Japanese company of electronic instrument manufacturers. It was founded in Osaka in 1972 by the electronics designer Ikutaro Kakehashi (who had co-founded Ace Electronic Industries in Osaka in 1955, marketing rhythm machines and Ace Tone electronic organs); it was named after the legendary medieval French hero. Expansion was rapid, and by the early 1980s the company employed over 500 people in Osaka alone. During the period 1988–90 Roland bought three foreign electronic keyboard manufacturers: Siel, Rodgers and Rhodes.
The range of Roland instruments has included monophonic and polyphonic synthesizers, synthesizer modules, remote keyboard controllers, electronic organs and pianos (many digital models), a digital harpsichord, home keyboards, guitar synthesizers, samplers, vocoders, sequencers and many electronic percussion devices and effects units, some under the names of Roland's offshoots, Boss and Amdek. The company also manufactures a variety of sound equipment and a teaching system designed for use with Roland electronic keyboard instruments.
Like other Japanese companies, Roland produces new models each year, updating successful instruments with the latest technology, and quickly withdrawing unsuccessful ones. Apart from three modular synthesizers, Roland's polyphonic synthesizers have included the Jupiter-8 (1981), Juno-60 (1982), the programmable JX-3P (1983) and JD-800 (1991); the most successful was the D-50 (1987), with sales of about 200,000. Roland has made a major contribution in the area of computer-controlled electronic percussion, ranging from the small-scale Dr Rhythm to the Rhythm Composer (for illustration see Electronic percussion, fig.2) and its smaller version, the Drumatix, as well as the Octapad percussion controller. In 1977 Roland introduced the first effective guitar synthesizer, consisting of a special electric guitar and a synthesizer unit; the company has continued to release improved models. Also in 1977 the first of the MicroComposer series of polyphonic digital sequencers for controlling synthesizers appeared. Recent interest in specialized dance music equipment led Roland to develop Interactive Light's infrared Dimension Beam (1993) as its D Beam in the Groove Sampler work station (1998) and the Groovebox sequencer, as well as in electronic keyboards (see also Drawn sound).
R. Hammond: The Musician and the Micro (Poole, 1983)
M. Vail: ‘The Roland MC-8 MicroComposer’, Keyboard, xvi/10 (1990), 116–17; rev. in Vintage Synthesizers: Groundbreaking Instruments and Pioneering Designers of Electronic Music Synthesizers (San Francisco, 1993), 244–51
P. Forrest: The A–Z of Analogue Synthesisers, i: A–M (Crediton, 1994, 2/1998), 8–9; ii: N–Z (Crediton, 1996), 58–101
M. Vail: ‘Roland CR-78, TR-808 and TR-909: Classic Beat Boxes’, Keyboard, xx/5 (1994), 82–6
J. Colbeck: Keyfax Omnibus Edition (Emeryville, CA, 1996)
HUGH DAVIES