Proof that Roland are indeed insane.

[Sir Ruff]

Well, I doubt the "jobbing keyboardist who does weddings, barmitzvas etc." cares one minute wether Roland IS BACK ! or not.

Yeah, does such a performer give a c**p about the latest in auto-accompaniment technology (what the h**l does the "supernatural" button do)? I know we could say the same of analog technology, but this market seems totally saturated (practically by Roland, alone), and I honestly doubt the professional backing act market is any bigger than the analog synth market. Most of these guys are probably still using their mid-90s Casios (then again, maybe this is THE thing is Asia, and I have no clue).

But at least in the West, what kind of user feedback is causing this preset fever amongst their development team that can only be cured by "MORE AUTO-CHORD!"?

[Kenneth]

Those of us who like to just make bleeps and bloops as a hobby are a teensy tiny market in comparison.

Disagree. I think the "bleeps and bloops" hobbyists are slightly more numerous and slightly more professional than you think they are. Neon Indian. Tycho. Passion Pit. MGMT. Phantogram. Washed Out. Toro Y Moi. Deadmau5. The Knife. Hot Chip. Baths. The Postal Service. These are all professional modern musical acts who are buying and using modern analog gear, and these aren't the only ones. There is a HUGE market for analog electronic gear in today's music scene, and you'd be a fool not to recognize it. Why do you think Moog, DSI, Korg, and Arturia are making analog gear if there's not a big market for it?

[madtheory]

If you're a working musician, the likelyhood is that you're not having hits and playing festivals. You're doing weddings. That's what the majority do for a living. Only the lucky few, the ones you've listed, get to have hits. Plus those bands are all from US and UK, large populations where the niches are big enough to support them.

In Ireland all you ever get in shops is this type of workstation/ auto accompaniment thing. That and Microkorgs for the hipsters. I'm not kidding. There is only one shop in my city that stocked Moog, it lasted about 6 months and everything went back to the distributor. They've a Roland V-Synth GT gathering dust from new. They don't sell synths. They sell digital pianos, home keyboards and lots of guitars.There was one shop in the capital that sold synths and pro audio gear: it recently folded. There is an online shop alright, XMusic.

Roland have been profitable continuously for over 40 years. Moog and Dave Smith (for example) have not. Yamaha own Korg. Roland know what they're doing...

[nuipb]

Yamaha own Korg.

This has been wrong for 20 years now. Please update your records and think again before assuming what you see around you in your hometown doesn't necessarily reflect the reality of the worldwide market...

[madtheory]

OK, so Yamaha don't own a controlling interest in Korg, my bad. And I was describing the situation in Ireland, it's a country not a town. Add to that, I've been to Spain four times, and only in Barcelona did I find a shop that actually sold more than just MicroKorgs. Very similar to Ireland I found, and Spain is a place where Jarre, Vangelis, Oldfield etc. got in the charts consistently.

The one point you didn't address (because it is 100% correct): the majority of professional musicians are not playing original music, and it's not electronic. They do weddings etc. This is why, for example, back in the day the majority of musicians traded in their analogue polysynth for a DX-7. The need for a portable piano outweighted the need for a good brass sound.

Is that the VR-09? It's supposed to be a good gigging keyboard, made to compete directly with the Nord Electro series.

This.

[bochelli]

We are back releasing gear no one asked for or wanted comes to mind .. Memorymoog blows that shite away on one key note.

[danbroad]

None of us have a problem with the cabaret crowd - and I personally think Roland caters for a necessary market. My own issue is that they still additionally try and provide for our market niche, and what they bring is wide of the mark and ignorant of current trends.

[Alex E]

We are back releasing gear no one asked for or wanted comes to mind .. Memorymoog blows that shite away on one key note.

I actually prefer the crisp digital tones of those real PCM waveforms. I used to have a Memorymoog but it never gave me a very good grand piano sound.

[masstronaut]

None of us have a problem with the cabaret crowd - and I personally think Roland caters for a necessary market. My own issue is that they still additionally try and provide for our market niche, and what they bring is wide of the mark and ignorant of current trends.

I suspect they see it more as "selling stuff."

Disagree. I think the "bleeps and bloops" hobbyists are slightly more numerous and slightly more professional than you think they are. Neon Indian. Tycho. Passion Pit. MGMT. Phantogram. Washed Out. Toro Y Moi. Deadmau5. The Knife. Hot Chip. Baths. The Postal Service.

Wow, that's like 12 sales there potentially!

We are back releasing gear no one asked for or wanted comes to mind

Seems almost literally unbelievable that a company would do that doesn't it.

Back in the 90's. Woo hoo!

Amazing that they could be so backward looking when simply everyone knows they should be reproducing the 70s and 80s.

I think some of you might be confusing what you would like to see Roland do with them giving a toss about your world and just perhaps they do have some idea which side their bread is buttered right now. Which is a major tragedy of course, especially seeing as no other companies are producing analogue synthesisers.

[madtheory]

+1. Points well made, sir.

[nuipb]

All nice points indeed but out of topic as far as I'm concerned.
Fact is they claim "WE ARE BACK !" like something huge is happening when they probably did nothing exciting since V-Synth which is close to 10 years old by now I believe. So yes, they are off base or "insane" says the OP.

Reminds me of Apple bringing iPhone 4S after iPhone 4 claiming it was revolutionary...

[Arddhu]

All nice points indeed but out of topic as far as I'm concerned.
Fact is they claim "WE ARE BACK !" like something huge is happening when they probably did nothing exciting since V-Synth which is close to 10 years old by now I believe. So yes, they are off base or "insane" says the OP.

Reminds me of Apple bringing iPhone 4S after iPhone 4 claiming it was revolutionary...

Yep. This my point. I have no problem with them feeding the wedding singers of the world. It's an old chestnut.
I was just reffering to the ludicrous nature of their 'WE ARE BACK!!11!1!' campaign.

[madtheory]

So the campaign pisses off the people who won't buy it. I wonder how it works for the people who do want a keyboard like this? Again: Roland know what they're doing. Like Kevin Spacey's character in House of Cards.

[nuipb]

Roland know what they're doing.

It's official : we have different opinions.

[Arddhu]

Back in the 90's. Woo hoo!

Amazing that they could be so backward looking when simply everyone knows they should be reproducing the 70s and 80s.

I think some of you might be confusing what you would like to see Roland do with them giving a toss about your world and just perhaps they do have some idea which side their bread is buttered right now. Which is a major tragedy of course, especially seeing as no other companies are producing analogue synthesisers.

I don't know where this came from. I was commenting on a video I found amusing. The "Back in the 90's" referred to the quality of the sounds. They sounded like any old JV module. I couldn't give a single hoot as to whether Roland goes back to analogue. If they did, I'm fairly confident it would be disappointing.

Take it easy chaps.