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Roland XP80
The Roland XP-80 is a music workstation that uses digital PCM subtractive synthesis. The XP-80 was introduced in 1996.
The XP-80 has a 76-key semi-weighted keyboard. The synthesis engine is capable of 64-voice polyphony and 16-part multi-timbrality. The XP-80 includes the 128 General MIDI instrument set, as well as 384 additional preset instruments (“patches” in Roland parlance), for a total of 512 preset patches. Additional user memory is provided for making copies of up to 128 patches, allowing the user to edit patch parameters and save them in memory. There are 8 preset percussion instrument combinations (called “rhythm sets”) and 2 user configurable rhythm sets. The XP-80 includes 64 preset combinations of up to 15 existing patches and 1 rhythm set. These patch and rhythm set combinations are referred to as “performances” in Roland parlance. There are an additional 32 user memory locations to store user configurable performances.
Bringing up the ‘Workstation’ end of the XP-80 is a full-fledged on-board MRC Pro sequencer. With a 60,000 note capacity, 100 patterns, and 1 song position – you can create songs, patterns, loops or phrases with relative ease. Other features of the sequencer include Grid, Groove or Shuffle quantization and a built-in disk-drive. The XP-80 also excels as a Master Keyboard controller used to control other synthesizers and MIDI gear. A great Arpeggiator is also available. High quality internal effects are provided such as Reverbs, Chorus, Delays and Roland’s EFX multi-effects technology. There are also digital filters (4-pole, 12dB/oct, HP, LP, BP, Peak) and a ring-modulator for analog-synth type effects, perfect for dance and techno music! A Modulation-Matrix provides up to two LFO-effects for adding motion and life to the sounds. In addition, there are 6 sliders for real-time control.
See also Wikipedia. See also my post [here].
Image: the XP80 on top of my keyboard stack during live performance.
PCM subtractive synthesis
Roland developed an sound approach denoted as Linear Arithmetic (LA) synthesis that combines traditional subtractive synthesis with PCM-based samples. The term linear arithmetic refers to synthesis that puts sounds together in a timeline. Typically a PCM transient begins a note, which is then continued with a subtractive synthesis prolongation. Roland did not use the term additive, as additive synthesis already refers to a different synthesis method.
A PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) synthesizer uses samples as it’s primary sound source. A piano sound will start out with a recording a real piano, or a guitar patch will be a recording of a guitar, etc. The advantage of PCM over other types of synthesis is that recreations of acoustic instruments can sound very authentic. This can be very difficult with other types of synthesis.
Roland understood that their subtractive synthesis method had to change. One of the more complex parts of a sound to program is the attack transient, so Roland added a suite of sampled attack transients to subtractive synthesis. As well as the attack transients, Roland added a suite of single-cycle sampled waveforms that could be continuously looped. Sounds could now have three components: An attack, a body made from a subtractive synth sound (saw or pulse wave through a filter) and an “embellishment” of one of many looped samples.
Subtractive synthesis is a method of sound synthesis in which partials of an audio signal (often one rich in harmonics) are attenuated by a filter to alter the timbre of the sound. While subtractive synthesis can be applied to any source audio signal, the sound most commonly associated with the technique is that of analog synthesizers of the 1960s and 1970s, in which the harmonics of simple waveforms such as sawtooth, pulse or square waves are attenuated with a voltage-controlled resonant low-pass filter. PCM subtractive synthesis differs from other forms of synthesis because it doesn’t use oscillators. In their place, recorded samples are the sound source. These samples are lined up on a keyboard in different zones. Each sample is pitch-shifted to span about 4 to 5 notes until a new sample is needed (otherwise the sample begins to sound noticeably different).
Manual
Roland XP80 (Operation Manual) (pdf) 22.70 MB 192 downloads
Roland XP80 Synthesizer operation manual See also: Roland XP80 All keyboards ...
How does it sound?
How does it sound play by me?
Quick demo. Hill Street Blues en Equinoxe Pt 5 (Jean Michel Jarre). Sorry for mistakes but I didn’t want to re-record.
