It’s fair to say we don’t generally cover accordions at Piano and Synth Magazine, but when this latest offering from Roland caught our eye, we knew we had to showcase it.
I love the accordion, even though I can’t play it, and Roland has brought the instrument well into the 21st century with the unveiling of its FR-18 diatonic V-Accordion.
Roland claims it to be the world’s first diatonic digital accordion. One distinct advantage of its digital credentials is that it can be instantly switched to any tonality or configuration, including user-defined ones.
Should you wish to, you can also play a range of other orchestral instruments.
The feature set includes:
- 12 onboard accordion models, including three user sets
- Virtual Tone Wheel organs onboard with slow and fast rotary
- Four user program registrations
- Programmable keyboard and bass button layout
- Drum function for manual percussion via bass and chord buttons
- Battery power and wireless capability allows complete player freedom
The accordion is kept light because it has no built-in speaker. It comes supplied with a pair of high-quality Roland earphones, and can be connected to an appropriate stage amp when required.
Exact pricing and availability to be confirmed.
2 thoughts on “Roland FR-18 diatonic V-Accordion unveiled [NAMM11]”
I can’t wait to get my hands on one of these. I’m sick of lugging 3 or more button accordions to gigs to keep up with all the singers who spontaneously pick new and wierd keys to sing in.
Rob
Hi Rob,
I couldn’t agree with you more – one accordion for all keys?!?!? Whoa.
I think about all those songs I would have liked to play, except that the best part of the song is when it modulates to some other key I don’t have.
And the price looks a lot more friendly than the Roland V piano accordions (WAYYY overpriced, and under-featured in my opinion, but I don’t play piano accordion anyways…)
Wonder where I can take a test drive?
-David