December 13, 2023
Roland XP-80 And The Red Glue From Hell
I absolutely love the Roland keybeds that started to appear in the late eighties/early nineties. Nerd alert incoming > i’m talking about the Matsu****a SK-7/8/9XX. Keys like these are found on for example the Roland JD-800, D70, JV and XP Series. I like to refer to them as the “slightly shorter, squared Roland keybeds”. As much as I like the FS keybeds found on Yamaha and Korg synthesizers such as the Yamaha DX7, SY77, SY99, SY85 or Korg M1 and Wavestation, I slightly prefer the ones that come with the Roland synths. Because of this, I use the Roland V-Synth not only as a synthesizer, but also as my main keyboard in the studio for quite some time now. I also use an old Roland JW-50 as alternative to carry around when working on music at other places. Although the JW-50 has a good feel as well, it does not include the metal plates that give weight to the keys. They are glued underneath the keys and this is what causes a big issue with some of the units from around 1989-1996. Throughout the 1990s, Roland used a particular glue that – after a couple of years – eventually looses its consistency and drips onto the keybed. The glue is red, hence the name “red glue”. The red glue from hell!
Unfortunately, my Roland XP-80 from 1996 suffers from this problem. Apart from the red glue, it’s in great condition and I can of course make use of its sound engine through MIDI. However, I would love to use it more often as a controller. Having six octaves at your fingertips would be nice!
On the web you will find enough information (both blogs and videos) that addresses this issue and instructive tips to solve it. It will be my turn as well sometime in the future.
Devin
