When will ROLAND release their next Workstation ?

[muziksculp]

Hello,

Will the next generation ROLAND workstation after the Fantom G be released soon ? This year ? or early 2012 ?

Since (Unfortunately) this has not materialized during the last announcement of new products by ROLAND (I was hoping it will) Oh well..... I hope it is not too far in the future.

If they implement some of the sound generation technology in the Jupiter 80, plus, some additional new innovations, into their new Workstation. I will be very interested in adding it to my current setup. It would be nice to hear directly from ROLAND, but that's not going to happen.

So.. What are your thoughts, and predictions regarding the next Gen-ROLAND workstation ? Maybe the upcoming AES show, or Winter NAMM ? or .... ?

[Quinnx.]

Its a dead subject for roland...
they missed the boat with the G and showed that they are not willing to move forward to the 21st century.
Especially when it comes to the file system.

The G is the best you can hope for
And to be honest once you get your head around it, its actually quite brilliant!
What makes a synth a workstation is the sequencer..
The Gs Sequencer and RPS is what makes the G Work but don't rely on using it exclusively.
Go with a computer DAW this turns the G into a completely different beast! and it really works!

The JP is rolands new plan for the future even this is not a big leap.
Either get the G and add PC DAW or just go get some other synth and add pc DAW, that's all there is to it.

No more waiting around

Now go make some music.

[muziksculp]

You might be right, you also might be wrong ! Only time will tell.

I sure hope they will introduce their new workstation in the near future .

[G-Man]

I don't see what's the deal with the Fantom G's sequencer for so many people. It's very similar to the one of the Fantom X, with a few functions missing, due to the new concept of phrases. The "Time fit" and "Exchange" functions were really not a big deal and can be very easily replaced with a very easy workaround on the G, while "Extract" can be replaced easily by duplicating the phrase, copying the important midi channel at the end of the phrase and deleting the multi-channel measures. I don't think that the Fantom X sequencer was so blamed as the one of the Fantom G and this is in no way an excuse about not having good results with the G.

[Diametro]

if Roland is going to release a workstation version of Jupiter-80 sound engine it's going to have to wait until sales cool ... (Or there's going to be a lot of Jupiter-80 owners bitching about how there's a new, "better" Jupiter available for about the same price ... )

Otherwise, this new workstation is going to have to cost roughly $5,000 since it would need to be positioned above Jupiter-80 if it's going to be adding a bunch of functionality ... and a "real" workstation needs more than four parts so it may require much more DSP ...

Unless of course, the next workstation is a severely cut-down version of Jupiter-80 sound engine ...

Maybe the workstation is dead, though ... How and when Roland responds will do much to answer this question ...

But my guess is we won't be seeing a workstation version for quite some time ... (Something at NAMM 2012 would be a major surprise imo ... )

[muziksculp]

imho, ROLAND has their wires crossed !

They are badly in need of introducing a new workstation to compete with the other two major workstations on the market (Motif XF and Kronos), before releasing some fancy, bulky, ugly, expensive, and badly named performance based keyboard synth.

I'm guessing that they are not stupid to ignore the workstation market, but their timing, and marketing strategy is simply bad.

Hoping to see a new ROLAND workstation soon. I have a feeling that the Jupiter 80 will be a big -flop for ROLAND. sooner or later they will stop producing it.

[markWar]

>Hoping to see a new ROLAND workstation soon. I have a feeling that the Jupiter 80 will be a...

In this economy, the Jupiter-80 seems a bit expensive. However I love what I've seen and heard of it, especially the Adrien Scott Aussie demo someone linked to. I wish it the best, but I don't know anyone who can afford it.

I'm a Yamaha user now, but I was hoping Roland would release a workstation very focused and built around the Gaia. Something simple and to the point, classic synthesis, but with a sequencer and recorder and maybe even the ability to take samples and run them through the signal path. Not a "do everything" machine, just an elaboration of the Gaia, well, a "do everything" but along the focused Gaia paradigm--create classic synthesis, sequence and record it all in one place.

It might still happen.

[Quinnx.]

They are badly in need of introducing a new workstation

Why?
whos gonna buy it?

Not the current G owners unless their all realy stupid! to support rolands cash cow AGAIN??
Not X owners because they already have what they need

And personally i don't think roland can any longer stomach having to deal with more inconsistencies in their sequencing and file system implementations.
Roland has burned their fingers here
Game Over!

[Diametro]

imho, ROLAND has their wires crossed !

They are badly in need of introducing a new workstation to compete with the other two major workstations on the market (Motif XF and Kronos), before releasing some fancy, bulky, ugly, expensive, and badly named performance based keyboard synth.

I'm guessing that they are not stupid to ignore the workstation market, but their timing, and marketing strategy is simply bad.

Hoping to see a new ROLAND workstation soon. I have a feeling that the Jupiter 80 will be a big -flop for ROLAND. sooner or later they will stop producing it.

You're wrong ... If Roland is in fact getting a workstation together, I think they're doing it THE RIGHT WAY this time ... Getting it together one piece at a time ... (unlike Fantom-G where they tried too much at once with too little effort ... )

What's the most important part of a workstation? Of course, it's still the sound ... And that's what Roland is doing with Jupiter-80, getting a high-quality sound engine and perfornance UI together in an instrument that gigging musicians might appreciate ... They're the ones with the cash right now, and it makes sense to go after that market ...

[Parsifal]

Maybe Roland's next workstation will be a hardware sequencer / control surface. The way I see it, it will comprise 2 distinct blocks : the screen unit and the control unit.
The screen unit should have a multi-touch surface of at least FG dimensions. Think of it as of Roland proprietary iPad. Bigger, a bit heavier (not a problem for gigging musicians already carrying keyboards and sound modules), extremely reliable, well-built and bug-free. Compatible with Cakewalk products (Sonar and other). The screen unit is the brain block of the workstation concept. (Pls buy the Orb from Spectrasonics)
The control unit should contain knobs, sliders, switches and other dedicated controls (pads?). No screen whatsoever. The control unit is the manual block of the workstation concept.
Each unit can work independently. Each unit is capable of controlling any Roland product currently on the market. Assembling all the pieces as a whole (screen unit + control unit + any Roland keyboard and required cables) creates - voila! - the new Roland workstation :)

[special-k]

Could be soon, could be never. Roland is doing a fire sale on the ARX boards, may they and their technology rest in peace. That and the lack of any update to the firmware of the G tells you all you need to know about how much longer they intend to support the G, which is a crime IMHO. It would be awesome for them to partner with Apple or another tablet manufacturer to make a revolutionary workstation product with a detachable screen. It would be nice to think that they are so busy designing the next workstation that they don't have time to update the G. However, I am betting in this economy that they have taken the conservative approach and haven't done much yet on the next gen, waiting to see how the Kronos does. The X was the last workstation they actually supported properly. If I were a betting man, I'd think that 2013 would be the soonest and it will probably be playing catch up rather than be something everyone has to have...

[kenchan]

Maybe Roland's next workstation will be a hardware sequencer / control surface. The way I see it, it will comprise 2 distinct blocks : the screen unit and the control unit.

yep, i too think a workstation of tomorrow needs to be basically a ready to run daw with touchpanel display and nice keybed+control surface. 8G RAM and 150GB of SSD minimum.

[Devnor]

The workstation is dead.

[kenchan]

The workstation is dead.

i honestly think this is true as well.

hardware based will be more for digital piano's/stage piano's/jupitor type performance synths. everything else is controller + daw.

[markWar]

>The workstation is dead

After I did my post saying I'd like a workstation sort of like the Gaia with a sequencer/recorder, I thought, well, heck, a Gaia and its software editor cost about $700. A low-end PC and Cakewalk Producer probably cost about $1,000. That's STILL less than two grand [!] and it is a "work area" that can get a lot of music done! It's not a one-piece board, but if a person is--for instance--doing music/sound design for web sites, that's a capable little setup.

I don't know if workstations are dead or not. But things like Arturia Lab or a setup like I describe here certainly present a challenge to Kronos-like arrangements. No one--I guess--wants to take a computer on stage in a performance situation. But the NEXT generation of musicians might love PCs or tablets so much that they WANT to take them on stage.