*********************************** AM/FM ***********************************     ROLAND NEWS    by Bjørn Lynne Roland are always busy. When was the last time even just a few months passed without any news from Roland? Even for one who's very interested in what goes on in the synth world, it can be hard to keep up with what Roland is up to at any given time. Roland's GM (General MIDI) system is just starting to get a grip on the MIDI/Synth market. For those of you who don't know what General MIDI is all about, it's a new standard, and this time they're trying to agree on which sounds should be on which positions on synthesizers - so that when you send a program change from Music-X, and the program change selects a flute-sound on your synth, then there's a good chance it will select a flute on your friend's synth as well! Wouldn't that be just swell - I don't know for how much longer I can take the endless searching for useable sounds when I load a MIDI song that wasn't made for my synth setup, and I'm sure many of you feel the same. Well, with the "General MIDI" standard, this problem would be gone! So if you're out to get a new synth, maybe you should check whether it's compatible with the General MIDI standard. Or if you have a synth where you can make your own sound banks, you should consider building a complete bank called General MIDI and use this whenever you make MIDI songs that you indend to share with others. I've made General MIDI setup on my Ensoniq SQ-R Plus, and it works just fine. The General MIDI standard isn't exactly new, but it's just lately that we've actually seen someone starting to use it, and to take it into account when they make new equipment. In this very issue of AM/FM, you will find a map of the General MIDI standard, so you too can use this standard in the future. Refer to the "General MIDI" article elsewhere on this disk. Well, as I said, Roland never sit back and rest for long, so as expected, they have come up with some new equipment. They've got no less than 3 new Digital Pianos out there. These are just like real pianos, big and beautiful, but they use electricity and don't need to be tuned every year! The 3 new models digital pianos are HP-7700, HP-5700 and HP-2900G. In addition to the piano sounds they also have some strings and organ sounds, but don't go after them for these. It's the piano sound, and only that, you should be interested in here. The HP-2900G even has a built-in sequencer. This must be a first for digital pianos..? The new "super-synth" from Roland is called JV-80. It's got 8-channels multi timbral, 5-octaves keyboard, 4 MegaByte of built-in samples (can be expanded to 14 megabyte). The samples are 12-bit, like with other Roland PCM stuff. (PCM is the sample standard that Roland use). It's got 28-notes polyphony, 8 sliders with which you can add colour to the sound while you play. It's also got built-in reverb and chorus. What makes the JV-80 great is that it's got all the usual superb samples from Roland, but in addition it's also got a great synth-programming part, so you can add more synthetic sounds if you want it. The JV-80 is definately worth a look (or two)! Another new model from Roland is the JV-30. It follows the GM-standard and is easy to program, but it's not as powerful as the JV-80. 16-channels multi timbral, 5 octaves keyboard, 317 pre-programmed sounds (GM standard), 128 user-defineable sounds, 1 drum-kit, built-in reverb and chorus. The JV-30 is great for live stage performance, as it's really quick and simple to handle. At LAST all Roland U110/U220-users have got some new sound cards to choose from. Roland have released 3 new sound cards for this series - the cards can be used in Rhodes Model-760/660, Roland U110 and U220, CM-64/32L, D70 and MV-30. The new cards are: SN-U110-13 Super Strings (lots of very BIG strings), SN-U110-14 Super Acoustic Guitar (19 very clean and nice guitar sounds), SN-U110-15 Super Brass (why is everything so super around here?) The Roland MT-200 is a tiny little box, a combined sequencer and sound module. Easy to use, reads standard MIDI-files from 3.5" disks, 317 sounds, 8 drum kits, 24 voice polyphony, 15 parts multi-timbral. The new Roland R-8 Human Rhythm Composer is a little drum machine with an awful lot of built-in sounds, good possibilities to edit the sounds or even create brand new ones. It can receive on several MIDI channels at the same time. There are also 11 sound cards available for it, including a "Power Drums U.S.A." card, a "Sound Effects Set" and "Dance" drum card. *********************************** AM/FM ***********************************