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Here’s the test: Create a song using only Roland gear. Can it be done? I thought so, and with a little help from my friend Ian Ulibarri, I set out to do just that.
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The Great Realm of Roland
With the Roland Corporation (and it’s subsidiaries Boss and Edirol) manufacturing everything from keyboards and drums to microphones and digital recording devices, it didn’t seem like an impossible task. In fact the further along in the project we got, the more it seemed that a modern day musician could subsist on Roland alone.
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 Every artist needs a canvas, so we chose the Boss BR-1600CD, a multitrack digital recording device complete with 8 XLR inputs, built in effects, and a CD burner. The device records directly to its own hard drive, so there’s no need to even think about a computer or any of the plethora of software multitrackers out there. The BR1600-CD is ideal for the guy who doesn’t own a high powered computer, or doesn’t know how to use the one he has, or maybe even sits in front of one at work for 9 hours each day and would rather not spend his hobby time in front of one as well.
 Next, Ian and I needed a solid foundation for our song, so we used the Roland TD20 V-Drum kit to lay down a drum beat. You can read more about the V-drums in an article by our drum specialist Sarah Yang here. Hooking the drums up to the BR-1600 was easy using the digital output on the TD20, and after a few minutes of fussing about, we had a signal and began to record. I should note at this point that at no time during this test did Ian or I read any directions from the manuals for any of these Roland products. Are we stubborn men? Perhaps, but the fact that we were able to navigate these products and record an entire song relatively easily does illustrate the user friendly nature of Roland’s gear.
Well I guess I just let the cat out of the bag. Yes, we did finish an entire song using only Roland products. It can in fact be done! Read on to see what else we used.
 Both Ian and I are big fans of 80’s synth-pop, most of which would never have come to fruition without the technological advances of Roland in the late 70s. So, it seemed fitting to use the Juno-D, Roland’s updated version of an 80s classic, to lay down a synth-pop bass line and lead. I was skeptical of the keyboard at first, but it definitely came through. Before we knew it, we had a catchy melody over our drum beat. I would hold this very affordabld keyboard up against many of the classic Roland synths that fetch high prices online daily.
Next we applied some basic guitar riffs with a little help from our friend Randy Couvillon, and while he was forced to use a Gibson Explorer (Roland doesn’t currently make a guitar), we were quick to feed it through the amp modeling feature built into the BR-1600. Another side note: Randy’s father’s name is Roland Couvillon, so technically speaking, our guitar player himself is also made by Roland.
 Finally, we put some vocals into the pot and stirred them up using Roland’s DR-80C condenser microphone. That was a horrible analogy. Anyway, for a moderately priced condenser, this little mic held its own and delivered the clarity and presence we needed for the vocals to stand out over the mess of instruments we had just laid down.
So, you’ve just read this entire article, which is impressive in itself, and you’re probably wondering what this track actually sounds like, so I won’t let you down. Here is the track we created using only Roland gear, aptly titled “The Roland Man.”
Nat Lawlor
Drums and Percussion
Bananas at Large Professional Audio/Musical
San Rafael CA
415-457-7600
nat@bananas.com
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