designed set of effects from what I saw and I would have likely picked up some of these if I’d had some spending money at the time.

 

BOSS SE-50 Stereo Effects Processor (1990)

 

This was a top end effect processor for me prior to switching over to computer based production in 2000. I got one in the early 1990s and was a big fan of its variety of sounds and clean, clear effects. It had some very exotic presets in it and the ability to edit parameters made it exceptionally flexible. I got very adept at tweaking it to get just the right sound I wanted and it helped elevate my porta-studio game in the 1990s to a new level. Unfortunately, the unit died after about 6 years, probably the internal memory battery going on it, because all it would do is output a wall of noise in the end. It was glorious while it lasted though.

WHO KILLED MOTHER GOOSE?:  This 1997 recording offers a lovely example of the spacial effects that could be created with its rich reverb and multi-tap delays.

 

RECORDING

 

BOSS BR-1600 Digital Recording Studio

 

I picked this beauty up in 2007 for doing remote multi-tracking sessions, mostly for my band, The Mysterons. I wanted something self contained that I could take to record bed tracks and live drums before importing into the computer DAW to add overdubs and post production effects. This worked great. It had all the track space we needed plus all the inputs and I could then import the files into the computer to finish off. I kept it until until 2011 when I switched to a ZOOM portable multi-track because it was smaller, lighter and recorded to an HD card instead of an internal HDD, so it was easier to import files from the recorder into the computer. The BOSS was nice though because it had a whole suit of processing FX and even rhythm beds for looping as a reference. We recorded all the bed tracks and drums for the last Mysterons album on this.