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.

Kit

January 3, 2009 @ 11:31 pm

Good useful sounds if used right, I've had three now but every one has had the same problem, the keyboard goes faulty and is expensive or very time consuming to fix, seems to be an issue with them. Shame as it was a good pro looking players instrument. Almost as good looking as the M1.

Jose

December 28, 2008 @ 1:41 am

The U-20 was my first commercial keyboard, It has some cool sounds but nothing special, the choir is good, the sax is good but is a little acoustic, one of the organ is good, one string is good, The problem is that this keyboard only comes with less than 100 sounds in internal memoy, and memory cards are very hard to find.

Tom

December 18, 2008 @ 8:56 am

Bought my U20 back in 1990. Still have it. I really like the piano sound and the piano sounds on the expansion card. Sure, they are not "real' painaos. But for there day, it was darm close. One of the keys is broken on mine, but it is still nice. It's in the upper register, so it's not that much of an issue. I also have a XV-5080, Fantom XR, and a Fantom G7. However, there are some of the sounds on the U20 that I like better than the "updated" versions on my other gear. I won't part with my U20.

Frank

November 14, 2008 @ 12:04 pm

Flamin' Caucasians out of philly was the first time I ever saw one.
Needless to say...I went out and bought 1. I still have till this day.
Piano sounds are nice considering I couldn't afford a Kurzweil.

Joshua Y

September 23, 2008 @ 4:52 am

I snagged one of these at a Philadelphia thrift shop years ago. It had an "orchestral" pcm card in one of its slots, so a bonus there...It's truly nothing special as the review says but if you want some vintage hardware "real instrument" sample sounds then pick one up...actually, with the right touch of the on-board chorus or reverb, some of the sounds (especially strings or pads) are surprisingly nice. Even better through a external distortion effect (in a soundcard or what have you), if you like....the drums can be fun too...

And yes, the user interface is a nightmare - tiny readout and nothing but buttons (in endless combinations) for input - we're talking 1989 "non-visual interface" old-school here...the one I bought came with a 3rd party manual for "deciphering" the functions and it's still mostly a mystery to me....

All in all, a non-essential but fun little gadget...

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