Circuit Overview:
Roland's first polyphonic. I was surprised to see that this uses the standard comparator ADC circuit! They did a nice job making it sound smooth..and maybe it was just an experiment to see if they could make the technology work reliably! Because since it after all doesn't even recognize slider movements while it's not in 'manual' mode....I see no point in it. They could have just put in switching between slider voltage and DAC playbacks to S+H cells but...they didn't. It's really quite similar to most of the other synths with memory except they didn't go so far as to make it so it has a patch buffer so that you can change an aspect of a stored sound. Bummer. ...or is it? Maybe somehow it sounds better because of that limitation. I doubt it but think rather it's probably just the way the signal paths were set up and fiter selections/locations along the way. The envelopes on this machine are actually pulsed capacitors it appears. Again they did a good job making it smooth sounding. Love this machine's arpeggiator in particular also. I fished for one quite a while before finally grabbing one at around $210. One of the synths you'd have a hard time prying out of my cold dead hands :-).
Service Tips:
Other than cleaning issues haven't seen much wrong with mine. :-) Anyone?
Parts:
Roland still stocks many parts for older instruments! You can always order them through your local Service Center and see what happens! Otherwise I have some parts also so don't hesitate to ask.
Contact Sound Doctorin'