Back in 1973, this was Roland's very first synthesizer, a compact game-changer that brought authentic analog tones to home organs and everyday musicians in Japan when big modular rigs dominated the scene.
At its heart sits a single analog oscillator blending square, ramp, and pulse-width waveforms, plus additive mixing via five sliders for footages from 32' to 2', letting you stack harmonics for unusually fat, warm sounds. A lowpass filter with cutoff and resonance pairs with a versatile ADSR envelope that modulates both filter and volume, while two LFOs—one for vibrato, one for tremolo—offer sine, square, and sample-and-hold shapes. You'll find white/pink noise, growl and waw effects for gritty textures, portamento, octave transpose, and those iconic colored preset tabs below the 37-note F-scale keyboard, unlocking 10 factory sounds or full manual tweaking on the left-side sliders. Topped with a wooden music stand, built-in speaker, and hefty 26.5-pound wooden build, it feels solid and ready to play anywhere.
Players still chase its raw, expressive mono leads, basses, and FX decades later, praising the intuitive hands-on design and addictive growl—though some note the presets feel basic next to modern patches.
