
Ikutaro Kakehashi, founder of Roland, has died - molecule
http://www.stereogum.com/1932963/r-i-p-ikutaro-kakehashi/obit/
======
acjohnson55
Talk about a pioneer of the consumer electronics age. As someone who went to
grad school to search for my future in music technology, this hits home. I
chose that path inspired by exactly the sort of tech that Kakahashi built with
Roland. In particular, it was their BOSS ME-33 multieffect unit [1], which was
the first piece of music tech hardware I ever bought. It unlocked an entire
universe of sounds for an 18-year-old me, searching for my creative identity.
My identity, period, for that matter.

To take this in a wildly different direction, since about 2010, I've felt this
ever-increasing impression that the world is being handed over from the post-
WWII generation to mine. Every living legend that passes crystallizes that
feeling. It's on us to take the reigns of this world and steer it, whether
it's starting the Roland of this century, or simply effecting the changes to
make our existence on this planet sustainable.

[1]
[https://www.boss.info/us/products/me-33/](https://www.boss.info/us/products/me-33/)

------
colanderman
Roland made it possible for me to learn to play button accordion. My landlord
runs a psychology practice upstairs, and my wife is not fond of loud noises,
so I would have very little practice time with an acoustic accordion. So I
bought a Roland V-Accordion instead, which has allowed me to practice
regularly even at 1 AM (as I just did) without disturbing anyone.

The V-Accordion was a personal idea of Mr. Kakehashi's [1], one I'm very glad
he was able to usher into this world. I'm musically richer for it.

[1]
[http://www.accordions.com/index/squ/archives/0811/roland/his...](http://www.accordions.com/index/squ/archives/0811/roland/history.htm)

~~~
robotmay
I knew I couldn't be the only techie who took up button accordions (though
diatonics in my case). Luckily my flat is very soundproof, so I can get away
with it, however I do know of a guy who is one of the main people restoring
the English bagpiping tradition who had a similar problem.

Rather than getting digital pipes, however, he filled his wardrobe with
bedding/duvets/pillows and would practice them by sitting there with the pipes
stuck into a wardrobe.

Roland do actually make a diatonic model of their accordion, and it's pretty
popular, however it doesn't work quite as well as the chromatic models due to
the eccentricites of that particular instrument.

Edit: Ah ha, as I thought the FR-18 diatonic was in fact discontinued. It's a
shame, as it does actually have quite a few fans, but the market is much
smaller than for the chromatic models:
[https://www.roland.com/us/products/fr-18_diatonic/](https://www.roland.com/us/products/fr-18_diatonic/)

------
ewmailing
I first learned about Roland because of their partnership with Sierra On-Line
and the MT-32.

I remember Scott Murphy (Space Quest co-creator) told a story about the first
time Roland came to hear how Sierra was using the MT-32. They were blown away
by the full musical scores they sequenced (Space Quest 3). He thinks they were
expecting Space Invaders like sound effects.

~~~
ewmailing
A little more context for those who don't know the history of music in PC
gaming, Sierra was the first major company to push hard on PC sound cards.
They partnered up with Roland and Adlib to promote and sell their cards so
they could take advantage of them for their games.

Wikipedia citation: King's Quest IV was the first commercially released game
for PC compatibles to support sound cards instead of only the standard built-
in speaker.

Sierra took it seriously and hired professional musicians to kick off their
effort.

Hollywood composer William Goldstein (Fame) was hired to compose King's Quest
IV.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19r6RnReAf4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19r6RnReAf4)

Supertramp drummer, Bob Siebenberg, composed the Space Quest III soundtrack.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxEP05TtOfE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxEP05TtOfE)

~~~
jeffwass
Yeah, they really did put a lot of effort in supporting a variety of scattered
audio and video options back in those days.

Kings quest IV, as well as Hero's Quest I, both specifically supported my
Casio keyboard. Multi-channel MIDI output using different instruments which
they mapped correctly, and even some of the built-in sound effect channels for
effects like flowing water or bird chirps.

Same with video, I had a Tandy which had its own proprietary video mode of
320x200 resolution in 16 colours, which was specifically supported you most
Sierra games, along with the generic CGA and EGA modes. Tandy also had a
proprietary 3-channel sound mode which was supported, though the MIDI via my
external keyboard sounded way better.

~~~
Narishma
It wasn't that proprietary. It's the same 3-voice TI PSG used in the IBM PCjr,
TI 99/4A, BBC Micro and various other computers, consoles and arcade machines
of the time.

~~~
jeffwass
Was the programming interface the same? Curious because I recall "Tandy" being
a specific sound option at the time.

------
sneak
The TR-808 is basically singularly responsible for the most popular genre of
music in the United States today (hiphop), as well as in conjunction with its
younger sibling the TR-909 all of modern dance music via house and techno.
It's sort of an amazing swath of modern music. A true pioneer.

~~~
jdietrich
That's substantially overstating the case. The TR-808 is an iconic drum
machine, but you're far more likely to hear a cut-up sample of the Amen Break
or the Funky Drummer Break.

The importance of the TR-808, TR-909 and TB-303 is largely accidental. These
units were a commercial failure and gained cult success largely because they
could be bought cheaply. In much the same way, grunge musicians tended to use
whatever horrible old guitars were languishing at the back of pawn shops -
Fender Jaguars and Jazzmasters, Mosrites, Teiscos and Danelectros.

In my opinion, by far the most important work done by Roland was the
development of the MIDI standard. Ikutaro Kakehashi and Dave Smith moved
mountains to get the industry to agree on a common standard. MIDI was the
starting pistol for the modern age of music production.

[http://www.whosampled.com/The-
Winstons/Amen,-Brother/](http://www.whosampled.com/The-
Winstons/Amen,-Brother/) [http://www.whosampled.com/James-Brown/Funky-
Drummer/](http://www.whosampled.com/James-Brown/Funky-Drummer/)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SaFTm2bcac](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SaFTm2bcac)

~~~
betaby
Frequently amen break and others are replayed and not sampled. Some of those
on the link not even amen breaks. Whosampled has tons of the false reports -
many of those are not samples but replays, either on 'real' drums or drum
machines. Whosampled more accurately is who borrowed

~~~
jdietrich
A novice producer was walking in the forest with Sensei Akai. The novice asked
Akai "If I extract the groove from the Amen Break using Beat Detective, then
replay it with identical-sounding samples, is it still the Amen Break?".
Sensei Akai replied "Mu". The novice was enlightened.

------
itazula
I'm an idiot. I didn't even realize that Roland is a Japanese company.

~~~
ewmailing
I remember reading a story about how he picked the name "Roland". He wanted a
company name that would be pronounced and spelled the same way in any language
and country, and escape translation issues. The irony was not lost on him that
the Japanese (his home country) have trouble pronouncing the 'R'.

~~~
microcolonel
It's more the _l_ than the _r_ , the pronunciation is also otherwise
completely different in Japanese, because they don't have consonant finals,
only nasals. You end up with _ro-rahn-doh_.

~~~
yongjik
I have to wonder if something like this exchange ever occurred:

"I named it Roland because I wanted it to sound the same in other
languages..."

"But, but... English speakers read it as _Roland_. Japanese speakers read it
as _rorando_."

"Yes, exactly. Same thing."

------
po
In some respects I feel like the Teenage Engineering OP-1 and pocket operators
are taking over the spirit of the Roland 808. Easy to use but surprisingly
deep hardware gear:

[https://www.teenageengineering.com/products/op-1](https://www.teenageengineering.com/products/op-1)

~~~
acomjean
I really like the pocket operators. I have 3. The PO-12 Rhythm is pretty
awesome. The push buttons with lights is throwback to the 808 style of
inputing rhythm.

[https://teenage.engineering/products/po](https://teenage.engineering/products/po)

There was a "808 emulator" (don't call it that wink..) for mac version (os 8)
now iPad which I don't have. Though it doesn't say anything about roland in
the description... You can see the 16 beats in a line with the led button. I
will say I disliked the dial as a computer interface (works great physically,
with a mouse not as well) and I haven't tried the iOS version..

[https://www.propellerheads.se/rebirth](https://www.propellerheads.se/rebirth)

------
sneak
A short documentary on the TB-303:
[https://youtu.be/omHUR3R0Qqw](https://youtu.be/omHUR3R0Qqw)

~~~
phodo
Great documentary. Made me think of art and emergent behaviors on top of
technology

~~~
ryan-allen
The TB-303 is such a strange machine, with such an odd sound, and it's a
seminal piece of electronic music history.

I nearly bought one a decade ago for 1,000, now they go for 3,000!

------
Neliquat
My closet just went up in value. Maybe its time to stop hoarding 80s synths.
Not sure if I can part with my MKS-7 though. A sad day.

------
_Codemonkeyism
When I got my first Roland card to play XWing that was a revelation.

------
skrebbel
I guess this is as good a thread as any - does anyone know where the TR-909
cymbals came from?

The kicks are obviously synthesized, but the open and closed hihats sound
suspiciously much like audio waves that are simply played at a higher and
lower frequency as you twist the "decay" knob.

If they're samples, where do they come from? They're totally unlike any other
hihat I've heard, definitely totally different from an _actual_ hihat on a
physical drum kit. I guess 90% of dance/techno music in the last 3 decades
uses the TR-909 open hihat or a mildly tweaked version of it. Yet it must've
been a rather strange, unnatural sound when the 909 was released. What were
the motivations of the people who designed or recorded this sound? How was it
made? Was it sampled or synthesized and then recorded?

Was Kakehashi involved?

~~~
cJ0th
The cymbal was picked by Atushi Hoshiai. Here is a short video about it:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXsMvTSCkuY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXsMvTSCkuY)

I think part of the reason the hihat sounds so special/unusual is due to the
fact that the sample was stored in 6bit.

------
minikomi
Nothing sounds quite like the 8 0 8

------
shams93
My first exposure to Roland was watching Adamski playing live with a 909 drum
machine back in 1990. Really mind blowing to see that one person could be the
whole band. My first drum machine was a roland 707, by the early 90s their
analog gear was hard to find but their digital gear still had the same
beautiful approach to user interface design. I learned midi sequencing with a
roland jv-80.

------
nodesocket
808s & Heartbreak. Kanye used a Roland TR-808 heavily for all beats on that
album.

[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ab/Ka...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ab/Kanye_West_in_the_Studio.jpg/1920px-
Kanye_West_in_the_Studio.jpg)

~~~
Larrikin
The 808 was already famous for being used for years and helping create the
sound of hip hop.

~~~
Doctor_Fegg
And before that, electronica - 808 State et al.

~~~
agumonkey
Funny, wikipedia 808 page led me to the first Roland founder company called
Ace Tone :)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ace_Tone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ace_Tone)

------
Razengan
I still remember the battles between the Adlib, Roland, and Sound Blaster
cards for PCs..

~~~
animal531
It was a strange time. We quickly went from PC speakers to far better cards
like the Soundblaster/16/AWE32 (one couldn't find the other makes where I
lived).

But since then the PC audio market has gone rather quiet? Apart from built in
you obviously still get Soundblasters and the ASUS Xonar's, but there seems to
be very little to no competition and drive left in the field.

~~~
Razengan
Indeed. And games have stopped flaunting advanced effects like environment-
based dynamic reverb and position-based occlusion etc.

What the hell happened?

I suspect it was Microsoft's push for the dumbed-down XBOX, which also cost us
the more advanced DirectInput API in favor of XInput (which, the last time I
checked, was missing many features from the older API, like complex force-
feedback.)

------
n-gauge
Very sad.

I'm still rocking an EP7 IIe Piano after all these years...

------
anon263626
808 down. R.I.P.

