Synthesizers

Despite the synth-spangled history of the company, it's been many years since a Roland product ruled the high-end keyboard roost, and 2001's Fantom workstation failed to change this. However, there's much more to the new Fantom S than one extra letter...

The V-Synth is a classic case of the whole being more than the sum of its parts. None of its impressive features are new — they've all been seen on previous Roland products — but nevertheless, it's the best new synth in years. We explain why...

Korg's Triton has dominated the workstation synth market for several years, but the past 12 months have seen challenges to this position firstly from Yamaha, with their Motif, and now from Roland. Does this Fantom have what it takes?

The Roland Promars helped to usher in a new era of microprocessor-controlled analogue synthesizer, but has subsequently been all but forgotten. Gordon Reid remembers the world's only 'Compuphonic' monosynth.

Prepare to shed a tear in another near-miss tale of a desirable analogue synth swept aside by the rise of digital technology.

Roland's Jupiter family yielded one or two shining examples of what an analogue polysynth should be.

Michael Anthony takes us back to the mid-eighties, when MIDI was in pre-school playgroup, and manufacturers built synths that couldn't decide if they were analogue, digital, or both...

Derek Johnson waxes lyrical about a synth he wouldn't part with but is the cheapest he owns — Roland's last monosynth, the 1982-vintage SH101.