Keep movin’, movin’, movin’
Though they’re disapprovin’
Keep them dogies movin’
Rawhide!
In recent months my studio has started to look like a Roland showroom. That could be taken as some kind of endorsement so I want to give reasons for what may look like bias. Remember that this site happens out of my own pocket. I’m not running a business here – I’m just poking a hot stick at the synthesiser scene because I can.
History
Roland Corporation Australia Pty Limited … has a unique place in the Roland Group history – it was the first joint venture to be set-up outside of Japan, back in 1976.
https://www.roland.com/au/company/roland_australia/
And they are still here, 47 years later.
Australia is a small place far away from the power centres. Particularly back in the 1970’s that local office had an oversized impact on the local scene. American keyboards like Moog were available but afforded mostly by education and high end entertainers. The rest of us bought cheaper Japanese keyboards – particularly Roland.
The local TV show for pop bands was Countdown (1974 – 1987). A bit like Top of the Pops but more feral. Every band would have to mime on an unplugged Jupiter 8. You could aspire to own such a thing, but a second hand SH-1 was more likely to fall in your lap.
My first keys were Kawai, some Roland, a lot of Korg and a few odd bits made by Electro-Harmonix. It would not be until the mid/late 1980’s that another cheap and cheerful American manufacturer came on the scene with the Ensoniq ESQm. In the 1990’s I was briefly loaned a Oberheim Matrix 6. My first Moog was not until 2018! Apart from Ensoniq, it’s often been just too expensive.
Today
During “The Financial Crisis” of 2008 the United States starting printing dollars, crashing the value of the greenback. The Australian dollar was worth more than the US for a brief moment and I was able to buy up tasty bits from Florida hock shops. But now it’s back to normal plus truly horrible postage costs from overseas. Few people here sell second hand American keyboards. The shops stock new USA keys but these tend to be both analogue and stupidly expensive.
Roland makes smaller digital boxes at a lesser price point, more realistic for the Average Enthusiast and that’s where I have to pitch my tent. I also expect to invest in a fair amount of Behringer, because I can’t afford the Real Thing any more than than most people.
So if you tend to see a lot of Roland talk here at the moment it’s a mixture of history and a tight purse.
Cheers.