Roland XP-30

Roland XP-30 Image
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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.

Lookup Prices for XP-30

Demos & Media

Audio Clip 1 Hear the On-board demo.
ManualRoland has made manuals for most of their products available as free PDF downloads.

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

Images from Roland U.S.

Reviewed December 2007.