The U-20 is nothing special. It is a digital synthesizer that uses ROM samples of pianos, brass, strings, bass, drums, etc. However it is built for professional use and is truly a quality instrument, even though its sounds may seem like dated-eighties synth pop cheese. It's got nice piano sounds, but they're not the real thing.

The U-20 features 6 part multitimbrality with a 7th drum part, plus 2 direct outputs and 2 stereo outputs. The 30 note polyphony helps if you take advantage of this synths multitimbrality for creating entire performances and ensembles. Digital reverb, chorus and delay effects liven up your sounds. Editing is simple, but there are no filters. With several performance features, the U-20 has a full 61 note keyboard with velocity and aftertouch. There's an on-board arpeggiator, a chord-memory feature and the U-20 accepts Roland SNU-110 sound library cards. It has been used by Prodigy and Astral Projection.

The Roland U-220 (pictured above) is simply a rack-mount version of the U-20. It has all the same sounds and features packaged in a compact single-space sound module.

JOE

November 26, 2012 @ 2:22 pm

My keyboard U-20 some keys left side a

re not sounding anymore., ?

alim

October 22, 2012 @ 2:40 pm

This keyboard is trash!!! Why did Roland go down this route after the brilliant D-50 and glorious JD-800? Those are the only 2 decent digital synths from Roland of that era.

It sounds bad, just don't waste any cash on this and save for a D-50 instead (or JD-800)

Enrico

August 26, 2012 @ 9:31 pm

Hello all! This unit has a great piano sound, with GREAT dynamics. The muted guitar was my go-to back then. I still have it and want to get back into using it has got a bad LCD display. Lights up well, but the characters are all scrambled. Any hint on where to get a replacement? Many thanks

Gene

August 22, 2012 @ 8:41 am

Bit of a shame that these instruments are measured by todays standards.
Historically these machines were extremely significant.
There was nothing like it when it was released in 1989.
The Proteus was its only competitor and the U220 was miles ahead in terms of sounds.

Arnout

July 3, 2012 @ 2:50 pm

hi JR, i had broken keys too on my u20. I ordered them directly at Roland central europe spare parts centre. They cost almost nothing, about three euro each.
Good luck!

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