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 dramatically reduces load time compared to the built-in 3.5" floppy disk drive.
Notable users
Eric 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 Roland 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 1990-1994, mostly for the albumDoble 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.
Heroiuki Iwatsugi Used the w30 to write the music for the snes game Wild Guns.
Luis Alberto Spinetta's 1991 albumPelusón of Milk was produced mostly on his W-30 at home, while "waiting for Vera", his daughter, to be born
