Roland

​Amazon's Alexa voice assistant has made its way into many gadgets since it launched with the Echo smart speaker in 2014. Now music gear firm Roland has created its first Alexa Skill and loaded it into the Go:Piano so that players can chat as they play.​

Roland has announced the AX-Edge keytar that looks destined for big hair stadium rockers.​ The instrument offers stand-up players over 500 tones, sonic tweaking through an app, a built-in vocoder and interchangeable edge trims that can alter the look of the blade-shaped keytar.

​Back in 2016, Line 6 claimed its Relay G10 was the easiest wireless guitar system to use. A year later, Boss joined in with its own plug and play system for the portable Katana Air amplifier. Now the Roland-owned music gear maker has launched a new line of wireless systems called the WL Series.​

Though the ubiquitous smartphone can serve as a capable audio recorder, there are times when quality counts. Roland previewed a new high resolution handheld at CES in January, with multiple recording modes and the ability to control functionality using an Apple Watch. Now the R-07 is on sale.

After a brief teaser campaign, Roland has revealed a new addition to the company's iconic digital drum machine portfolio – the Aira TR-8S Rhythm Performer. As well as emulating classic 80s drum machines, the 8S lets users import their own samples and allows more hands-on control.

It's August 8, and Roland is celebrating by once again giving musicians the opportunity to back their creations with the robot-like rim shots, unrealistic snare and booming kick of one of the first drum machines, the TR-808. The new TR-08 stays true to the original, but adds a few modern touches.

​Part of Roland's Boutique Series, the SE-02 monophonic analog synthesizer represents the first collaboration with select synth makers for its new Designer Series sound machines. And Roland has worked with analog synth veterans Studio Electronics for the first out of the gate.​

The Go:Mixer has been designed with the sole purpose of giving the audio track on smartphone videocasts a quality bump. The pocket device allows users to capture a high quality audio track at the same time the video is recorded, and mix in vocals, instruments and backing music on the fly.

The Roland Museum is home to many of the company's music gear highlights. But it isn't open to the public, so wandering through the banks of music creation marvels is not an easy thing to do. Until now. You can now take a guided 360° tour in your browser or walk through in Google Street View.

Roland has arrived at CES in Las Vegas with two new keyboards, one aimed squarely at beginners and another for those who want to learn how to play. In both cases, Roland says that the onboard sounds all come from its pro-level synths and pianos.

The TR-909 drum machine was launched 33 years ago. Roland marked the 909's birthday with a 24-hour product release party that included a DJ controller, a new plug-out synth, some BOSS guitar amps and a digital saxophone.

​Thought to have originated as a simple communication tool, the cajón has been accompanying traditional music for many years. More rhythmic flavors have been added to today's boxes in the shape of snare springs and kick pedals. Roland has now married acoustic with digital for the EL Cajon EC-10.