Roland XP-10

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The XP-10 was an entry-level Workstation synthesizer. It's a digital synthesizer that uses sampled sounds and waveforms stored on ROM chips. Basic envelope and filter settings can be manipulated to tweak the sounds, but that's it. The sounds themselves are preset and not very tweakable. Though its filter is digital, it is resonant and sounds ok. There is also basic reverb and chorus effects. However, the LCD display is narrow and programming can become tedious, if not boring and the interface is often reported as being 'buggy'.

However, its sounds can be anything but boring at times! Standard GM-set and SR-JV80 type sounds include great acoustic instruments (pianos, strings, winds, percussion and brass) and a lot of nice synth-type sounds (303 lines, sub bass, noise, leads, pads). It is quite capable of creating dance music or symphonic performances.

As a workstation, the XP-10 provides at least a starting point. It has an arpeggiator with several preset patterns (but no user patterns). There are two programmable sliders for real-time control of some of the editable parameters like the filter cutoff. Another feature called "X-Dual" mode layers two sounds which can be panned and mixed independently to create a new sound. Today, the XP-10 makes an ok back-up synth for quality but basic sounds, but it still leaves much to be desired.

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Roland XP 10 synthesizer
by
Pascal A
ManualRoland has made manuals for most of their products available as free PDF downloads.

Specifications

Polyphony - 28 Voices
Oscillators - Digital Acoustic simulation
LFO - Yes
Filter - Resonant Digital Filter
Effects - 2 Effects units with up to 10 different effect types
Memory - 338 Preset, 256 User patches; 64 Preset, 64 User performances; 16 Preset, 20 User Drumkits
Keyboard - 61 keys (responds to velocity and aftertouch)
Control - MIDI (16-parts; can send on 2 simultaneous channels); PC/Mac port
Date Produced - 1994

Resources

Images from Glen Goodman