Roland Has Discontinued it's workstations

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shaneblyth
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Joined: 20:16, 9 February 2013

Roland Has Discontinued it's workstations

Post by shaneblyth »

I was just talking to my supplier and was told that Roland has discontinued it's workstations. They said it wasnt permanent but I could not buy now or in the future the current workstations from Roland.
Does that mean they are due to update to a new model? This person is not a shop employee but someone who is in charge of products supply for a big chain of music stores.
So what does anyone think? Anyone else heard this?
BillySynth
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Joined: 21:26, 11 April 2008
Location: Australia

Re: Roland Has Discontinued it's workstations

Post by BillySynth »

Its too loose a comment. It could mean anything. Permanent or the current range as you point out. I remember talking to Roland Australia two years ago and they told me their work stations are not selling like they use to.

We will just have to wait and see what happens. I dont think anybody would buy a workstation from a company if it didnt present itself in a like manner to Korg Kronos...multiple synth engines running on a high spec'd computer system with plenty of RAM and controllers.

I'd like to know how Roland's JP80 sales are doing...

Regards
Billy
MartyM
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Joined: 09:41, 29 February 2012

Re: Roland Has Discontinued it's workstations

Post by MartyM »

Could just be a supply "glitch" who knows ?

I wouldn't be surprised since I always found programming songs on a workstation a bit like
"painting your house through the letter box" !!

I have not used that feature much at all since I bought an Atari in 1987 !!

Marty.
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cello
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Re: Roland Has Discontinued it's workstations

Post by cello »

There's a good number of us who would LIKE to THINK that a discontinuation of current workstations means that Roland is about to unleash something new on us...

I have money waiting should such a thing happen! I like the Roland approach to sound design and their GUIs which make sometimes complex things quite easy (compare that to the OASYS/Kronos - it is NOT an easy machine to learn!). So I think if Roland have done some learning from previous workstation experience, throw in the JP-80/Integra approach to SN and Synths, then they could have a seriously good new workstation out there.

We won't know til we know if course... MusikMesse?
Dewdman42
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Re: Roland Has Discontinued it's workstations

Post by Dewdman42 »

Roland is not doing well financially right now. I would not hold your breath.
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synthguy99
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Re: Roland Has Discontinued it's workstations

Post by synthguy99 »

It's possible that Roland has seen the light and dropped the workstation concept. It does seem that most musicians these days have gone the MartyM route and moved on to DAWs. You have much more power and flexibility in making music. As far as I know, the only workstations which will let you do everything on them, even to multitrack audio recording burning a finished master CD are the OASYS and Kronos. Maybe the Fantom G but I don't recall on that. Anyway, a dedicated music computer with a DAW enables you to do anything a big studio can do, which does make workstations seem very "last millennium" in comparison. Roland has certainly gone this direction, including a basic version of Sonar with their new synths, and you can sure do more with them than you could with a Jupiter workstation.

However, some of us are just used to that more simplified workflow, like me. I've never had a dedicated music PC, so I've always produced my music on workstations driving a few outboard synths. And even though I do intend to build that music PC this year, I'm still hesitant to save up for that new Roland in case they come out with a JP-80/Integra based workstation at MusikMesse. Still, my hesitation is mostly emotional since I won't realistically be able to buy anything until April or May anyhow. So if Roland does give us that new workstation, which I see a lot of people asking for, I'll either wait, or plunk down on an Integra in the meantime.
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Rorcus
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Re: Roland Has Discontinued it's workstations

Post by Rorcus »

Both the Fantom and GW are 5 years old now so it's no surprise they've discontinued them (unless there was another workstation I'm unaware of) what with the much greater flexibility and low cost of DAW's (which Roland themselves push quite hard).

I personally have never used any of the workstation features of my Kronos and always run it in to reaper or MM2013 along with an Yam MM8 and Omnisphere plus a whole bunch of audio loops, something no hardware workstation could do all in one.

I love the above analogy using a workstation editor = "painting your house through the letter box"
shaneblyth
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Joined: 20:16, 9 February 2013

Re: Roland Has Discontinued it's workstations

Post by shaneblyth »

edit: ***Note: Just got this back regarding the source of this info and I quote:

"She is the product manager for Roland and as such If she says the Fantom Workstations are discontinued she will be correct as she works closely with Roland. "


Well it was in an email and they where very specific and this was from someone fairly high up. Roland has discontinued their worksations and they are no longer available though they had a couple of 61 key version in stock at Roland itself. They went on to say that this was not a permanent thing but would not reply to the questions in regards to a new model or not. To me it read very clearly that they are done with the current series of workstations but that was not permanent meaning there must be something else coming at some point.
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cello
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Location: Glasgow, UK

Re: Roland Has Discontinued it's workstations

Post by cello »

Apparently 'Roland is back'... wonder what that means!!

http://youtu.be/ZxR7Q53Z9hg

And there's a countdown too just to add to the suspense... http://www.rolandconnect.com/
lekanout
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Joined: 10:29, 1 March 2012

Re: Roland Has Discontinued it's workstations

Post by lekanout »

The roland come back from your video is for the BK9,a new arranger..
Not the new fantom.
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cello
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Re: Roland Has Discontinued it's workstations

Post by cello »

Thought it seemed familiar with all the organ sliders, etc.

Mind you, there is a countdown at Connect!
lekanout
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Re: Roland Has Discontinued it's workstations

Post by lekanout »

Yes,i'm not totally sure..
But i don't think about a new workstation soon from roland.
It will be hard for roland to devellop a new workstation to fight kronos domination..
And with the jupiter 80 sales,it will be dangerous!
That's my personal point of view.
Devnor
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Re: Roland Has Discontinued it's workstations

Post by Devnor »

LOL @ kronos "domination".
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cello
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Re: Roland Has Discontinued it's workstations

Post by cello »

Devnor wrote:LOL @ kronos "domination".
I'm trying to resist commenting but I might not be successful... ! lol ;)
Dewdman42
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Joined: 00:42, 14 January 2013

Re: Roland Has Discontinued it's workstations

Post by Dewdman42 »

well, do you guys really need a so called workstation? I mean I think that's a niche market anymore. I don't blame Roland for dropping them. They are expensive and a lot of people don't need a sequencer and many channels of sounds. Anyone doing any sequencing is quite likely to be using a computer for the sequencing and probably for a lot of the sounds too.

I realize there are still a few of you that want a workstation, but really Roland has to look at the market as a whole and I don't see it as really being that much of a market. Frankly I'm surprised it has taken them this long to finally stop making them.
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