Roland Vintage Gear Manuals

All Manuals Up

2010-08-08T07:22:00.004+02:00

I uploaded all the manuals in zip-files to megaupload. They contain all of the manuals listed in previous posts. Here are the links:

Roland Owner's Manuals.zip
Roland Service Notes.zip
ARP Manuals.zip
BOSS Manuals.zip
Korg Manuals.zip
Moog Manuals.zip
Yamaha Manuals.zip

Need new host...

2010-08-06T06:24:00.000+02:00

Some of the manuals are down... Damn these free hosts! Sometimes they just delete stuff and sometimes they just die... Can someone please give me a couple of gigs on a reliable server somewhere?

Anyway, the site had more than 1,200 visitors from all over the world in about two months, and I'm very happy about that... I hope you all enjoyed it!

Long live Ikutaro Kakehashi!

The Story Of Roland Synths And Drum Machines

2010-06-21T21:41:00.006+02:00

How Japanese Engineering Changed The Sound Of The World

By Henrik Zelizi, 2010

Introduction

It would be reasonable to say that Ikutaro Kakehashi and Tadao Kikumoto are not household names, even amongst people in the business. That might seem a little strange considering that these two men have made essential technological contributions to electronic music in particular, and music engineering in general.

Ikutaro Kakehashi was the founder of Roland Corporation, and Tadao Kikumoto was the chief designer of the infamous TB-303 and TR-909, later on to become chairman of the highly successful multinational Roland Group.

In The Beginning (1930-1972)

The first part of this story begins in 1930 in Osaka, Japan, with the birth of Ikutaro Kakehashi. After loosing his parents in young years and surviving tuberculosis, he started his own watch-repair business at the age of sixteen.

However, young Ikutaro was more inspired by retrieving parts from broken radios and building new ones, and as his business got better, changed discipline and moved towards electronics. This was also a highly sought after trade in a war-torn Japan, and he started Kakehashi Radio Electrical Appliance Store in 1954.

Three years later he designed and built his first electric organs, and that led to the foundation of Ace Electronic Industries Inc. in 1960. The company used the trade-name Ace Tone, and one of the first products was a spinet organ called TO-1 which supposedly stood for transistor organ.

Ace Tone’s designs quickly diversified to include amplifiers, effects and drum machines such as the R1 Rhythm Ace in 1964, the world’s first fully transistorized rhythm unit.

The early days of drum machines include electro-mechanical monsters like Rhythmicon in 1931, Chamberlin Rhythmate in 1947, and the Wurlitzer Sideman in 1959. These machines were huge, heavy and so expensive that only very select musicians could afford them.

The preset-program Ace Tone FR1 Rhythm Ace changed all that in 1967. It was a giant leap forward compared to previous units and became an instant success.

Between 1962 and 1971 Ace Tone produced several popular organs of all sizes, including the multitude of “TOP”-series portable combo organs.

In 1968 Kakehashi joined with the Hammond International Company and formed Hammond Japan. They designed, built and released the Ace Tone GT-7 portable organ in 1971, which later became the Hammond X-5.

Kakehashi’s eyes, by now highly trained in the art of business, were since the beginning focusing on the global market. In 1972 he left Ace Electronic Industries and started Roland Corporation with a capital of ¥ 33 million (€ 250,000) and sales offices in Osaka and Tokyo.

Japan’s First Synth And The Early Years (1973-1979)

The TR-77 (a.k.a. Rhythm 77) was the first ever Roland product in 1972, launched as the flagship alongside the TR-33 and TR-55. They were not very different from the earlier Ace Tone machines, but had a place in the home-organ market. Hammond adopted the TR-77 and called it the Hammond Rhythm Unit.

Roland released a couple of amplified cabinets, the TR-700 and TR-330 between 1973 and 1975, followed by the slimmed down but somehow modern-looking TR-66.

The first Roland keyboard, the SH-1000, became Japan’s first commercial Synthesizer in 1973. It was rather simple compared to other synths of the day, such as the Mini Moog, but was still produced until 1981.

First up after the SH-1000 was the suitcase-style SH-3, but it was soon removed due to legal trouble over the filter with Moog. Apparently Roland had “borrowed” some designs and didn’t want to pay the licence. It was quickly replaced by the SH-3a, with a proper Roland filter.

The next batch in 1974 included the SH-2000, basically a variant of the SH-1000 with more preset sounds and fewer controls.

Kakehashi and the engineers pushed on with what many consider the greatest monophonic Roland synth ever, the SH-5 in 1975. This was a beautiful machine that is still as powerful as ever.

Roland had polyphonic ideas going between 1975 and 1978, probably in response to machines like ARP Omni and the Polymoog. Three marks were produced; RS-101, RS-202 and RS-505 Paraphonic. These were fully polyphonic string and brass preset sound machines.

An interesting thing appeared in 1977, the GR-500 Guitar Synthesizer, a polyphonic synth controlled by the GS-500, a custom Ibanez guitar controller. Guitarists seemed upset that the guitar had no way of connection other than through a fragile multi-core cable connected to the GR-500.

There were some real goodies in 1978, the SH-1, SH-09 and the wonderful SH-7. The SH-09 was the smallest, a single oscillator little thing, and the SH-1 was one size bigger. The biggest was the massive SH-7 which had double sets of all the good stuff. The SH-2 was more or less a two oscillator version of the SH-09 released in 1979.

The Modulars And The Micro Processor (1976-1981)

Roland released the System-100 in 1976, a beautiful example of semi-modular synth engineering in five pieces. The modules: Synthesizer 101, Expander 102, Mixer 103, Sequencer 104 and Monitor Speakers 109. At the time there were plans to add more modules but unfortunately that never happened.

The System-700 was a very large piece of machinery with many, many, holes to put cables in to. It had a huge sequencer on top and some other nice expansion-stuff on the sides. The year was still 1976 and this was Roland’s biggest (and most expensive) synth ever…

The MC-8 Micro Composer came in 1977 and was the first digital Roland sequencer, powered by an Intel 8080 micro processor. It could be expanded to a massive 16K’s of RAM, enough for about 4,400 notes. Due to its huge price-tag it never saw commercial success.

During the late sixties and throughout the seventies rhythm units stayed virtually the same, and all played roughly the same standard preset patterns.

The old sounds and preset patterns were still present in Roland’s 1978 milestone the CR-78, but with one huge addition: an Intel microprocessor, allowing users to program their own patterns. Equipped with an external programming switch, the CR-78 became the world’s first user programmable drum machine.

The CR-68 came in the same period as a cheaper alternative along with the built-in-speaker version CR-800.

The semi-modular System-100m shocked synth-freaks everywhere in 1979. It boasted approximately fifteen multiple-function modules housed in five-space or three-space cabinets. Our Japanese friends also proposed three different size polyphonic keyboards. This is very nice stuff if you can get your hands on it.

Roland's subdivision Boss released its first drum machine the same year, the DR-55, which had rather primitive capabilities, but was nevertheless the beginning of Boss’s successful Dr. Rhythm series of drum machines.

Computer control was the way forward and the CSQ-100 and CSQ-600 digital sequencers appeared in 1979 and 1980. The highly useful four-channel MC-4 Micro Composer was introduced in 1981.

Computer Controlled (1980-1984)

The eighties were here and suddenly everything got computerized, including music. In 1980 Roland released the legendary TR-808 which is surely one of the most used drum machines ever, followed by the TR-606 Drumatix in 1981.

These machines were fully programmable and a pleasure to work with. They spawned the Boss DR-110 in 1983 which was like a 606-808 hybrid with a basic graphic grid display.

It might be worth to note the CR-5000 and CR-8000 from 1981 which were preset rhythm units similar to the CR-68 and the older units, but with a sound resembling the 808.

The TB-303 Bassline, released in 1981, is probably one of the best known Roland synths because of the impact it has had on the world of music. It’s amazing that a tiny monophonic box with six knobs, one switch and no keyboard could have such a massive effect and longevity.

The last of the original SH-series was the SH-101 in 1982. It was a two-and-a-half octave synth designed as a “key-tar”, with a shoulder strap and a handle with modulation controls. It also had an arpeggiator and a nice sequencer.

Some of the first recognisable modern synth expansion modules hit the market in 1983, the CMU-800 Compu Music and CMU-810 Compu Synth. The -810 was pretty much a SH-101 without the sequencer, only CV/Gate inputs.

The breakthrough was that you could hook up the CMU-800 to your Apple IIe (or certain other obscure and long-forgotten computers), work through a cryptic pseudo-visual-numeric interface and have a (by newer standards primitive) workstation comprised more or less by a 303 bass, 606 drums, a 101 lead and four voices of chords. Great!

A year after that it was time for the MC-202 Micro Composer which didn’t have a real keyboard. It was basically a two channel sequencer with the sound generator of a 101.

Designing The Future (1978-1987)

In 1978 the four-voice Jupiter-4 Compuphonic started what became a line of very popular programmable polyphonic machines. The MRS-2 Promars was a programmable monophonic version.

They were followed by the eight-voice Jupiter-8 in 1980 and the six-voice Jupiter-6 in 1983. These are expensive and highly sought after machines. From there on Roland would only create polyphonic, programmable machines.

The Juno-6 started another series in 1981 and was quickly followed by Juno-60 accompanied by the JSQ-60 DCB sequencer. DCB was a digital synth interface that preceded MIDI. In 1983 MIDI was accepted as the general standard and Roland delivered the Jupiter-6 and JX-3P that year.

1984 saw several significant releases. The much used Juno-106, JX-8P and the first of the modules in the MKS-series rack mount synths. The MKS-80 Super Jupiter Sound Module together with a MPG-80 programmer is a really powerful and hugely overpriced piece of hardware.

Until the early eighties all drum machines were all analogue and didn’t sound particularly much like drums. Roland used samples for the first time in 1984, rather late, picking up on the new trend set by Roger Linn.

The hi-hats and cymbals of the infamous TR-909 and all of the TR-707's sounds were hi-tech 12-bit samples. The 909 was the last of the analogue units that had dominated the market for twenty years. The 707's percussionist brother, TR-727 came a year later.

The TR-505 and TR-626 came in 1986 and 1987 respectively. They were compact all buttons boxes with 12-bit drum and percussion samples. The Boss DR-220’s also came in 1986 with an A-version with acoustic sounding samples, and an E-version with electronic style drums. Samples were clearly the way to go.

The Legacy

What can be said about these machines? They are easy to work with, sound amazing and have truly left their mark in the world of music.

The rest is history…

The Main Roland Vintage Gear Manuals Site:
http://rvgm.site90.net/

If you want even more Roland history you can read this:
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/nov04/articles/roland.htm

For more info on Roland synths check out:
http://www.vintagesynth.com/roland/

Check out these virtual drum machines... Fun stuff...
http://www.keyboardmuseum.com/d_machines/vdrums.html

Long live Ikutaro Kakehashi!

Roland Manuals

2010-05-27T01:43:00.000+02:00

BOSS Manuals

2010-05-27T01:41:00.001+02:00

BOSS Owner's Manuals:
Boss DR-55 Owner's Manual
Boss DR-110 Owner's Manual
Boss DR-220A & DR-220E Owner's Manual
Boss RBF-10 Owner's Manual
Boss RCE-10 Owner's Manual
Boss RCL-10 Owner's Manual
Boss RE-1000 Owner's Manual
Boss RGE-10 Owner's Manual
Boss ROD-10 Owner's Manual
Boss RPH-10 Owner's Manual
Boss RPS-10 Owner's Manual
Boss RRV-10 Owner's Manual
Boss RSD-10 Owner's Manual

BOSS Service Manuals:
Boss DR-55 Service Manual
Boss DR-110 Service Manual

Korg Manuals

2010-05-27T01:39:00.001+02:00

Yamaha Manuals

2010-05-27T01:36:00.000+02:00

ARP Manuals

2010-05-27T01:31:00.002+02:00

Moog Manuals

2010-05-27T01:27:00.001+02:00

Moog Owner's Manuals:
Moog MemoryMoog Owner's & Service Manual
Moog MiniMoog Operation Manual
Moog Opus 3 Owner's Manual
Moog PolyMoog Owner's Manual
Moog Prodigy Owner's Manual
Moog Source Owner's Manual
Moog Taurus Owner's & Service Manual

Moog Service Manuals:
Moog MemoryMoog Service Manual
Moog MiniMoog Schematics
Moog Modular System Service Manual
Moog Opus 3 Service Manual
Moog Polymoog Service Manual
Moog Prodigy Service Manual
Moog Rogue Service Manual
Moog Satellite Service Manual
Moog Source Service Manual

Roland Vintage Gear Manuals

2010-05-27T01:03:00.008+02:00

This blog is basically a mirror of the original Roland Vintage Gear Manuals.

The mission is simple:
Share information about vintage synthesizers and drum machines.

Some people try to sell this stuff but I want them to be free for all...

This is my personal collection that I hunted down on the web.
They're all in pdf format.

If you have any questions or manuals I should add to the list, contact me at
rolandvgm@gmail.com

There are many more Roland manuals at ftp.roland.co.uk

Check my Facebook groups for more Roland tips, tricks, fixes and discussions:
Roland Vintage Synthesizer Appreciation Group &
Roland TR Appreciation Group

Long live Ikutaro Kakehashi!