Strap On A New Roland Keytar

Everyone besides Roland is calling their new AX-Synth a keytar. Roland is referring to their new baby as a "shoulder synthesizer". I've never liked the word keytar either. It invokes the idea that what we used to call "ghost" or "solo" keyboards are inherently dorky. I may be biased because as a keyboard player I've always thought they were pretty cool, even though there have only ever been a dozen or so commercial models - a clear indicator of the lack of popularity of the keytar form factor.

The new Roland updates 2002's AX-7 model (and 1991's AX-1 before that) by including a lot more controls, USB style MIDI, and - here's the biggie - onboard sounds. This is pretty unusual as most keytars are MIDI controllers only, relying on an attached sound source. It's cool to be able to pick up the AX-Synth and start playing right away, though it makes me wish they'd gone that extra Casio step and included an on-board speaker.

As a professed keytar fan (I've still got my Casio AZ-1 as proof!), why am I not running out to get one? I'll have to wait and see if they release anything a little less iPod. Seriously, does every advanced piece of electronics have to be toilet porcelain white? Roland's other keytars were a glorious red. When the keyboardist creeps out from behind his racks of gear, he's doing it to get noticed with a hot red red axe, people.

The main reason I really won't be adding the Roland to my arsenal is the exorbitant price. The AX-Synth looks like it'll command over a thousand dollars US which is a lot of money for a keytar or a shoulder synthesizer or whatever they want to call it. I guess that Roland isn't counting on selling too many, or they feel that anyone extraordinary enough to want to play the most modern keytar ever is also happy to pay an extraordinary price as well.

More info on the AX-Synth at musicradar.com
Pick up a keytar on Ebay

related:
Roland AX-7