Has an era ended at Roland?

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jx3please
Posts: 17
Joined: 00:09, 12 November 2015

Re: Has an era ended at Roland?

Post by jx3please »

I think suggesting it's the end of an era at Roland is possibly slightly over-egging it, and agree with a previous post that standards are declining in other manufacturers too.

I have owned various Roland synths and currently have a Fantom G6, which is awesome and built like a tank. But I will soon be replacing it with an FA06, because the FA06 has most of the sounds and functionality of the G6 but is about a third of the weight and I play a lot of gigs and my back isn't great. So, although it feels cheap and plasticky, it's actually a benefit to me. I take great care of my boards and transport them myself, so my stuff doesn't have to be built like tanks.

What really does mystify me is the lack of aftertouch on what is marketed heavily as a performer's keyboard. Huh?! But the equivalent Yamaha and Korg synths are the same. Grrrr.

I also don't get how Roland (and others) can see that alienating customers can be good. Lack of proper manuals, editing/librarian software, and only encouraging contact with IOS devices immediately spring to mind. All fairly basic stuff you would have thought. If I was in charge I would be saying to my product developers to make sure that there is a full range of android/IOS/mac/pc apps/software written and I would set up a forum patch exchange for users. These would have minimal cost implications but could massively increase sales.
nickster
Posts: 36
Joined: 23:29, 3 August 2015

Re: Has an era ended at Roland?

Post by nickster »

Yes I think it is an end of an era at Roland but for probably much more tangible reasons than have so far been suggested...
Founder of Roland has left at age 83 and started a new company. http://www.atvcorporation.com/en/products/drums/ad5/

​[2:40]
Some background: Some of you may have heard about a new electronic music instrument company called ATV. It was established in 2013 by Ikutaro Kakehashi, who is the legendary founder of Roland Corporation in 1972. He has led Roland for a number of years, but as the recent business environment changed around him, he began to run into disagreements with the newer generation of executives who were focused more on a formulaic business model rather than technical innovation. Kakehashi being the craftsman and technical engineer type, decided he will not be able to work with these types of executives of the company he founded, so at the age of 83(!), he decided to establish a new company to focus on his interests. 16 engineers from Roland followed him, and Kakehashi has now completely withdrawn from involvement with the company he established 43 years ago.
He has always been a tinkler and a builder kind of guy, who started his own clock and watch repairshop after dropping out of highschool in Osaka right after the devastation of World War II. Building upon the skill he acquired as a repairman of clock and watch as well as other home appliances and his love of music, he established Ace Tone in 1958 at the age of 28. His first product was "R-1 Rhythm Ace", a precursor to the many drum machines he has designed over the years. He initially built it for a friend who needed a rhythm accompaniment device to his friend's musical performance. He introduced it at the NAMM show in 1964, his first, and was probably the very first Japanese person to do so. Afterwards, the business of the principal stockholder of Ace Tone, Sakata Trading, was faltering and was bought by Sumitomo Chemicals. The executives at Sumitomo Chemicals had no interest in music or the music market whatsoever, and so Kakehashi quit his own company to establish Roland Corporation in 1972. His very first products from Roland was again the rhythm/drum machines which were TR-33, TR-55 and TR-77. His first synthesizer product was the SH-1000. The rest is history.
Coming back to his new company ATV, the very first product he released was, yes you guessed it, again a drum machine (more like drum sound module), called aD5. You can see what it is like in the ATV website below.
He is 85 now, with tubes up his nostrils after a long illness, but I am looking forward to seeing his new synthesizer from his new company ATV soon.

http://www.atvcorporation.com/en/
The ATV Corporation markets and sells product groups for the electronic musical instrument and video equipment fields designed and developed with its own unique in-house technology as the ATV brand. The corporate theme is the unending pursuit of artware to inspire the user's five senses through audio and video.
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Quinnx.
Posts: 3439
Joined: 11:28, 13 January 2005
Location: HomeTown Ireland: Current Location USA

Re: Has an era ended at Roland?

Post by Quinnx. »

My all time favorite right now is My FantomG..
It the center piece of my workflow.. Roland missed the boat by dropping it and it be hard to come back from that.
I mean where do you go when you already went as far as you could go..?
Sure the market will grow with new kids on the block but that market is filled with ipads laptops and virtual everything.
Right now I feel if you got gear your already where you need to be, if your a new kid you already got too much t choose from to need anything new.
The G is about the closest to perfection from roland, just a little more tweaking and it could be Massive.
But already with its connectivity its possibilities are endless.
Dont think roland has the balls to comeback from what they let get away all they can do now is follow the crowed.
Synthtron
Posts: 690
Joined: 16:24, 26 November 2011
Location: USA-East Coast
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Re: Has an era ended at Roland?

Post by Synthtron »

nickster wrote:Yes I think it is an end of an era at Roland but for probably much more tangible reasons than have so far been suggested...
Founder of Roland has left at age 83 and started a new company. http://www.atvcorporation.com/en/products/drums/ad5/

​[2:40]
Some background: Some of you may have heard about a new electronic music instrument company called ATV. It was established in 2013 by Ikutaro Kakehashi, who is the legendary founder of Roland Corporation in 1972. He has led Roland for a number of years, but as the recent business environment changed around him, he began to run into disagreements with the newer generation of executives who were focused more on a formulaic business model rather than technical innovation. Kakehashi being the craftsman and technical engineer type, decided he will not be able to work with these types of executives of the company he founded, so at the age of 83(!), he decided to establish a new company to focus on his interests. 16 engineers from Roland followed him, and Kakehashi has now completely withdrawn from involvement with the company he established 43 years ago.
He has always been a tinkler and a builder kind of guy, who started his own clock and watch repairshop after dropping out of highschool in Osaka right after the devastation of World War II. Building upon the skill he acquired as a repairman of clock and watch as well as other home appliances and his love of music, he established Ace Tone in 1958 at the age of 28. His first product was "R-1 Rhythm Ace", a precursor to the many drum machines he has designed over the years. He initially built it for a friend who needed a rhythm accompaniment device to his friend's musical performance. He introduced it at the NAMM show in 1964, his first, and was probably the very first Japanese person to do so. Afterwards, the business of the principal stockholder of Ace Tone, Sakata Trading, was faltering and was bought by Sumitomo Chemicals. The executives at Sumitomo Chemicals had no interest in music or the music market whatsoever, and so Kakehashi quit his own company to establish Roland Corporation in 1972. His very first products from Roland was again the rhythm/drum machines which were TR-33, TR-55 and TR-77. His first synthesizer product was the SH-1000. The rest is history.
Coming back to his new company ATV, the very first product he released was, yes you guessed it, again a drum machine (more like drum sound module), called aD5. You can see what it is like in the ATV website below.
He is 85 now, with tubes up his nostrils after a long illness, but I am looking forward to seeing his new synthesizer from his new company ATV soon.

http://www.atvcorporation.com/en/
The ATV Corporation markets and sells product groups for the electronic musical instrument and video equipment fields designed and developed with its own unique in-house technology as the ATV brand. The corporate theme is the unending pursuit of artware to inspire the user's five senses through audio and video.
When you look at Ikutaro Kakehashi not being a part of Roland anymore I guess it was an end of an era in and of itself.
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