Roland W-30
Introduction 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.
Overview 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 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.
Expansion 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.
Notable users * Erick Sermon * Liam Howlett of The Prodigy used the W-30 as his main songwriting device until 1997's ''The Fat of the Land'' and on-stage as a master keyboard up until 2008 *Steve Hillier of Dubstar programmed the entirety of the band's first album ''Disgraceful'' on a W-30.It was retired for the band's first European tour in 1996* Andrés Bobe of La Ley programmed the keyboards and sequences from 1990 to 1994, mostly for the album ''Doble Opuesto''  * DJ Paul of Three 6 Mafia created the gritty, 90s proto-trap sound by re-sampling the groups' hooks to be used across many of their releases. DJ Paul still uses the W-30 to this day. * Hiroyuki Iwatsuki used the W-30 to write the music for the SNES game Wild Guns. * Luis Alberto Spinetta's 1991 album ''Pelusón of Milk'' was produced mostly on his W-30 at home, while "waiting for Vera", his daughter, to be born* Project Pitchfork used it on the albums ''Dhyani'', ''Lam-'Bras'', ''Entities'', ''Io'', ''Alpha Omega''.
References
External links * '''W-30 / S-50 / S-550 Homepage''' - ''Samples, DIY's and Reference Materials'' - A Website Dedicated To The Original Roland Samplers - http://llamamusic.com/s50s550/s-50_s-550.html