Roland XP-30

Roland XP-30 Image

The XP-30 is a 64-voice Expandable Synthesizer that offered all of the great sounds of the XP and JV series at a more affordable price tag than previous XP-synths. Roland's XP-80 was a flagship workstation in its time, but by reducing the keyboard down to a standard 61 key (with velocity and aftertouch), elimination of the on-board sequencer, and fewer expansion card slots, the XP-30 was able to offer the XP-experience at a price within reach of serious musicians at any level.

The XP-30 does retain the XP-series synthesis architecture and all the world-renowned sound sets of the acclaimed XP-80 workstation, plus all the waveforms from the "Session", "Orchestral", and "Techno" expansion cards. It adds, however, a boat-load more patch storage than its more famous predecessors: there are 1,406 patches and 28 drum kits. Fortunately there is a Patch Finder and Phrase Preview for quick navigation and sound selection. Besides the two expansion slots for installing the SR-JV80-Series expansion boards, a SmartMedia card slot provides additional storage capability. Plenty of controls and four assignable Sound Palette sliders let you get deep into editing and programming its sounds.

23 Visitor comments
ishan
December 15, 2012 @ 9:46 am
@Avinash, you can set PATCH REMAIN to ON.
Avinash
November 6, 2012 @ 5:55 am
when i press patch tone. then tone will be breake. so what type changing a setting apply to keyboard then tone can not breake. please tell me.
Christos
August 1, 2012 @ 3:24 am
I have this little monster since Jan'03. It served me well as my first synth in any music genre I used to play until '09, when I bought a used XV5080 as a replacement, but I'm not willing to sell my XP30, ever! It's tiny in size and large in capabilities. 1400+ sounds, realtime faders, lots of one-button functions (octave, pitch change, effects, etc) but small display for programming. Although most of its psysical sounds are outdated today, all of the Roland's JV engine sounds are there. Adding exp.boards is a must upgrade in sound quality. Good keyboard velocities. Made resistant in abuse!
Mark
February 23, 2012 @ 4:03 pm
This is a great piece. Does anyone remember the controversy with the Roland Dance Expansion Board. Roland had to pull this board from store shelve due to copyright issues. Anyways I have this board and the house board with the XP-30. I'm may be letting it go for something reasonable. Email me - swaynesolo@yahoo.com
David
February 15, 2012 @ 10:29 am
The Roland Xp-30 is an absolute classic. It still sounds great in studio and on stage in worship settings. The palette option allows you to mix strings and piano nicely together and the expansion boards really add lots of different elements at very high resolution of sound.
 
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VSE Rating

Excellent

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Rated 3.73 (259 Votes)

  • Specifications
  • Polyphony - 64 Voices
  • Oscillators - 4 per voice ( 4 x 64 voices), 32 bit custom RISC chips for Digital Acoustic simulation; 512 on-board waveforms (plus up to two 8MB SRJV80 series expansion boards)
  • LFO - 2 MIDI syncable LFOs
  • Filter - TVF (lowpass, bandpass, high pass) with cutoff, resonance, key follow and velocity sensitivity
  • Effects - Reverb, Chorus and 40 multi-EFX
  • Memory - 1,406 patches, including all sounds from the "Session", "Orchestral" and "Techno" wave expansion boards, 28 Rhythm kits.
  • Keyboard - 61 keys with velocity and aftertouch sensitivity
  • Arpeg/Seq - Advanced Arpeggiator capabilities derived from the XP-60/80
  • Control - MIDI In/Out/Thru (16-parts)
  • Date Produced - 1999-2002
  • Resources & Credits

  • Images from Roland U.S.

    Reviewed December 2007.

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