The Roland U-20 is a musical keyboard and rompler

Rompler

A rompler is an electronic musical instrument that plays back samples stored in ROM chips to generate sound. Romplers lack the ability to record such samples and have limited or no capability for generating original waveforms...

 released by Roland

Roland Corporation

is a Japanese manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, electronic equipment and software. It was founded by Ikutaro Kakehashi in Osaka on April 18, 1972, with ¥33 million in capital. In 2005 Roland's headquarters relocated to Hamamatsu in Shizuoka Prefecture. Today it has factories in Japan,...

 in 1989. There is also a 1U

Rack unit

A rack unit or U is a unit of measure used to describe the height of equipment intended for mounting in a 19-inch rack or a 23-inch rack...

 rackmount

19-inch rack

A 19-inch rack is a standardized frame or enclosure for mounting multiple equipment modules. Each module has a front panel that is wide, including edges or ears that protrude on each side which allow the module to be fastened to the rack frame with screws.-Overview and history:Equipment designed...

 version, the U-220. It is the successor to the U-110

Roland U-110

The Roland U-110 is a synth module produced by Roland Corporation in 1988.-General information:Roland's answer to the E-mu Proteus, the predecessor of the more successful U-220 module and U-20 keyboard and the ancestor of the prototype T-110, the U-110 was Roland's first dedicated sample playback...

 rackmount, released in 1988.

The synthesizer

Synthesizer

A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...

 engine itself merely plays back stored PCM samples. Such a synthesizer is known as a rompler

Rompler

A rompler is an electronic musical instrument that plays back samples stored in ROM chips to generate sound. Romplers lack the ability to record such samples and have limited or no capability for generating original waveforms...

, as opposed to a sampler

Sampler (musical instrument)

A sampler is an electronic musical instrument similar in some respects to a synthesizer but, instead of generating sounds, it uses recordings of sounds that are loaded or recorded into it by the user and then played back by means of a keyboard, sequencer or other triggering device to perform or...

, which lets you record and load in custom samples. Nevertheless, sample playback can be slightly customized via editing its ADSR envelope and applying DSP

Digital signal processing

Digital signal processing is concerned with the representation of discrete time signals by a sequence of numbers or symbols and the processing of these signals. Digital signal processing and analog signal processing are subfields of signal processing...

 effects.

Thanks to its popularity, there exists dedicated software for editing sound settings from a computer via MIDI connection. There are also hardware presets in programs like Cubase allowing easier communication.

Features

• 128 different voices (additional may be supplied with ROM/RAM cards)
• Programmable DSP
  Digital signal processing
  Digital signal processing is concerned with the representation of discrete time signals by a sequence of numbers or symbols and the processing of these signals. Digital signal processing and analog signal processing are subfields of signal processing...
  
   unit offers reverb
  Reverberation
  Reverberation is the persistence of sound in a particular space after the original sound is removed. A reverberation, or reverb, is created when a sound is produced in an enclosed space causing a large number of echoes to build up and then slowly decay as the sound is absorbed by the walls and air...
  
  , delay
  Delay (audio effect)
  Delay is an audio effect which records an input signal to an audio storage medium, and then plays it back after a period of time. The delayed signal may either be played back multiple times, or played back into the recording again, to create the sound of a repeating, decaying echo.-Early delay...
  
  , chorus
  Chorus effect
  In music, a chorus effect occurs when individual sounds with roughly the same timbre and nearly the same pitch converge and are perceived as one...
  
  
• 2 demo songs
• 61 keys with note velocity and aftertouch abilities
• MIDI In/Out/Thru DIN
  DIN connector
  A DIN connector is a connector that was originally standardized by the , the German national standards organization. There are DIN standards for a large number of different connectors, therefore the term "DIN connector" alone does not unambiguously identify any particular type of connector unless...
  
   connectors
• Phones output, Mix Output (L/R) and Direct Output (L/R) jacks
• Pedal switch and Expression pedal inputs
• Powered by external 110-230 V AC source

External links

• [ftp://ftp.roland.co.uk/ProductSupport/U-20/01_U-20_OM.pdf U-20 owner's manual]
• [ftp://ftp.roland.co.uk/ProductSupport/U-220/01_U-220_OM.pdf U-220 owner's manual]