I actually have a very long history with Roland products. The Roland JUPITER-4 was the synthesizer
I used most on the first Duran Duran album. It features on a lot of the tracks. The sound
that opens Planet Earth. And Rio – the arpeggiator – is the Roland JUPITER-4. And it was from
that synth that I started learning Roland’s language, of how they put together the panels
on synthesizers. It’s so logical and so easy to work with – intuitive – that that’s
why I’ve always loved Roland products. The Roland JUPITER-8 is the synthesizer that I
have used most throughout my career. There’s something about the sound of them that is
so warm and big, and for me, easy to manipulate. It features very heavily on the Rio album.
These early sequences were quite basic compared to what we have now, but they were also revolutionary.
They really pioneered what was going on with sound. The SH-2 and CSQ-100, I used on the
track The Chauffeur, and also on Save A Prayer. What I love about the Roland products is that
they all have their own personality and their own character, and my heart always remains
with analogue synthesizers. So interestingly, we have arrived at this
point, in the history of Roland, where we have the JD-XA. It’s an analogue/digital
crossover synthesizer – I’m very excited about it, because it does something that no
other synthesizer can do. It has two separate sound engines: one analogue and one digital
path. You can use them individually, or you can use them combined. I particularly like
the effects, which give you great flexibility. You have twelve DSPs, and they really do sound
extraordinarily good. The synth has loads of polyphony, and is really well-built for
live performance; all the controllers are in the right places. The filter is particularly
good, too. When you hear the filter stepping through on this, there’s a lot of depth.
I’ve always been surrounded by Roland products when we’re on tour. They’ve been incredibly
reliable. I kept the JUPITER-8 out for as long as I possibly could, and then eventually,
I decided it was silly taking them out, because I didn’t want to damage them anymore. And
so we’ve sampled all my original sounds from the JUPITER-8. And on this tour, the
upcoming tour for Paper Gods, I’m going to be taking out three of these JD-XAs and
using them internally, but also as controllers, because they do work particularly well with
the main stage system. I wanted my keyboards for the live show to
have the sort of controllers on them, and the performance ability, of the synths that
I usually use in the studio. And since most of them are Roland, the JD-XA is perfect,
because the pitch bend and the modulation and the wheels are programmable, assignable,
obviously, for anything you want. So you really do have incredible control over what you’re
doing. And if you happen to be travelling on a bus, plane or train, there is a handy
pocket-sized version which is the JD-Xi. After three and a half decades of using Roland
products, I find myself making the new Duran Duran album – and I’m still using Roland
synths. The JD-XA, which arrived during the final days of recording Paper Gods, has even
made it onto the album.