We know there are Things Happening at Roland since the company underwent a CEO change and a management resturcturing. The introduction of the AIRA range being a firm statement to create more instruments drawing on the amazing legacy that Roland have from their history of synthesizers.

With NAMM approaching, looks like there is more to come too - this image posted by Daisuke Asakura on his Facebook wall on New Years Eve, seems to indicate that there's a new JX-Xi instrument.

Even though its got the JD-Xi moniker, there is more than some passing resemblence to the AIRA livery, which presumably might mean it shares some of the DSP technology of the other members of the current Roland familly, though it does also appear to have mini-keys, which may be a turn off for some.

But in my imagination this is going to be an analog modelled polysynth - with some extra sauce from some of the Roland back catalogue that you can load into the expanded DSP. Now I must be straight - I absolutely do not know anything more than this image...

But lets not let that stop us from getting over excited and passing judgement before we see it!

Roland Social

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