really?
I know this has nothing to do with its features and capabilities but I honestly hope that they make it look somewhat decent. This eyesore trend they have going on with neon colors and glossy surfaces looks tacky as hell in my opinion.
Interesting. I’d love to see a serious new sampler groove box from roland. I love my sp555 and 404. If they could blend the fun/instant side of those with more serious mpc/OT style sequencing and a project storage kind of hierarchy I’d be very happy. I haven’t had the chance to check out their MV etc which do that kind of stuff. Bit too big for me to fit in my setup here.
I fucking love the sp effects for some reason. Just always find something that sounds very cool very quick. Great boxes but also very limited. Though most people on this forum seem to think limitations are a god send so I don’t know why anyone here has an OT 
the speculated modelling side of this new box I’m not too fussed about. It’s not something id pay a ton of money for if everything else is lacking.
Adjustable sample/bit would be nice. Modeling some of the filters from those older samplers would be nice. But knowing Roland (see: MIDI specs on the Boutiques or the limitations of TR-8), they will make it “true to the past” and only allow 14 seconds of sampling.
I’m excited about the idea, and I do like what Roland’s done recently (including the JDs), but they have a perverse interest in confusing limitation with stubborn inflexibility that always leaves me wanting just a bit… a teensy tiny amount… more.
It seems that Roland is focusing on recreating the past at a more affordable price…(except the AIRA modules)
Some real 100% hardware innovation would be welcome!
Maybe with this new sampler?
Going in with low expectations, post 90’s Roland always seem to pass over some feature or oversight.
To get my money, most of the below features are essential…
- needs a good interface for live/studio usage while at the same time being compact (ie. elektron size or smaller)
- large amount of ram + modern GB/TB storage options with streaming from disk for long audio & ease of transfer via computer
- All the standard sampling techniques the OT didnt cover: ie. velocity triggering of different samples, x-fading, looping, reverse etc with LFO’s and envelopes for modulation
- Multiple outputs & multiple fx slots. Some COSM?
- Give us a proper 2015 processor that do things without the sweat
- Compatibility with old akai/roland s7XX/Yamaha sample libraries would be a huge +
- Incorporate the Roland VP9000/V-Synth technologies
- Comprehensive documented midi specs
Cost? as much as it needs to be to make it a classic.
Looks & appearance? secondary to features imho.
Chance of meeting expectations? pretty damn low.
With all due respect, Roland has held it down head and shoulders over the others for very good pad based, affordable samplers over the past decade and a bit.
It’s one thing that they do well.
If it uses similar converters to the 404 Sx then I’ll be in.
Agreed. If they wanted they could nail this, they blew the competition away with sp555/404 as far as advances in memory card limit/streaming and fx. If behind the scenes they’ve been catching up with what others have done since, adding some of their own ideas and nailing sequencing/projects/deeper functionality then they could be on to something great. Excited to hear more about it…
That makes me ask … how big would the hardware sampler market be today?
Aren’t the most electronic music producers working ITB? If you are not already an OTB guy, what would be the selling point to drop ITB and get hardware?
If I compare my experience with Maschine and Push2 to my experience with the OT, I would say, the work ITB is more efficient in many ways, if only creating of samples, slicing, time-stretching, and sequencing is considered. This could be true for other hardware sequencers too.
Couldn’t it be that a market, which is too small, was and is the reason, why Akai has not built a stand alone MPC for years, and did not listen to many MPC users, asking for a modernized long time supported performance sampler?
But let’s wait and see …
A sampler/synth/midi combining hardware unit, which is made as a modern follow up of a MV8800 or MPC would be at the top of my shopping list.
How they never made a vari phrase MV-XXXX I dont know.
As always with Roland in recent times (as someone else stated), crucial missing features, critical bugs, an obtuse OS and no updates.
Never new always S/H with them these days.
I wonder if it will have all those models but still no volume envelope.
If Roland come out with a 4x4 pad sampler with more flash memory than my mpc1000 and decent modern effects buses built in Im gonna be all over that.
Personally I Dont give 2 shits about what old machines are emulated as long as it has decent quality and nicely sensitive pads, good filters and effects and 4 sample layers per pad. Finger drummer heaven 
totally agree! the whole aira line and actually pretty much all the recent roland stuff looks really tacky
totally agree! the whole aira line and actually pretty much all the recent roland stuff looks really tacky[/quote]
totally agree! the whole aira line and actually pretty much all the recent roland stuff looks really tacky[/quote]
[/quote]
that is something i have never understood. wouldn’t it be effectively cheaper to leave stuff out? like make a goddamn plain box with knobs and pads and go home already. why do they devalue it more and more with every piece of junk they add to it?
If it can slice like Push 2 in a hardware standalone box count me in! Need innovation with a sampler rather then another 303/404 what ev.
totally agree! the whole aira line and actually pretty much all the recent roland stuff looks really tacky[/quote]
[/quote]
that is something i have never understood. wouldn’t it be effectively cheaper to leave stuff out? like make a goddamn plain box with knobs and pads and go home already. why do they devalue it more and more with every piece of junk they add to it?[/quote]
I recall reading an annual report Roland issued for investors prior to the AIRA launch which states that the AIRA line was predominantly geared towards a “younger demographic” and as such its aesthetics were influenced by that. I have yet to come across anyone who legitimately likes the aesthetic design of the AIRA line, they usually just tolerate it since they like what it does (myself included).
The design of the Boutique series looks promising though and I hope they apply that mindset to future products, it looks way classier.
Agreed. After learning OT recently and loving it but finding frustrations with its work flow/limitations/nuances I just want a polyphonic sampler/sequencer groove box with versatile functionality and killer fx. Hopefully roland have spent as much time on the work flow features as they have on the ACB modelling, which sounds like it might be pretty cool but it’s not going to make up for a lack of bread and butter + innovative sequencing/sampling features. And yeah, please dont continue the shitty neon tefal black plastic aesthetic…
Maybe most companies make the mistake to assume people want
super advanced “can-do-all” hardware samplers. if you read all the
comments, then it should be clear: they don’t.
there would be a good chance for a compromise featurewise. and maybe
it would even be an idea to give the box 2 or 3 alternative main operating modes instead of letting all possiblities share the same knobs. so things
could be made even simpler…
