Roland was established in Osaka, Japan in 1972 and by 1973 had produced Japan's first synthesizer- the SH 1000. By 1975 this was joined by the JC range of guitar combos and amplifiers and further expanded in 1977 by the world's first guitar synthesizer - the GR500. Further innovation followed with the TR 808 programmable drum machine and then the Jupiter 8 note polyphonic synthesizer. Then in 1987 Roland developed SA synthesis and created the D50 Linear synthesizer which became a market leader for several years.
Roland continue to develop a diverse range of digital technology products and over the last few years have added a Virtual Guitar Module to their list (VG-8V) and a Digital hard disk based multi-track recorder (VS1680).
