Roland Aira

Bachus · Post by **Bachus** » Sun Jan 26, 2014 9:18 pm

So did anyone get to see this new hyped gearline of Roland? At NAMM?

Jan1 · Post by **Jan1** » Sun Jan 26, 2014 10:28 pm

The Roland PR machinery usually is on the receiving end of jokes, but this time they have outdone themselves with the AIRA promotion.
At Gearslutz the AIRA thread has exploded into almost 100 pages with nothing but empty speculation, so I'd say that the PR campaign is a huge success.

What I have read thusfar is this article.
The leaked pics apparently are real, and the AIRA range is said to sound fantastic.
An additional detail is that the original team of Roland engineers was involved in the production.

I hope it is going to be a huge success for Roland because they need it, and I for one would be sad to see the demise of this company.
They made their share of odd design design decisions, but they also come up with brilliant ideas and great instruments.
It's just that unfortunately sometimes these two go hand in hand.

Johnny Sniper · Post by **Johnny Sniper** » Sun Jan 26, 2014 11:27 pm

So Feb 20th is the date they unveil the Aira? I was hyped since the 808 video they were teasing. I really hope that Roland comes back with this, they need it, they're an amazing company!

Saxifraga · Post by **Saxifraga** » Mon Jan 27, 2014 9:49 pm

It looks as if it has keys.

http://forums.rolandclan.com/viewtopic. ... ra#p274338

Johnny Sniper · Post by **Johnny Sniper** » Mon Jan 27, 2014 11:24 pm

Saxifraga wrote:It looks as if it has keys.
http://forums.rolandclan.com/viewtopic. ... ra#p274338

Confirmed that the Aira will be a whole series of products, woah

DrHoo · Post by **DrHoo** » Tue Jan 28, 2014 12:08 am

Hmmmm.. http://youtu.be/5LE0oGkYx40

DrHoo · Post by **DrHoo** » Tue Jan 28, 2014 12:09 am

Johnny Sniper wrote:Confirmed that the Aira will be a whole series of products, woah

The 'ROLCAs' !

Bertotti · Post by **Bertotti** » Tue Jan 28, 2014 4:07 am

Actually now that I have allocated cash to some other projects I sure hope this isn't the next big synth that I'm going to be jones ing over for several years until I can get one! Actually it is almost amcertainty that that will be the case because that is just my luck. Sadly knowing Roland it will probably also be prohibitively high priced.

xmlguy · Post by **xmlguy** » Tue Jan 28, 2014 6:32 am

Korg is now going to see the consequences of abandoning the Electribes and letting their owners languish, be ignored, and be taken for granted for so many years. Korg gets leapfrogged by competitors when the time is right. If you look at the progress made by Maschine, Ableton Live with the APC40 and Push, iPad apps and soon these Roland products, the ESX remaining essentially unchanged (besides the minor SD flash update) for the last 10 years is appalling.

MartyMart · Post by **MartyMart** » Tue Jan 28, 2014 9:07 am

xmlguy wrote:Korg is now going to see the consequences of abandoning the Electribes and letting their owners languish, be ignored, and be taken for granted for so many years. Korg gets leapfrogged by competitors when the time is right. If you look at the progress made by Maschine, Ableton Live with the APC40 and Push, iPad apps and soon these Roland products, the ESX remaining essentially unchanged (besides the minor SD flash update) for the last 10 years is appalling.

Maybe but Electribe on iPad was a VERY cool move, everyone I know
who's into music or is a musician has it on their iPad !

MM.

xmlguy · Post by **xmlguy** » Tue Jan 28, 2014 8:38 pm

MartyMart wrote: Maybe but Electribe on iPad was a VERY cool move, everyone I know
who's into music or is a musician has it on their iPad !

MM.

iElectribe would be cool if you don't compare it to any other iPad sequencer and DAW or to the Electribe itself. iElectribe could actually work like an EMX and ESX, instead of a dumbed down and extremely limited version that merely looks like an ESX without working like one. Don't be fooled by a sheep in wolves' clothing. Besides, Korg likely didn't actually develop a single line of iElectribe code themselves. They've been using third party developers for all of the software that they stamp their name onto. Same goes for iMS-20 and iKaossilator. There's no good reason why a full-featured Kaossilator could not be developed as an iOS app. Korg has been releasing heavily feature cut app versions of their hardware. It's frustrating when they cut out particularly useful features of existing products like the arp patterns in the original Kaossilator for the Kaossilator "Pro" that they made by recycling the KP3, and then refusing to fix defects like the glitched sampling on it. Then there's the "plus" versions of the KP3 and KOPro that should have been free software updates. Or how about a Kaoss Quad that cut all the sampling and looping features from the KP3.

It's pathetic to see a whole series of products that have less features and capability than the ones we already bought. I would have liked to buy a KP4 that was improved in tangible ways without losing what the KP3 does. I would love to buy an iElectribe that does everything that an EMX-1 and ESX-1 do. I would buy an iKaossilator that does everything that the original Kaossilator can do plus improvements. But these aren't the products that Korg has been producing. So I don't buy s**t that isn't better and improved than what I already own, and that has important features cut for no explainable or justifiable reason.

The failings of these "new" products are not due to engineering. Only defective product management and design that completely ignores customer feedback can explain how these products occur that are one step forward and 3 steps backwards. Eventually customers will get frustrated and disillusioned, then they'll find alternative products that actually are improvements.

djcactus · Post by **djcactus** » Tue Feb 04, 2014 8:04 pm

ive made too many custom roland drum machine racks to sync up with my electribe esx in ableton to get something like this. Its unfortunate, just a little late for me i guess, i will probably poke around for them second hand if i find a use for one.

Kevin Nolan · Post by **Kevin Nolan** » Tue Feb 04, 2014 8:19 pm

djcactus wrote:ive made too many custom roland drum machine racks to sync up with my electribe esx in ableton to get something like this. Its unfortunate, just a little late for me i guess, i will probably poke around for them second hand if i find a use for one.

betcha $5 you'll be drooling over this range when it's announced !!

Timo · Post by **Timo** » Tue Feb 04, 2014 9:54 pm

Not sure if I like the styling all that much.

The mixer layout and workflow seems to be an amalgamation of both the original boxes and the MCx0x line of grooveboxes a little. Hopefully it may be what everyone hoped the MCx0x's originally would be, but weren't.

djcactus · Post by **djcactus** » Wed Feb 05, 2014 7:38 am

Kevin Nolan wrote:
djcactus wrote:ive made too many custom roland drum machine racks to sync up with my electribe esx in ableton to get something like this. Its unfortunate, just a little late for me i guess, i will probably poke around for them second hand if i find a use for one.
betcha $5 you'll be drooling over this range when it's announced !!

Not saying they aren't going to be sweet, but what I have customized for myself is sweeter (strictly to myself, i put a lot of time programming and tweaking my ableton esx combo)

I like that roland could finally take a hint. I think these could be what they needed to draw more people into their customer base, and ultimately help them get the ball rolling again.