The Roland XP-50 is a
music workstation
A music workstation is an electronic musical instrument providing the facilities of:
*a sound module,
*a music sequencer and
*(usually) a musical keyboard.
It enables a musician to compose electronic music using just one piece of equipment.
Or ...
that combines the
synthesizer
A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...
engine of
Roland
Roland (; ; or ''Rotholandus''; or ''Rolando''; died 15 August 778) was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne who became one of the principal figures in the literary cycle known as the Matter of France. The historical Roland was mil ...
's
JV-1080 sound module with the sequencing capabilities of their MRC-Pro
sequencer and a 61-note
keyboard
Keyboard may refer to:
Text input
* Keyboard, part of a typewriter
* Computer keyboard
** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping
** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware
Music
* Mus ...
. First released in 1995, the XP-50 and the Roland XP-10 were the first two Roland XP-series products, later joined by the
XP-80 and XP-30.
Sound Engine
The XP-50's sound engine utilizes a custom 32-bit
RISC
In electronics and computer science, a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) is a computer architecture designed to simplify the individual instructions given to the computer to accomplish tasks. Compared to the instructions given to a comp ...
chip to accommodate its sound generation and effects processing. There are 640 patches and 128 performances on board. The XP-50's internal memory includes 512 waveforms, which can be expanded with up to four user-installable SR-JV80 expansion boards. Presets include a
General MIDI
General MIDI (also known as GM or GM 1) is a standardized specification for electronic musical instruments that respond to MIDI messages. GM was developed by the American MIDI Manufacturers Association (MMA) and the Japan MIDI Standards Commi ...
soundset, and a wide selection of sounds, including ambient and techno sounds representative of the time of the XP-50's release.
The
sample + synthesis sound engine's structure consists of "tones", each with a waveform, amplifier, filter, three envelope generators, and a pair of LFOs. Up to four "tones" can be combined in one of ten different "structures" or configurations to create a "patch." For
multitimbral
Monotimbral (from the root prefix ''mono'' meaning one, and ''timbre'' meaning a specific tone of a sound independent of its pitch) is usually used in reference to electronic synthesizers which can produce a single timbre at a given pitch when pre ...
use, "patches" are slotted into "parts" to create a "performance."
Some of the more desirable features of the XP-50's sound engine are frequency cross-modulation, tone delay variations, MIDI clock sync, high/low/band pass and peaking resonant
filter
Filtration is a physical process that separates solid matter and fluid from a mixture.
Filter, filtering, filters or filtration may also refer to:
Science and technology
Computing
* Filter (higher-order function), in functional programming
* Fil ...
options, and synchronizable
LFOs.
The XP-50 has 4 expansion slots which take any of the SR-JV series of boards.
Effects
The XP-50 has three independent effects processors:
reverb
In acoustics, reverberation (commonly shortened to reverb) is a persistence of sound after it is produced. It is often created when a sound is reflected on surfaces, causing multiple reflections that build up and then decay as the sound is a ...
,
chorus
Chorus may refer to:
Music
* Chorus (song), the part of a song that is repeated several times, usually after each verse
* Chorus effect, the perception of similar sounds from multiple sources as a single, richer sound
* Chorus form, song in whic ...
, and a multi-effects processor with 40 editable effects algorithms.
Sequencer
The built-in 16-track sequencer is derived from the Roland MC-series hardware sequencers, and can import sequences saved on those machines. The XP-50 sequencer also accepts
standard MIDI files. The sequencer can store up to 60,000 notes and 100 patterns.
Eschewing the PCM & Data Card slots that Roland had been using since the JD-800 in 1991, the XP-50 includes a 3.5 inch
floppy disk
A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, a diskette, or a disk) is a type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined with a ...
drive for data import or export.
[Gordon Reid]
"The History Of Roland Part 4: 1992-1997"
Sound On Sound, Feb 2005
References
Further reading
*
External links
{{Roland
X
Musical instruments invented in the 1990s
Polyphonic synthesizers
Digital synthesizers
Music workstations