| Synth Name: | W-30 |
| Synth Manufacturer: | Roland Corporation |
| Dates: | 1989–1994 |
| Price: | £1599 GBP[1] |
| Polyphony: | 16 voice |
| Timbrality: | 8[2] |
| Lfo: | Yes (sine peak-hold (with offset)) |
| Synthesis Type: | Samples |
| Filter: | TVF |
| Attenuator: | ADSR |
| Aftertouch: | Yes |
| Velocity: | Yes |
| Memory: | 15k steps, 20 songs disk: 100k steps, 64 songs |
| Fx: | No |
| Keyboard: | 61 keys |
| Left Control: | Combined Pitch bend and modulation switch |
| Ext Control: | MIDI In, out, thru |
The Roland W-30 is a sampling workstation keyboard, released in 1989. It features an on-board 12-bit sampler, sample-based synthesizer, 16-track sequencer and 61-note keyboard.
The W-30's "Workstation" title stems from its incorporation of synthesis, sampling and MIDI sequencing capabilities. Although primitive by modern standards, the W-30's onboard sequencer was a practical way to arrange music as opposed to a DAW.
Unusually, while sounds are sampled with 12-bit resolution, they are played back through a 16-bit D-A converter[3] which, in theory at least, improves the sound quality. Nonetheless, the slightly "gritty" nature of the samples could be considered one of the instrument's charms.
The W-30 is compatible with the sound library of the Roland S-50, S330 & S550 dedicated samplers, which are now in the public domain.
The workstation's back panel features a blanking-plate labelled SCSI. This allowed the very rare "KW30 SCSI kit" upgrade to be fitted.The KW30 gave the W-30 the ability to behave as a SCSI Master device, and drive SCSI hard drives and CD-ROM players through a standard 25-pin SCSI cable.Copying samples to a SCSI hard drive (maximum usable capacity: 80Mb) dramatically reduces load time compared to the built-in 3.5" floppy disk drive.[4]