S-50 Digital Sampling Keyboard

Back in 1986, this digital sampling keyboard brought Fairlight-style visual editing to a more accessible price point, letting you hook up a CRT monitor and digitizer tablet to literally draw and tweak waveforms on screen.

It's a 12-bit mono sampler with 16-voice polyphony and four-part multitimbrality, offering up to 32 tones and 8 patches stored in 756KB of RAM for 28.8 seconds of samples at 15kHz or 14.4 seconds at 30kHz. The 61-key keyboard delivers velocity sensitivity plus rare polyphonic aftertouch for expressive play, paired with an alpha dial for intuitive editing of loops, multi-stage envelopes, and digital filters. A built-in 3.5-inch floppy drive handles sample libraries and saves, while MIDI in/out/thru and optional sequencer software round out the studio-ready setup in its compact 1105 x 328 x 93mm frame weighing just 13kg.

Players still dig its lo-fi charm for gritty textures and hands-on sampling workflow, though the limited memory and bit depth mean it's more character piece than modern workhorse—perfect if you love vintage Roland vibe without the Fairlight bank account hit.