Japanese musical equipment powerhouse Roland turns 50 years old this year, and they’re celebrating the milestone with some pretty cool festivities. They’ve taken their 808303.studio online real estate, which previously housed a pretty cool brower-based version of two of their legendary instruments – the TR-808 drum machine and TB-303 bass synth – and added a virtual version of their equally legendary SH-101 mono-synth and renamed it Roland50.studio.
Each instrument is synced to the other so after you program the sequencers, you’ve basically got a whole New Wave band in a browser tab. And on top of that, there’s still four more instruments coming (note the empty spots with countdown clocks). I expect a Juno synth – maybe like this one? – and perhaps some classic effects, a la these Boss OGs or this namesake?
Make no mistake, I like hardware when it comes to musical gear, but this is just cool.
