Hello Espen! I have a W-30 since 1993. Was gift of my father. At time he bought this unit for him and told me: Learn how to use this... I was with 16 years old and was my first contact with Roland, samples, sequencers, English language, I´m in Brazil. I remember how fascinated I was with the sound of this equipament. After a time and seeing my enthusiasm with W-30 my father told me: take this keyboard for you! I still use in these days with my old Alesis Quadraverb GT, that is for guitar, but works perfectly for effects with W-30. The W-30 is my main controller in 2020! Is so beautiful see how you "talk" with these machines with extreme respect! Thank you for your excelent videos!
This was my dream machine back in 1993, back then I had no hope of owning one! I liked the idea of everything "in the box", even if it was a box with a keyboard hanging off it! I love the crunchy 12 bit Roland samplers. I remember a keyboard player back then predicting that in the future, people would want these old machines because of their faults and coloration or "character". He certainly got that right, wish I could remember who it was!
I was born in 81. Espen, I'm pretty sure you and Enders have 75% of all the synths, drum machines, and samplers that I heard in pop hits of the 80's and early 90's. That's pretty rad-tastic gentleman.
I remember seeing this for the first time in 1992, and in the sound design department of a theatre. It was their prized possession, and they did amazing work with it. Can remember how expensive it was too! Was treated like a bomb any time it had to be moved.
In 1992 I bought a second hand W30 from Bristol. The demo songs blew me away. I have a zip drive and now getting a SCSI HD which it can boot from. Has given me many years of pleasure. One day, maybe I will sell it, but for the time being it will be cherished and used on Mairk's albums.
I have one since 1995 with SCSI and now with SCSI2SD memory (so cool and quick, loading a 'diskette' in ~15 seconds). Incredible sounds and capabilities even today. A strong and robust machine like a dinosaur!
Damn... really takes me back... I can still remember the smell after opening the box! I used to do a lot with this and my minimal set up (JX8P, Proteus, Seck24:2 and Midiverb) Still have the cassettes. Was great to have 8 outputs. I could imagine this and a USB drive with the Roland library/CDRom could still be a nice thing to have.
Ah yes. The W30! My first personal "Fairlight". Totally underrated! It basically combined the best of Rolands S-series with the MRC 500 sequencer, which is probably the best hardware sequencer ever. The user interface and manual where very cryptic but in the end I got my head around it anyway. At least they still made real user maunuals then. Buy yourself a so called DAW today and you only get a list of features and not even a propper answer from the help desk. Anyway: I am not often particulalry wowed by Roland equipment on an emotional level but when you want something that is stable and dependable they are always a sure bet. I for instance still record all my projects on a VS 2480 hardware digital audio workstation. Really the best of both worlds.
I serious don't like this machine . Everytime you need the operating system reloading functions , the lfo settings are not on one page lfo to filter for example . I think i gonna kick the w30 out .
@@uvoikimovundutrauerblume3302 The operating system is indeed cryptic, though one gets used to it, and the contant switching of disks is a pain in the ass. One however has to look at it for what it was at that moment in time. Of course it has been surpassed many times but it can still be used in anger if one is dedicated enough.
The second synth I bought back in the days. Absolutely wonderful and agile sampler and such an easy workstation to work around with. Kind of miss it but lovely to see your introduction to it. It's kind of getting forgotten these days.
It's not like I zero interest, I'm intrigued to a certain degree by any hardware sampler but I guess I wouldn't've guessed the W-30 was capable of the sweetness that you reap from it in this video! I probably wouldn't like a video on the W-30 by almost anyone else....
I had this one for a long time and god i could never ever get a beat out of this that I liked. I love the Ensoniq EPS and 16+ ...I will say the W30 sounds amazing particularly on bass and strings type sounds.
Well if you had both the LAPC-I and CM-32L (or was is P?) you pretty much had double the pleasure for MS-DOS gaming. Would say that's not so bad after all. :D
This is an iconic piece of equipment, i can hear sounds from Dead or alive and 808 state , and a sound that reminds me of an old Amiga game called KGB. Another top video, and tutorial. The 80s was reinvented in the 90s. And now in 2020 with Espen🕹👍
Great video Espen. Some excellent recording tips also. I used to lust after the W-30 so badly when I was a teenager. It looked amazing with its two dials and huge screen. 👍👍
Nice ULTIMATE stand. Around 1989-90 my band used to use a razor blade to cut off pieces of the sticker and re-arrange the letters to say "MUTILATE". Memories.
Ah, this one has the SCSI interface. Mine hasn't. Remember that ROM-drive with the one disk with all the samples on it? Such a complete system must have made the guys at Fairlight and Synclavier break out in a sweat. It was still quite expensive for us mere mortals but when compared to the prices of such brands it was a total steal. Talking about the uncoming equipment democracy!
Why is it that when I hear that I just want to get up from bed and do some sessions in studio...really beautiful chords and that reverb sits just perfect.
Just walked in the door with one! Prepping to paint a house and saw one sitting gathering dust. Asked about it and, "You can have it" came the answer. 11m30s in the video...I meant to ask, italian horror movie fan are we? :)
Still have my second W-30 (sold the first one because I was moving :`-( ), I love to sample into it then record the output for use with my other sampling and sample playback gear and plugins. It just has that iconic sound- not as distinctive as a Mirage- but still a ton more character than recording direct to a DAW. Makes my MPC-1000 sound so much more 80's and I wouldn't put a sample into my MC-101 or TR-8S without going through the W-30 first! (No apologies for the newer gear, btw! But never hating on the original 80's gear either! ;-D)
Another great video Espen! I really like how you went over the different functions in a pedagogical fashion and then put it all together at the end, alongside a good rundown of your mix! Good stuff! :)
Thanks for saying just that! I always try to lay my videos out in a more academic, pedagogical fashion. I leave the more extrovert presentation to other TH-camrs. ;-)
Awwww wow. I bought one of these in 89. I was into the rave scene back then so having the sampler was great for that genre of music making. Good times.
Loved that machine - treated myself to my first proper sampler/workstation when I qualified as a nurse. Was my main sequencer until I shifted to Cubase on the Atari ST. It’s a great sequencer when you get into it
All W-30s have the SCSI port, the ones without the SCSI chip installed on the circuit board usually have a metal cover over the SCSI socket, Roland did a KW-30 upgrade kit but you can buy the SCSI controller chip and install it yourself, you just then need to get the SCSI operating system
The chip you need is a Fujitsu MB89352AP, it's a SCSI controller chip, I bought my SCSI chip from eBay, there's quite a few on there so search around for a good deal, mine was imported form china from a guy who deals in old electronics and chips, was cheap, about £5. You'll also need V1.07 CDHD os to make it work, that's freely downloadable from the internet
Did not know this had built-in waves. I overlooked this in my local store, because it did not seem to have too many sounds(at a time), and I was distracted by the Korg T1 on display🤩.
I've always liked these old samplers by Roland, but now I love them. :) I just love the warmth you get when you go down to the lower notes. Other samplers just don't do that as good as these... Oh and can I just add, that Ensoniq DP/4+ sounds absolutely gorgeous... Especially with the big tones you can make with the W-30.
Always wanted a W30, didn't need one but prodigy used one a lot, and it was a great looking sampler. I ended up with an ensoniq eps16+ eventually, sold that and now have a Triton extreme 88 and a Triton Le for sampling duties. Floppy disks did my head in, I must have wasted 16 years of my life waiting for them to load over the years 😂 great times though. Great video thanks.
This board does not sound 12 bit...Roland had a far superior aliasing filter design during this time, superior to everybody in the 80's-90s. The W30 sounds magnificent like all of there samplers back then. It being 12 bit is a testament to how advanced they were during that time.
@@javiceres you can have two Samplers, sampling at the same big depth and the same sample rate, but during recreation of that sample, whichever unit has the better anti-aliasing filter will determine a lot to do with how clean or as you say, more accurate the reproduction will be.. roland had a far superior filter during this time.
@@javiceres the w30 was 12 bit and came out in 1989, the k series of Kurzweil was 16bit and came out in 1991, like I said during the time the W30 was out, it was a real heavy hitter. The competition for the K series at that time from Roland would have been the Roland S750/S770.
@@justinmerritt3843 Absolutely, the only 16-bit sampler available at that time was the Casio FZ-1. One must remember that much of the classic Emulator and Fairlight samples like the SYNVOX1 and Aaahh-choir used in countless presets and synths, were all 12 or even 8 bit.
Picked one up bout 6 months ago in perfect condition with a hard case for $100 from the Goodwill Outlet Store in San Diego near the Tijuana border. There is still some affordable vintage gear out there... The more you look, the luckier you get.
I still have mine have not played it in a year or two.I will have to dig it out of the garage.This was my first Keyboard funny enough.I did understand LFOs Filters VCA LFO.I was kinda lost trying to edit in all those screens.The most frustrating thing about you would be working on a sample for a couple of hours then. You get it perfectly looped.Then you would end up dumping the sound deleting it.very frustrating.I was very sadistic trying to learn this Workstation but I prevailed.I have to say the quality of the keyboard is amazing.Roland is an amazing company.I got mine in 1989-90 new.I used it until I got my Roland XP-50 Workstation in 1995.I used them together worked nice to record into my DA 30 Dat Recorder now I am definitely showing my age anyways is the a file converter for the W-30 to PC ? Thanks for taking me down memory lane.Just ask if you want me too copy any disks Thanks.
@@timweinheimer1 Hello veteran! As far as audio-out line of roland to audio in to pc, you need at least an audio card and you can use softwares like Cub@se, @bleton or other, simply to record sounds of W30. Its need to find out, or Espen knows better, if there is something about parallel port of synth, some cables that are parallel port to usb, to connect synth to pc digitally.
You must be clear if you want to TRANSFER samples to a computer or if you want to RECORD digitally. The Midi Sample Dump protocol can be used to transfer samples to a computer. It will take a long time though. If you want to record digitally out of the W-30 that can't be done. You record the output into any audio interface the usual way.
Thanks I never Upgraded to the SCSI cable.Is there a Patch Liabrian for S550 sound banks etc or is it a DOS Format. The Sequencer I know all about used it a a lots back in the Day.Now I use Cubase Pro
A good video about that thing. I just got 2 of these (one with the SCSI interface and one without, going to try my SCSI Zip drive with it possibly) just before the virus lockdown situation from a friend and haven't yet managed to get familiar with them. Just briefly tested them both at the friend's home, and they both work. Now they are at my studio where I haven't visited in couple of weeks... but this really makes me visit there and learn how to really use these W-30 samplers.
Great video! The effects make this instrument sound incredible! I've had my Roland W-30 since 1997. It's got it's flaws, but I love it! I don't have the "Watching the World" sounds. I built up a pretty huge library of sounds back in the day though. Before moving from my hometown, to go to College, I sampled all of the sounds from my childhood instruments. I still use them sometimes.
Another excellent video, great to look back on. I always remember there used to be one of these in my local night club in the dj booth back in 1990, I always used to stand there and drool over it, never mind the dancing lol. Keep up the great videos :-)
It's interesting how these old synths/samplers/workstations can produce amazing sounds, when you consider that a supercomputer from that era (such as the Cray-2) had 0.02% of the processing power of your typical mobile phone (iPhone 12). With the comparatively insane amount of processing power that can be had for next to nothing these days, it's easy to forget that a lot of very successful musicians used tools that were pretty primitive in today's eyes, yet easily topped the charts and filled the dance floors. My relationship with Roland is a bit ambiguous. The only Roland I've owned so far (a 110 volts JD-990) I sold to a friend of mine, who's going to sell it on now that he bought a Juno-X. I want some sort of Roland, and I will one day, but which one exactly I haven't decided yet. Probably one of the Zen-core instruments, to get access to those lovely 1980s Roland sounds. On a side note, one of our cats found this video fascinating, and left my desk pretty much the moment it finished.
Had one of these. My ensoniq eps classic was better in my opinion. Loop based sequencer, which was easier. Easier to chop. Easier to sample. BUT..... the sound of w30 had a nice character to it!
Thank You Espen always a pleasure to watch your vids. Really insightful how you pre-played the parts at the beginning, so when you moved to your DAW I definitly had a better understanding of your song construction. Very cool, look forward to the next one. Oh and if you can, try and catch that "Fantom" that Roland has, not the one in the window.
Seems like you changed the LCD. Do you by any chance have some mod instructions? I have some spare LCD's lying arround from modding my TG77. The interface controller chip should be compatible. Best regards and keep up the good work!
I didn't do this mod myself. The owner of it did. This is a plug and play display. Not many make those as it costs more, but to skip hassle of fitting controllers etc, it can be worth it.
If you hang tight, I'm changing the display on Espen's own W-30 and it'll be featured in one of his videos later this fall. The display has to be sent to Luxdisplays in the UK (unless you wanna solder everything yourself.. but neither Espen nor I wanna do that) so it takes a few months sending it there and back again. :)
I've used a W-30 for most of the last thirty years, initially using one owned by my brother and then buying my own when I left home. I only sold it a few months ago, having switched entirely to a Yamaha QX-3 for sequencing. I never used it as a sampler though, more as a controller keyboard and sequencer workstation. Rather regret not sampling with it now, having mostly used an old Akai for that kind of thing. I do have an S-330 in storage though, so perhaps it's time I dragged it out and used it - the same sampling facilities as the W-30 but with the option to use a monitor, remote control unit, mouse or tablet (I have all except the tablet for mine).
Yes, the W-30 is a S-330. I have a S-330 here with monitor, tablet and all. I'll have a video going in a while. ;-) Great little thing. I too use the QX3 as you know.
Do you have the sequencer software for the S-330? Very different to Roland's other sequencers of the time like the MC series and the related one in the W-30.
I'm not sure if I have it somewhere, but that you can find it online. I don't use that at all. Never have, Working it all through one piece of hardware is fun on a video, but sequencing I prefer to do on a dedicated piece of hardware doing only that. ;-)
@@EspenKraft It's been a quite a few years since I last used my S-330, but I seem to recall that you need a dongle to use the sequencer software. I guess there might be a cracked version online though.
After hearing this demo, Espen, I can hear this specific workstation being used to duplicate the accompaniment to “Only Time Will Tell” from *Asia.* It kind of strikes me as Roland answering the DSS-1, the Emax and the Prophet 3000
W30’s Sequencer is one of the best of that time i think, the big screen and 16 tracks was awesome. Give it a try. And by the way, nice baclight screen, any clue where can we find it? Thanks for another great video
@@EspenKraft Wow, I always wondered what they used on that. I love the LFO strings. I had the K4 back in the early 90s. My first real full size 61 key keyboard.
The Kawai K1 is in that ballpark in terms of sound. They used their additive synthesis tech to mix waveforms freely. I've had my fair share of wavetable synths myself, among them the Microwave I bought when it was new. If I was to play "Here I go again" live, which I don't , but IF, I'd use my D-50 to do so and I actually both show and play that riff (with my preset) in my D-50 video. That sound is more than close enough for any Whitesnake coverband so I keep it in my D-50 for fun.
Thanks J. :) Some factory, some are not, some sampled myself. A mix really. Yes, the DP/4 will definitely show up here soon. A real cult-classic effects unit.
I have a W-30 sitting next to me now. I don't know if it works or not. Picked it up at an estate sale along with a Korg Kross and Alesis QS6 for $500 for all 3. I just need a power cord and some floppies.
Dumps of the operating system floppy disks are available online. You'll need a PC with an old style floppy drive controller to copy the the dumped image to a disk though - the USB floppy drives available nowadays don't allow the low level access necessary to create the disks. The alternative is to fit a floppy disk emulator (Gotek or HxC 2001), although it's a bit of a nightmare getting to the floppy drive inside the W-30 to replace it with the emulator.
Hello Espen! I have a W-30 since 1993. Was gift of my father. At time he bought this unit for him and told me: Learn how to use this... I was with 16 years old and was my first contact with Roland, samples, sequencers, English language, I´m in Brazil. I remember how fascinated I was with the sound of this equipament. After a time and seeing my enthusiasm with W-30 my father told me: take this keyboard for you! I still use in these days with my old Alesis Quadraverb GT, that is for guitar, but works perfectly for effects with W-30. The W-30 is my main controller in 2020! Is so beautiful see how you "talk" with these machines with extreme respect! Thank you for your excelent videos!
Thanks you for saying and thanks for sharing your story! :)
Wonderful story! :)
where is your father now?
@@jessihawkins9116 , unfortunately he passed away in August of 1999, but your love for music, and music gear still live in me.
“Let’s check out the strings and pads.” Plays Terminator.
jocamiah, nailed it too. Love this channel.
When I as a proud W-30 owner attended an OMD concert in 1993, I was very exited to see the W-30 on stage. Good old times... 😉
I have been purchasing Espen's music from BandCamp for a while, and then I stumble upon this video and learn his secrets to that '80s sound of his.
This was my dream machine back in 1993, back then I had no hope of owning one! I liked the idea of everything "in the box", even if it was a box with a keyboard hanging off it!
I love the crunchy 12 bit Roland samplers.
I remember a keyboard player back then predicting that in the future, people would want these old machines because of their faults and coloration or "character". He certainly got that right, wish I could remember who it was!
Yes, it was the start of the keyboard workstation-era. The W30 could use a DEP5 or 3 at the end though...
I got mine for $100 shipped on eBay
I made my first record in 1996 with a friend and two W 30 full of samples, great memories
I was born in 81. Espen, I'm pretty sure you and Enders have 75% of all the synths, drum machines, and samplers that I heard in pop hits of the 80's and early 90's. That's pretty rad-tastic gentleman.
Could be 95%? I'm sure Espen has gear hidden away somewhere!
@@lundsweden We've only seen one room and i bet he has keyboard bed 👀
I remember seeing this for the first time in 1992, and in the sound design department of a theatre. It was their prized possession, and they did amazing work with it. Can remember how expensive it was too! Was treated like a bomb any time it had to be moved.
Had a band here in L.A. back in the 90’s, used my W30 for songs by Apotheosis, T99, KLF...good times. Still have it and the disk drive still works!
In 1992 I bought a second hand W30 from Bristol. The demo songs blew me away. I have a zip drive and now getting a SCSI HD which it can boot from. Has given me many years of pleasure. One day, maybe I will sell it, but for the time being it will be cherished and used on Mairk's albums.
I have one since 1995 with SCSI and now with SCSI2SD memory (so cool and quick, loading a 'diskette' in ~15 seconds). Incredible sounds and capabilities even today. A strong and robust machine like a dinosaur!
Loved the nod to Terminator
Love it!! I've made two albums using W-30's sequenser (and 90% of all sounds) in 1991-1993 )))
Wow
OK
Where are the albums?
This is my song... for you! (W30 famous demo)
T E R M I N A T O R
A-plus rendition on that one!!
Thanks, happy you think so! :)
Arnie kicks the door in and shouts"Copyright!" :D
Damn... really takes me back... I can still remember the smell after opening the box! I used to do a lot with this and my minimal set up (JX8P, Proteus, Seck24:2 and Midiverb) Still have the cassettes. Was great to have 8 outputs. I could imagine this and a USB drive with the Roland library/CDRom could still be a nice thing to have.
Ah yes. The W30! My first personal "Fairlight". Totally underrated! It basically combined the best of Rolands S-series with the MRC 500 sequencer, which is probably the best hardware sequencer ever. The user interface and manual where very cryptic but in the end I got my head around it anyway. At least they still made real user maunuals then. Buy yourself a so called DAW today and you only get a list of features and not even a propper answer from the help desk. Anyway: I am not often particulalry wowed by Roland equipment on an emotional level but when you want something that is stable and dependable they are always a sure bet. I for instance still record all my projects on a VS 2480 hardware digital audio workstation. Really the best of both worlds.
I serious don't like this machine . Everytime you need the operating system reloading functions , the lfo settings are not on one page lfo to filter for example . I think i gonna kick the w30 out .
@@uvoikimovundutrauerblume3302 The operating system is indeed cryptic, though one gets used to it, and the contant switching of disks is a pain in the ass. One however has to look at it for what it was at that moment in time. Of course it has been surpassed many times but it can still be used in anger if one is dedicated enough.
I still have my w30, with it I produced my first album.Thanks for the video!!
Sweet! Thanks!
The second synth I bought back in the days. Absolutely wonderful and agile sampler and such an easy workstation to work around with. Kind of miss it but lovely to see your introduction to it. It's kind of getting forgotten these days.
One the best reviews on this beautiful machine
Thanks!
This sampler deserves a come back.
It's not like I zero interest, I'm intrigued to a certain degree by any hardware sampler but I guess I wouldn't've guessed the W-30 was capable of the sweetness that you reap from it in this video! I probably wouldn't like a video on the W-30 by almost anyone else....
Mind blowing. A new Depeche Mode member!
Cheers! :D
Just excellent work as always Espen! Massive PSB fan here, can listen to your stuff all day :)
Sweet David. Thanks! :)
I had this one for a long time and god i could never ever get a beat out of this that I liked. I love the Ensoniq EPS and 16+ ...I will say the W30 sounds amazing particularly on bass and strings type sounds.
Yeah EPS16 had superior spec tho admittedly no multi outs except as an option
I wanted this sampler so badly. All I could afford was a Roland CM32 with the LAPC1 interface.
Well if you had both the LAPC-I and CM-32L (or was is P?) you pretty much had double the pleasure for MS-DOS gaming. Would say that's not so bad after all. :D
Still sounds beautiful...oh those pads! Thanks Espen, you ARE the 80s.
I try to be. Thanks! :)
Yes but where some try and fail, boy you succeed. @@EspenKraft, is the Essential Eighties.
I love the interpolations sampling method I didn’t realise the Roland S-series does , thanks for sharing your vast knowledge of sampling and samplers
I had a W30 great synth 30Khz (7.2s)X2 .
thanks for your video .
You have become one of my new favorite channels! Great stuff!
Many thanks Gareth, awesome! :)
Sounds great and looks very pristine. I saw it on Keyboad Magazine June 1989. Thanks
Wow… this was awesome! So much production and arranging perfection to study and learn from here. Thumbs up! And that W-30 sure is pristine!
Thanks!
This is an iconic piece of equipment, i can hear sounds from Dead or alive and 808 state , and a sound that reminds me of an old Amiga game called KGB.
Another top video, and tutorial.
The 80s was reinvented in the 90s.
And now in 2020 with Espen🕹👍
Thanks! I seem to be living in the past.. ;-)
Great video Espen. Some excellent recording tips also.
I used to lust after the W-30 so badly when I was a teenager. It looked amazing with its two dials and huge screen. 👍👍
Thanks man! I think the W-30 was the object of desire for many back then. ;-)
That phrase is so catchy and cool! Thanks Espen. Always great to listen to your work.
Thanks! :D
Nice ULTIMATE stand. Around 1989-90 my band used to use a razor blade to cut off pieces of the sticker and re-arrange the letters to say "MUTILATE". Memories.
Yeah, it was a bit of a fake.
Get fresh at the weekend. Showing out!!
Ah, this one has the SCSI interface. Mine hasn't. Remember that ROM-drive with the one disk with all the samples on it? Such a complete system must have made the guys at Fairlight and Synclavier break out in a sweat. It was still quite expensive for us mere mortals but when compared to the prices of such brands it was a total steal. Talking about the uncoming equipment democracy!
I have the rare scsi board for the s550 ,basically the w30 was sn s330 with an mc50 sequencer and some rudimentary rom sound on top
Had one around 1990. Loved it.
Why is it that when I hear that I just want to get up from bed and do some sessions in studio...really beautiful chords and that reverb sits just perfect.
Cool man, make some music! Thanks :)
i love the look of those old digital keyboards like jd800,korg m1 or this one.. so futuristic compared to the actual ones !
Excellent video! I like it when you sampled your voice. That's cool! Take care, Sam.
Thanks Sam! Enjoy the weekend!
Just walked in the door with one!
Prepping to paint a house and saw one sitting gathering dust. Asked about it and, "You can have it" came the answer. 11m30s in the video...I meant to ask, italian horror movie fan are we? :)
Cool story! Yeah, I once had a huuuge collection of Italian Horror. Now, not so much, but still put on some Fabio Frizzi when I dream back. ;-)
Still have my second W-30 (sold the first one because I was moving :`-( ), I love to sample into it then record the output for use with my other sampling and sample playback gear and plugins. It just has that iconic sound- not as distinctive as a Mirage- but still a ton more character than recording direct to a DAW. Makes my MPC-1000 sound so much more 80's and I wouldn't put a sample into my MC-101 or TR-8S without going through the W-30 first! (No apologies for the newer gear, btw! But never hating on the original 80's gear either! ;-D)
Used by the prodigy in their early recording days
it WAS the Prodigy in the early years!
They still used it as master sequencer till 'Fat Of The Land' era. Last track they recorded with it was 'Firestarter'.
Yes. Very nice machine. Still having one in use. Big like for the blue display. Looks great.
Another great video Espen! I really like how you went over the different functions in a pedagogical fashion and then put it all together at the end, alongside a good rundown of your mix! Good stuff! :)
Thanks for saying just that! I always try to lay my videos out in a more academic, pedagogical fashion. I leave the more extrovert presentation to other TH-camrs. ;-)
@@EspenKraft Likewise, thank you! I'm looking forward to your future videos, and songs! :)
Drums sounds so good
The W30 was my first Music workstation in 1990!
Awwww wow. I bought one of these in 89. I was into the rave scene back then so having the sampler was great for that genre of music making. Good times.
Does it have a classic hammond b3 sound like Gregg rolie Santana sound and good grand piano sound for jazz
Yeah Prodigy had two. They had two coz of sloooow loading time ie load one while playing the other
You are a very talented musician my man, excellent video and enjoyed your talent.
Thanks.
Thank you very much! :)
great production tips for the 80s sound, thanks!
Loved that machine - treated myself to my first proper sampler/workstation when I qualified as a nurse. Was my main sequencer until I shifted to Cubase on the Atari ST. It’s a great sequencer when you get into it
Also had Cubase and the Atari ST and a Yamaha PSR keyboard and had a lot of fun too.
You're right it is a great sequencer.
Great explanation on steps to make a song and what you use for each track. Really interesting.
Thanks!
Thanks for the video. Again It being back memories of long ago when I had one.
Love this channel! Keep them coming my friend.
Many thanks! :D
Could it be I want a W-30 now? Glad I got one, now's the time to get into it. This video shows, it is worth it! ;-D
Wonderful explanation of the W-30. One of mine is a W-30 y love this keyboard. I've got SCSI expansion with a external HD and works quick and fine!
Cheers! :D
I still use my S-50 and S-330 samplers. Such a great punchy sound that you can’t get with software.
Kevin Sturges I still find myself going through the sample libraries. S-330 was so much fun back in the day.
All W-30s have the SCSI port, the ones without the SCSI chip installed on the circuit board usually have a metal cover over the SCSI socket, Roland did a KW-30 upgrade kit but you can buy the SCSI controller chip and install it yourself, you just then need to get the SCSI operating system
Do you, may be, know what chip can be installed? 🧐🤔🙂
The chip you need is a Fujitsu MB89352AP, it's a SCSI controller chip, I bought my SCSI chip from eBay, there's quite a few on there so search around for a good deal, mine was imported form china from a guy who deals in old electronics and chips, was cheap, about £5.
You'll also need V1.07 CDHD os to make it work, that's freely downloadable from the internet
@@djhatstand7312
Thank you VERY much!
I will try it.
Did not know this had built-in waves. I overlooked this in my local store, because it did not seem to have too many sounds(at a time), and I was distracted by the Korg T1 on display🤩.
What a beautiful sound of The Terminator II!
I've always liked these old samplers by Roland, but now I love them. :)
I just love the warmth you get when you go down to the lower notes. Other samplers just don't do that as good as these...
Oh and can I just add, that Ensoniq DP/4+ sounds absolutely gorgeous... Especially with the big tones you can make with the W-30.
The DP/4 has that great timbre that goes well with gear from that same era.
That's why Ensoniq was also better- the effects
Always wanted a W30, didn't need one but prodigy used one a lot, and it was a great looking sampler. I ended up with an ensoniq eps16+ eventually, sold that and now have a Triton extreme 88 and a Triton Le for sampling duties. Floppy disks did my head in, I must have wasted 16 years of my life waiting for them to load over the years 😂 great times though. Great video thanks.
Yes, some time has been spent waiting for the floppy to load, but for me this has only sharpened my creativity so time well spent! ;-) Thanks btw :)
This board does not sound 12 bit...Roland had a far superior aliasing filter design during this time, superior to everybody in the 80's-90s. The W30 sounds magnificent like all of there samplers back then. It being 12 bit is a testament to how advanced they were during that time.
But... the aliasing has to do with the sampling frequency, not the bit depth...
@@javiceres you can have two Samplers, sampling at the same big depth and the same sample rate, but during recreation of that sample, whichever unit has the better anti-aliasing filter will determine a lot to do with how clean or as you say, more accurate the reproduction will be.. roland had a far superior filter during this time.
@@justinmerritt3843 Dunno, I think of Kurzweil K samplers... that was power.
@@javiceres the w30 was 12 bit and came out in 1989, the k series of Kurzweil was 16bit and came out in 1991, like I said during the time the W30 was out, it was a real heavy hitter. The competition for the K series at that time from Roland would have been the Roland S750/S770.
@@justinmerritt3843 Absolutely, the only 16-bit sampler available at that time was the Casio FZ-1. One must remember that much of the classic Emulator and Fairlight samples like the SYNVOX1 and Aaahh-choir used in countless presets and synths, were all 12 or even 8 bit.
Picked one up bout 6 months ago in perfect condition with a hard case for $100 from the Goodwill Outlet Store in San Diego near the Tijuana border. There is still some affordable vintage gear out there... The more you look, the luckier you get.
Actually, I just checked on Reverb and these are still very affordable. Average seems to be about $300.
Congrats!
Very well done, Espen! Loved the melody, harmonies, and chord progression.
Many thanks man! :)
An excellent late 80s digital machine!!!
I still have mine have not played it in a year or two.I will have to dig it out of the garage.This was my first Keyboard funny enough.I did understand LFOs Filters VCA LFO.I was kinda lost trying to edit in all those screens.The most frustrating thing about you would be working on a sample for a couple of hours then. You get it perfectly looped.Then you would end up dumping the sound deleting it.very frustrating.I was very sadistic trying to learn this Workstation but I prevailed.I have to say the quality of the keyboard is amazing.Roland is an amazing company.I got mine in 1989-90 new.I used it until I got my Roland XP-50 Workstation in 1995.I used them together worked nice to record into my DA 30 Dat Recorder now I am definitely showing my age anyways is the a file converter for the W-30 to PC ? Thanks for taking me down memory lane.Just ask if you want me too copy any disks Thanks.
@@timweinheimer1 Hello veteran! As far as audio-out line of roland to audio in to pc, you need at least an audio card and you can use softwares like Cub@se, @bleton or other, simply to record sounds of W30. Its need to find out, or Espen knows better, if there is something about parallel port of synth, some cables that are parallel port to usb, to connect synth to pc digitally.
You must be clear if you want to TRANSFER samples to a computer or if you want to RECORD digitally. The Midi Sample Dump protocol can be used to transfer samples to a computer. It will take a long time though. If you want to record digitally out of the W-30 that can't be done. You record the output into any audio interface the usual way.
Thanks I never Upgraded to the SCSI cable.Is there a Patch Liabrian for S550 sound banks etc or is it a DOS Format. The Sequencer I know all about used it a a lots back in the Day.Now I use Cubase Pro
You should browse through here:
llamamusic.com/s50s550/s-50_s-550.html
A good video about that thing. I just got 2 of these (one with the SCSI interface and one without, going to try my SCSI Zip drive with it possibly) just before the virus lockdown situation from a friend and haven't yet managed to get familiar with them. Just briefly tested them both at the friend's home, and they both work. Now they are at my studio where I haven't visited in couple of weeks... but this really makes me visit there and learn how to really use these W-30 samplers.
Thanks! Just do it. You'll be amply rewarded!
Great video! The effects make this instrument sound incredible!
I've had my Roland W-30 since 1997. It's got it's flaws, but I love it! I don't have the "Watching the World" sounds. I built up a pretty huge library of sounds back in the day though. Before moving from my hometown, to go to College, I sampled all of the sounds from my childhood instruments. I still use them sometimes.
Thanks! :D
I sampled stuffs from movies and tv shows
Another excellent video, great to look back on. I always remember there used to be one of these in my local night club in the dj booth back in 1990, I always used to stand there and drool over it, never mind the dancing lol. Keep up the great videos :-)
I like the inverted display.
Loving the track, its excellent
Cheers!
Sounds great!
I remember when Erick Sermon gave this Synth a plug.
Good video presentation :) Thank's Espen Kraft
Thanks! :)
It's interesting how these old synths/samplers/workstations can produce amazing sounds, when you consider that a supercomputer from that era (such as the Cray-2) had 0.02% of the processing power of your typical mobile phone (iPhone 12). With the comparatively insane amount of processing power that can be had for next to nothing these days, it's easy to forget that a lot of very successful musicians used tools that were pretty primitive in today's eyes, yet easily topped the charts and filled the dance floors.
My relationship with Roland is a bit ambiguous. The only Roland I've owned so far (a 110 volts JD-990) I sold to a friend of mine, who's going to sell it on now that he bought a Juno-X. I want some sort of Roland, and I will one day, but which one exactly I haven't decided yet. Probably one of the Zen-core instruments, to get access to those lovely 1980s Roland sounds.
On a side note, one of our cats found this video fascinating, and left my desk pretty much the moment it finished.
Had one of these. My ensoniq eps classic was better in my opinion. Loop based sequencer, which was easier. Easier to chop. Easier to sample. BUT..... the sound of w30 had a nice character to it!
This made me want to get a W-30 😂 Fortunately I remembered that my hardware days are over! Nice job Espen! 😎
Cheers!
Thank You Espen always a pleasure to watch your vids. Really insightful how you pre-played the parts at the beginning, so when you moved to your DAW I definitly had a better understanding of your song construction. Very cool, look forward to the next one. Oh and if you can, try and catch that "Fantom" that Roland has, not the one in the window.
Great to hear Peter. Happy you found it useful! :)
Seems like you changed the LCD. Do you by any chance have some mod instructions? I have some spare LCD's lying arround from modding my TG77. The interface controller chip should be compatible.
Best regards and keep up the good work!
I didn't do this mod myself. The owner of it did. This is a plug and play display. Not many make those as it costs more, but to skip hassle of fitting controllers etc, it can be worth it.
@@EspenKraft Thanks for the answer. Have a good time
Cheers!
If you hang tight, I'm changing the display on Espen's own W-30 and it'll be featured in one of his videos later this fall. The display has to be sent to Luxdisplays in the UK (unless you wanna solder everything yourself.. but neither Espen nor I wanna do that) so it takes a few months sending it there and back again. :)
@@AndersEngerJensen Good news. Self solderer here. Wondering if there's more to the mod than adapting contrast and power levels. BR
3:02
Terminator ❤️
Wow you can see the waveform on 12bit sampler? Cool! Eric Sermon really made some hits on this board.
double thumbs up
I've used a W-30 for most of the last thirty years, initially using one owned by my brother and then buying my own when I left home. I only sold it a few months ago, having switched entirely to a Yamaha QX-3 for sequencing. I never used it as a sampler though, more as a controller keyboard and sequencer workstation. Rather regret not sampling with it now, having mostly used an old Akai for that kind of thing. I do have an S-330 in storage though, so perhaps it's time I dragged it out and used it - the same sampling facilities as the W-30 but with the option to use a monitor, remote control unit, mouse or tablet (I have all except the tablet for mine).
Yes, the W-30 is a S-330. I have a S-330 here with monitor, tablet and all. I'll have a video going in a while. ;-) Great little thing. I too use the QX3 as you know.
Do you have the sequencer software for the S-330? Very different to Roland's other sequencers of the time like the MC series and the related one in the W-30.
I'm not sure if I have it somewhere, but that you can find it online. I don't use that at all. Never have, Working it all through one piece of hardware is fun on a video, but sequencing I prefer to do on a dedicated piece of hardware doing only that. ;-)
@@EspenKraft It's been a quite a few years since I last used my S-330, but I seem to recall that you need a dongle to use the sequencer software. I guess there might be a cracked version online though.
After hearing this demo, Espen, I can hear this specific workstation being used to duplicate the accompaniment to “Only Time Will Tell” from *Asia.* It kind of strikes me as Roland answering the DSS-1, the Emax and the Prophet 3000
W30’s Sequencer is one of the best of that time i think, the big screen and 16 tracks was awesome. Give it a try. And by the way, nice baclight screen, any clue where can we find it? Thanks for another great video
Just search ebay. There's a guy in UK who sells these.
Thanks! A quick Ebay search will do the trick. ;-)
The string sound you played at 4:47 would be perfect for Here I Go Again by Whitesnake
If I'm not mistaken they used a Prophet VS for that song
I was always under the assumption they used a Kawai K1.
@@EspenKraft Wow, I always wondered what they used on that. I love the LFO strings. I had the K4 back in the early 90s. My first real full size 61 key keyboard.
That does not mean THEY used it. I still hold on to my beliefs they used a Kawai. ;-)
The Kawai K1 is in that ballpark in terms of sound. They used their additive synthesis tech to mix waveforms freely.
I've had my fair share of wavetable synths myself, among them the Microwave I bought when it was new.
If I was to play "Here I go again" live, which I don't , but IF, I'd use my D-50 to do so and I actually both show and play that riff (with my preset) in my D-50 video. That sound is more than close enough for any Whitesnake coverband so I keep it in my D-50 for fun.
I miss mine!
Thumbs up just for The Terminator! Everything else was extra :)
Genial el vídeo ❤️
Cheers!
LOL "wondering what creature violated... "LOL!
Great video, really nice pads Espen are these stock standard sounds? Will you be doing a video on the DP4 at some stage?
Thanks J. :) Some factory, some are not, some sampled myself. A mix really. Yes, the DP/4 will definitely show up here soon. A real cult-classic effects unit.
I have a W-30 sitting next to me now. I don't know if it works or not. Picked it up at an estate sale along with a Korg Kross and Alesis QS6 for $500 for all 3. I just need a power cord and some floppies.
I had a QS6, I loved that thing!!
Dumps of the operating system floppy disks are available online. You'll need a PC with an old style floppy drive controller to copy the the dumped image to a disk though - the USB floppy drives available nowadays don't allow the low level access necessary to create the disks. The alternative is to fit a floppy disk emulator (Gotek or HxC 2001), although it's a bit of a nightmare getting to the floppy drive inside the W-30 to replace it with the emulator.
I have one of this in my hand, but learning how to use it tho, thanks for the information 👍
Cheers!
Great! Thanks!!!
Cheers!
Gracias por el tutorial
Cranes recorded and toured with one of these 👍🏻
heyy, that melody you play around 5:50 that's the theme song to Lucio Fulci's Zombie, isn't it??
Love the video
Upon further watching of the video, I'm hearing more and more Frizzi soundtracks, I love you for this
Thanks! Yes it it. ;-)