There are significantly fewer buttons on the 5050 than on any of its siblings. You won't easily mistake this module amongst the others in your rack! When all its lights are blazing, the vermilion display, the green, orange and red LED buttons and the blue/red legending give the impression of those pick-and-mix junk sweeties that are so irresistible at your local cinema. The XV5050's appearance is quite striking, with its slim 1U front panel finished in shiny, brushed chrome. Further background can also be found in the XV5080 review ( SOS November 2000) and the XV88 review ( SOS January 2001). The XV synthesis engine and architecture have previously been detailed in an examination of the XV3080 (see SOS July 2000), so this review will be more concerned with operational and feature comparisons between the XV5050, 30 modules. However, as it turns out, while the XV5050 does indeed lose something on the swings, it also gains a couple of things on the roundabouts. The new 5050, meanwhile, retails at £749 in the UK - £250 less than the XV3080 - so a few further compromises are to be expected in order to achieve this lower price tag.

While the XV3080 shares an identical synth engine and architecture to the 5080, some compromises and feature reductions were implemented in order to meet a lower price point. The XV5080 remains the flagship of the XV range, sporting the maximum amount of everything. The series continues with the arrival of the newest XV to hit the streets - the XV5050 module. This has produced the XV5080, XV3080, and XV88 keyboard so far, as well as the recent keyboard spin-offs RS5, RS9, and Fantom. The time was right to reveal their next-generation multitimbral S+S synth, and so the XV-series was born. The JV10 modules soon became industry standards, and at that point it must have been clear to Roland that they were on to a winner (or several). Roland's JV/XP-series took many forms the JV80, 90, 880, 1000, 1080, 2080, 1010, XP10, 30, 60, and 80 all spring to mind, not to mention the M-series of dedicated 'Expansion Board' models. It would be reasonable to speculate that the number of ways a manufacturer decides to repackage a particular synthesizer design is a fair measure of its success.

Roland's latest module provides the most affordable way yet to access the company's fine XV soundset, albeit with reduced polyphony and a less intuitive user interface compared to the more expensive XV5080.

Roland expansion boards