Time machine: Roland CR-68 Vintage Analog Drum Machine
The CR-68 is a classic analog Rhythm Machine related to the famous CR-78. The CR-68 has the same sound set and rhythm patterns, but is not programmable and lacks many of the better features found on a CR-78. However the CR-68 does have breaks & fills, an accent that really livens up its beats, and a balance knob that can be used to weird-out the sounds a little bit. A much cheaper alternative to the CR-78 considering it is strictly limited to its preset patterns.
The CR-68 offers up the basic set of rhythms and sounds. There’s 4 Rock, 2 Disco, Waltz, Shuffle, Slow Rock, Swing, Fox Trot, Tango, etc… The sounds are analog and include kick, snare, rim, hi-hat, cymbal, maracas, claves, cowbell and congas. These days the CR-68’s sounds are often sampled instead, after which the machine itself may be kept around for use as a paperweight or book-end.
Korg Monotron LFO synchronized to Roland TR-626
The LFO of a Korg Monotron is synchronized to the trigger output of a Roland TR-626 drum machine. The retrigger of the Monotron LFO is the red wire. The sync mod is done like shown here: http://stevewoodward.posterous.com/lfo-reset-point-on-korg-monotron
In this video the TR-626 is started and stopped. The rhythm rate is also varied.
@Roland’s: Brittani Washington Explains Her Album: Space For Music
On her break from touring with Beyonce, Brittani Washington stops by the Roland office to explain her new album “Space For Music”. A turn from the latest trends in POP music, Brittani explains that “Space For Music” is an organic and nostalgic experience to the days when musicians were heros. Brittani limits the use of technology in her album and relies on musician ability. Watch the video for the full interview and also a demo of her musical chops.
Please visit www.RolandARBlog.com for more Roland artist videos
Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai 七人の侍 x0xb0x Gorobei Katayama 片山五郎兵衛
Despite the slight cryptic header this is a nice machine 
Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai 七人の侍 x0xb0x special tribute edition. Here are seven x0xb0x made with full audio analog modifications. They have an outstanding sound capabilities, not only clonning the original Roland TB303 sound, even adding more powerful sound mods. Totally hand made and with the name of each samurai engraved on it. Very limited edition of very powerful analog synth.
Synth performance: amnésie – J’ai tué mon chat
Monday morning synth spotting, including Roland Juno 60, Roland SH101 & Moog Little Phatty, in this french video:
Extrait de l’album Le trou noir – Ego Twister – 2012 (sortie le 10-10-12)
Version originale : http://soundcloud.com/amnesie1/jai-tu-le-chat
Enregistré et filmé live dans les studios du CNDC au Quai à Angers.
Avec : Yan Hart-Lemonnier, Maxime Dobosz et Wilfried Thierry
Technique son : Loïc Lebris
Réalisation : Wilfried Thierry
Yamaha CS-5 and Roland TR-606 Demo
Here is a demo of the Yamaha CS-5 analog monosynth and the Roland TR-606 analog drum machine. The Yamaha is being triggered via one of the trigger outs on the 606. The CS-5 has an envelope follower of sorts on it’s audio in and that is what I ran the trigger into. Adjusting the gain on the audio-in allows for some odd timing on the pulses; it’s a neat effect.
The CS-5 is a single-oscillator monophonic analog synthesizer with classic filter, envelope and modulation controls. It features 37 full-sized keys, a multi-mode 12 dB/Oct resonant filter, an LFO with sample and hold, and an external audio input you can route through the VCF or VCA sections. The CS-5 is a very flexible and modulate-able analog synth that is quite capable of warm analog bass and bubbly synth effects! The absence of patch storage, MIDI and velocity are just reminders that the CS-5 is old
As you can hear in the video, the CS-5 excels at resonant sounds. The all-black CS synths are easily some of the cleanest sounding vintage synths; this sort of works against them in some ways as people seem to gravitate to the dirty or muffled (“organic”, bleh) synths of that era. It’s sound sits well next to a Roland synth of the same vintage
Roland ProMars synth playing Gary Numan’s “Are Friends Electric”
First cover using the Roland Promars analog synthesizer. Tubeway Army used to use Minimoog for the lead part. The Promars has two VCO’s (and a sub oscillator) even thought it is more limited than the Moog.
This is a cover based on the live version.
The ProMars CompuPhonic is essentially a classic, monophonic version of the Jupiter 4. It has 10 preset sounds (not too great) and 10 user programmable preset patches. The preset sounds include Bass, String, Clavi, Piano, Voice, Trombone, Sax, Trumpet, Synth I and Synth II. A very standard and well laid out set of knobs, sliders and edit controls give you the power to create some really cool sounds.
There are two individual VCO oscillators that can be de-tuned, a nice VCF (filter) with its own ADSR, a typical VCA envelope section, a nice LFO and a pitch/mod wheel that can effect the LFO, VCF or VCA. It even has a noise generator.
The Promars Compuphonic makes a unique alternative to other Roland SH-type synths since, although it has very SH-type controls and layout, its sound and preset capabilities are more like the famous Jupiter synths and at a fraction of the cost. Nice wood casing and Vintage appeal.
Gear used.
Upper: Roland Promars MRS-2
Mid: Roland JP8000
Lower (Midied to the JP): Kurzweil PC1x
Backtrack recorded on Pro Tools.
Original song composed by Gary Numan
Roland Juno-60 and LinnDrum in an 80’s Hi-NRG Demo
Here is a demo with the Juno 60 and LinnDrum doing some 80’s-ish, HI-NRG drums and basslines. The two were ran through a Roland MMP-2 Preamp/Compressor, then the SPDIF of that went straight into my Allen & Heath Xone DX.
The Linndrum hits extremely hard and is a complete joy to use. The Juno-60 is locking onto the trigger out of the Linn which allows for quick timing on basslines.
Roland Integra 7 Synthesizer Demonstration
Gareth Bowen takes us through the ins and outs of the incredible Roland Integra-7, an easily-accessed and arranged collection of 5,000 different sounds in a sleek rack-mounted chassis, including the acclaimed superNATURAL engine – revered specifically for creating realistically automated acoustic instruments alongside powerful synths – full V-Drum based kit collections and the popular SRX sound boards. With the combined array you can generate modern and vintage, natural and fat synthesised tones alike, all of which can be split and layered to get the best out of the unit, regardless of the interface/controller you’re using to generate the notes.
Check it out here: http://www.dv247.com/keyboards-and-midi/roland-integra-7–101543
This of course sounds like quite a lot to deal with for a single rack mount unit, but as the video will demonstrate, an iPad can be used to control the action. While this is good news for quick patch selection (and of course effects can be added for good measure from the expected plethora of options that Roland have long excelled at providing), it comes into its own with the Integra-7’s new Motion Surround technology. You can now use the iPad to position different instruments in your arrangement, creating astonishing 3D sonic images.
Simple Trance with hardware (Juno-60)
A quick tutorial on creating a simple Trance-type arpeggio sound with the Roland Juno-60.
Among the first in Roland’s amazing Juno family! Six analog voices of polyphony and patch memory storage!! The Juno-60 sounds great, however, like the Juno-6 it lacks MIDI control. The Juno-60 includes 56 patches of memory storage. The Juno-60 is still popular due in part to opinions that it sounds better (punchier) than the Juno-106. The Juno-6 and 60 are very rich sounding synthesizers and are great analog machines as long as you can withstand the absence of MIDI control. The JSQ-60 sequencer is an external sequencer controller for the Juno-60 and is usually worth acquiring.
DATAMASKIN
