Roland XP-30

XP-30

Roland XP-30 synthesizer
Manufacturer Roland Corporation
Dates 1999–2002
Price £999 GBP
€1499 EUR
Technical specifications
Polyphony 64 voices
Timbrality 16-part
Synthesis type Sample-based synthesis
Aftertouch expression Yes, channel
Velocity expression Yes
Storage memory 1406 patches
Effects 40 effect types
Reverb (8 types)
Chorus
Input/output
Keyboard 61 keys
Left-hand control Pitch bend with modulation
External control MIDI in/out/thru
pedal sustain/switch

The Roland XP-30 is a 61-key, 64 voice expandable synthesizer. Released in 1999, it was produced until 2002. Based on the acclaimed mid-90s JV sound engine built around a super fast 32-bit RISC processor, it is considered to be the best value-for-money of all the Roland JV and XP series synthesizers.

Features and architecture

Designed for live performance, it is small, lightweight but with full-sized keys and insanely huge set of sounds (2078 when fully expanded). Keyboard is truly semi-weighted, with metal weights glued under the keys, feels identical to D-50 and considered one of the best synth-action keybeds ever made. It has a powerful arpeggiator with multiple patterns that can be timed by external MIDI clock (like sequencer or drum machine), nine built-in drum kits (you'll need an external drum machine to use these). The XP-30 is aimed at expansion by giving the user 2 slots for adding Roland's own SR-JV80 range of expansion cards.

Sound banks

The XP-30 comes with 640 patches in the Preset banks plus a massive 766 patches on the most popular SR-JV80 sound expansion cards: Session, Orchestral and Techno Collection, are included. This makes 1,406 patch sounds available right out of the box, and it has two additional SR-JV80 slots. Many of the sounds were used (with higher bit rate) in later Roland Fantom series synths.

The sound banks are organized like this:

In general, onboard presets give you ample of choices for a typical cover band of any style, from oldies to modern dance. Most presets are quite useful, you can edit them if you want and save as user patch (128 memories are available for that). All of them are instantly recallable, by pressing three buttons at most, all you have to remember is bank and patch number. No need to dig into menu layers. Category search feature also makes finding that best patch easy.

Smart Media cards significantly increased user memory capacity, though it's not instantly accessible as older Roland RAM/ROM cards. You have to manually load one of .SVD files from card to user memory bank first, then recall sounds as usual. Though it can be done from the XP-30 front panel, it's still not like direct access to patches an old RAM and ROM cards were capable of. Despite huge memory capacity (4MB card can store 59 .SVD files, essentially a 128-patch banks), these older 5V Smart Media cards are hard to find nowadays, only on eBay.

Roland XP-30 synthesizer

Sound structure

The smallest form of sound is called a Tone. A maximum of 4 tones can make a Patch. And 16 patches can be used to create a Performance. The XP-30 sound structure most closely resembles the Roland JV-2080 rack synth module. In fact, preset sound banks are identical in both, though the later is more suited for studio work and therefore has 3 multi-effect processors and eight available SR-JV80 card slots. The XP-30 is one of the best synths for live performance, any of its 2,000+ patches or performances can be dialed directly from decimal numeric keypad just like you dial the phone number. (Roland finally gave up the old and odd 8x8 bank-patch scheme in favor of straightforward decimal numbering, what Korg did a decade before with M1). Category sound search is also possible. Most of performance parameters can be altered on-the-fly in analog style, like filter cutoff, resonance, attack, release, there are four assignable sliders for that. Effects and arpeggiator patterns can also be edited on the fly.

XP-30 was sold bundled with Emagic Sound Diver (OEM version), a powerful software editor that allows instant on-screen editing of all XP-30 parameters, pretty much like Reason or any other software synth. A computer can be connected via MIDI or directly to the serial port named "Computer" at the back of XP-30. This requires a special interface cable. The number of editable parameters on-screen is very large. Even though Emagic was bought by Apple long time ago (essentially becoming Logic and GarageBand), Sound Diver is still available as free download, just Google for "Sound Diver Roland XP-30"

Sound samples can be heard at JV-2080 page at SynthMania, they are exactly the same as in XP-30.

Very comprehensive review of XP-30: Sound On Sound

Effects

The XP-30 has three independent effects processors: reverb, chorus, and a multi-effects processor with 40 editable effects algorithms.

Sequencer

The Roland XP-30 absence of an internal sequencer makes it a pure synth, not a workstation like its older siblings (the XP-50, XP-60 and XP-80). Though today it hardly can be considered a drawback, since music production is done mostly on more capable and flexible computer-based DAW (digital audio workstations). Even the newest Roland Jupiter-80 flagship synth does not have a built-in sequencer (being sold with Roland Cakewalk DAW software suite that also includes a way more powerful sequencer than in any keyboard workstation) . Yamaha Montage doesn't have a sequencer either and most Korg Kronos owners don't use its built-in sequencer, as reported on forums.

XP series

Its family of XP synthesizers consists of the first released XP-10 in 1994 and XP-50 in 1995. Later joined by the XP-80 and XP-60 in 1996 and lastly the XP-30 in 1999.

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