Funniest Reviews from the SonicState Archives: Roland S-10

The Golden Era of classic hardware samplers lasted from approximately 1984 to 1992. The beginning of this timeline gave us "character" instruments like the EMU Emulator II, Ensoniq Mirage & Korg DSS1 - instruments of limited memory (sub-512 kB!) but with fantastic 8 or 12-bit crunchy/gritty sounds and often, other treats like on-board analogue filters. By '92 we'd moved onto the pristine 16-bit sounds of samplers like the Akai S3000, Ensoniq EPS16+ or Kurzweil K2000; instruments with far more RAM (you might even get an entire song done!) plus, often bursting with interesting sound-design features - Built-in Effects, Timestretch, "Transwave Synthesis" or, perhaps even the depths of the K2000's V.A.S.T. engine!

There's a voracious used-market for these pioneering instruments - 8, 12 or 16-bit; and that means often, even the lesser or budget instruments are finding an appreciative audience of nostalgia seekers. Having recently ordered such an instrument - a bargain Roland S-10, I thought I'd explore the baby Roland's social history, referencing both modern and vintage points of view!

Cutting Corners

Before diving into the S-10 - let's briefly look at the bigger sibling, the S-50. In 1986, the S50 offered pretty decent value! At £2,195 - it was slightly cheaper than Korg's DSS1 and featured more than double the memory! Of Course, the small-brained 256kB DSS1 offered amazing, true resonant analogue filters (the S-50 had non-realtime digital ones!), basic additive synthesis, hard sync (on samples!), EQ, bit-reduction (down to 6-bit), stereo modulated delay and  variable sample rates up to 12-bit 48Khz - coming off as a sampler/super-synth hybrid.

The 15/30Khz, 756kB S-50 seems instead focussed on, well - sampling! Sure, in terms of extras, there's a nifty DT-100 Digitizer Tablet and CRT support, but the S-50 is a workhorse for finishing tracks, not a transcendental sound design journeyman. Like the DSS1, the S-50 featured a 3.5" floppy disk drive for storing your creations.

The S10 retailed at £999 - less than half the price of it's big brother. What got cut? Well, the cool CRT/tablet options are gone for one thing, 12 keys have been shaved off, the memory truncated (256 kB now), multisamples per patch downgraded (4 instead of 16) and crucially, the expensive 3.5" floppy disk drive is gone. By the way, that 15/30Khz 12-bit quality is retained! Cool!

Disk Pic

So, how does the S-10 user store their banging 12-bit hoover samples? By saving them to disk - a 2.8" Mitsumi Quick Disk! Utilised in several mid-range home computers (ZX Spectrum +3, Amstrad CPC 664/6128), these smaller disks and their drives were staggeringly cheaper than the 3.5" alternative.

Although smaller in storage, at just 128kB per side, this amount actually makes sense for the S-10, where you'll only ever be loading 256kB at maximum. The format also requires no shutter mechanism (be careful!), and the data is written to the disk in a continuous spiral that takes approximately 8-seconds to read. The lack of random access means that the drives are mechanically far simpler to manufacture.

For comparison's sake, when converted from JPY - an external 2.8" Quick Disk Drive with expansion connector for the MSX1 (I looked at brands like Logitech & Philips) cost around £160 in 1980's money. A 3.5 Floppy drive for the same machine (often 360KB) cost around £400! Now, these are external models but, even factoring in the reduced cost of wholesale internal drives, I'm certain that changing to a 2.8" Quick Disk was an essential part of hitting that £999 S-10 retail price.

Though a canny business move, the drive will remain a sticking point - but first, let's appraise the good reviews.

The Good

Reading through our archived Sonicstate reviews (a timespan of 1998-2010) I realised that sure, while it has no real-time filtering or effects - many folks seemed to genuinely enjoy the slightly dark, slightly grainy sounds of the S-10:

"Bought the S-10 brand newk out of the box & been dedicated ever since. I sample thru an old Symetrix voice processor, like a digital frontend & output it as well. I defy anyone pro or otherwise to tell me that it doesn't sound incredible! Even by today's standards!!!"

I also stumbled across what seems to be the most hardcore Quick Disk enthusiast in the known world:

"I have two S-10, two S-220 and one MKS-100, I love them all. I also have around 400 quickdiscs. All the drives are working just fine. I also own akai S-612 + S-700. QD-bonanza!!! Very good library. the VP-330 samples are to die for."

In addition to the appraisal of this characterful 12-bit sound; there were many positive comments about how easy to use this this basic, paired-back sampler is. We're also presented with clues about how folks are using the S-10 in turn-of-millenium studios.

"I think if you can pick one up cheap, and you need a sampler, go for it! I bought mine from a pawn shop for $125.00 (yes, i did). it makes the perfect addition to my Roland TR-909 allowing (me) to create wondefully hard, fast and fun gabber as well as looping drum sounds for some great drum and bass. This sucker is easy to use and of course there are some drawbacks. The small quick disks are no longer made by Roland. Maxell is giving me the runaround on where to get them, although smith corona used them for a word processor (think office supplies!) I don't know what else I could say except in my monophonic two track world (that's all I ever needed) it works great. I'm not looking for an e-mu or a fairlight!"

"You just turn on the S-10 and you're set. Sampling's a sheer breeze and you can use your samples IMMEDIATELY after recording. Editing's pretty good for a sampler this cheap. The sound quality is pretty darn good if you're willing to EQ it a leetle bit. Bottom line: I prefer the S-10 to the S-50/550 snyday."

"Yeah the s10 is still cool to play with now, cause its easy for small samples and its really easy to use!!!! I've had mine for about 10 years and its still in my studio!!! GO ON THE OLD DOG!! STILL DOES THE BUSINESS 4 ME!!"

GO ON THE OLD DOG! There's certainly an argument to be made that the S-10 makes sampling fun, but saving your work? That might be an issue unless you are good with rubber drive belts and find a NOS stash of rare 2.8" Quick Disks!

This fairly compelling all-caps review shows that when that drive goes - you were kind of stuck; I say "were" because nowadays we have other options. Back in the day though...

"THE DISK DRIVE PACKED UP RECENTLY, YOU CAN'T GET SPARES FOR THE CRAPPY QUICK DISK DRIVE. I OPENED THE UNIT AND I SEE THE DRIVE IS A MITSUMI. ONLY PROBLEM I'VE GOT IS THAT I'VE GOT QUITE A LOT OF SAMPLES ON DISK, WHICH I HAVE NOT DUMPED ONTO MY PC YET. LETS BE FRANK IT IS A "START" TO SAMPLING, AND IF YOU CAN'T AFFORD THE PRICE OF AN AKAI S1000 OR ROLAND S750 WHAT ELSE CAN YOU GET FOR THE SAME PRICE. I DON'T KNOW ABOUT YOU, BUT YES, THE SOUND QUALITY IS CRAP BUT I LOVE IT."

From here tensions only got more strained:

"Do not, and i repeat, very loudly, DO NOT get one of these. If someone gives you one, SELL IT immediately, if not sooner. This sampler is such an irritatingly horrible piece of underpowered miserable garbage that it's a waste of the silicon used to make it and it's hardly even a poor man's excuse for a sampler."

That guy thought it was garbage. This guy is talking about deploying "his forces" whilst making a "rue the day" kind of martyr's speech:

"I had an S-10 and I've experience to talk: IT WAS THE WORST EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE. The disk never worked well, the sampler unity was stupid, the keyboard too small and the drive broke - my keyboard was sent to repair five years ago and now they can't find the pieces to get it working. I HATE THIS KEYBOARD WITH ALL MY FORCES AND SINCE THAT DAY I START HATING EVERYTHING ABOUT ROLAND."

Strong words! Finally, in what has become a recurring theme, those Quick Disks are definitely a barrier to productivity on the S-10:

"Totally worthless piece of shit that isn`t even any use as a master controller as it only had 49 keys. As a sampler, shitty Quick Disks - Bog-all RAM and a distinct lack of decent filtering kill it. It was shit when it was new, so it ain`t gonna get any better now. If you want a very cheap, grungy 12bit sampler buy an S900, S950, DSS1, Prophet 2000 or even an S612 - if you have Quick Disks kicking around, rather than this sad joke (or it`s rackmount brother MKS100). Wanna Roland? Start at the S50 or S550."

A Modern Appraisal

You know, I empathise with the floppy-induced rage of these writers! I imagine if you just wanted to get some work done, then the flaky media and limited sample capacity will work against you. Solutions? Well, you could tinker around with a replacement drive belt, or perhaps utilise a software solution. Around 2005, we got Roland S-10 Manager for Windows - allowing send & receive for S-10 parameters & samples.

In 2019, the Gotek floppy emulator added Quick Disk support - and vendors like cpmagneticmedia now sell pre-configured solutions. Replacing those elusive disks with a stable USB solution surely goes some way to redeeming the instrument?

There are, of course, other disadvantages - the arpeggiator won't sync to MIDI (only an external audio click), My final point is on of price. Think back to the review you read moments ago: "If you want a very cheap, grungy 12bit sampler buy an S900, S950, DSS1, Prophet 2000 or even an S612." Truth is, all of those samplers are 100s of ££££s now. I paid under £100 for my S10, a common price (ignore the jokers on eBay!) making it the most accessible vintage 12-bit sampler on the market. If you'd like to learn more and hear it in action, Jürgen Moßgraber just released a very informative video:

What about a consensus on the S-10? Well, this reviewer from '99 stated:

"Its a hunk of shit. But thats a good thing."

See you next time for another dive into the SonicState Archives!

Roland Social

• Roland Boutique JUPITER-08 More Voices and Control 20-Oct-26
• N/VISION - Roland's First Wavetable Hardware Synth 20-Oct-26
• Roland's MV-30 Emulated & Running in MAME 16-Oct-26
• Roland Updates TD-07 Series V-Drums 15-Oct-26
• Roland Updates ZENOLOGY GX for iPad 30-Sep-26