Roland U-110

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Roland U-110

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W × H × D (mm)	482 × 45 × 458
Rack units	1U, full-width
Weight	4.5kg
Type	RS-PCM sound module
Manufacturer	Roland
Release date	1988
Parts	6
Max polyphony	31
Normal presets	99 Tones
Expansion	4 x SN-U110
All above information taken from the Roland U-110 Owner Manual, page 93.

The Roland U-110 is a 1U Rackmount module that was sold by Roland between 1988-1990. It is the first synthesizer of Roland's to introduce the ReSynthesized PCM (RS-PCM) Synthesis system. It derives much of its sample content from the Roland S-series factory floppy disks, with the idea of providing the contents of that sample library in a pre-programmed ROMpler format (as opposed to a Sampler having limited RAM, needing to physically switch out sounds with floppies, load times, etc).

The U-110 would be followed up a year later with a revised model, the Roland U-220, in 1989.

Sound Generation

The U-110 employs RS-PCM, which is Roland's proprietary take on ROMpler-style synthesis, akin to Yamaha's Advanced Wave Memory (AWM) or similar.

The U-110 has three main units of sound;

• Patches - Patches are the equivalent to something like performances on a more modern Roland synthesizer; they are made up of the 6 parts, which have timbres loaded that make up a sound or combination of instruments. Represented on the unit with a "P" (like P-41 Fantasia). There are 64 of these on the U-110, and are all rewritable. There is a U-110 Patch Setting chart table that lists all the factory patches and their parameters on a sheet.

• Timbres - Timbres are the U-220's equivalent of patches on a later Roland synthesizer. They are what make up each of the 6 parts on the U-110. Timbres can be programmed, offering an Amp envelope (ADSR), Pitch settings (fine tune, coarse tune, pitch bend range, etc.), an LFO for vibrato and a few other settings (velocity sensitivity, aftertouch, etc). These sounds are represented with a "T" (like T-065 Fantasia). All timbres are completely rewritable.

• Tones - Timbres contain a sound called a Tone. They are the smallest unit of sound, and the closest thing the U-110 offers in terms of waveforms. These sounds are preprogrammed and cannot be edited. There are a lot of Tones that are variations of existing waves on the module, because there are 4 kinds of tones; SINGLE, DUAL, V-MIX & V-SW. SINGLE and DUAL are self explanatory; V-MIX and V-SW are tones programmed to respond to velocity, V-MIX layering in a new tone with higher Velocity (like 1-51 AC. BASS mixing in a pluck sound the harder you play the sound). V-SW is the same principle but instead of mixing in the sound, it switches to a different sound.

Across the U-110's 31 voices of polyphony, V-MIX and DUAL tones will use 2 voices of polyphony, while V-SW and SINGLE tones use 1 voice. The U-110 does not label which tones are which kinds, this information can only be found in the Owner's Manual (or the U-110 Preset Tone Table sheet).

The U-110 has 6 outputs, no effects or panpots, with the idea that you can route each part to each output to a mixer, and to process each mono output externally.

Oddities

• The U-110 has no panpots.
• The U-110 has a noisy DAC and doesn't sound as clean.

(TO DO: talk about the weird voice output modes)

External Links

• Roland U-110 Owner's Manual

See also

• Roland U-110
• Roland U-20
• SN-U110 Library cards