Roland has announced that they are now shipping the Lucina AX-09 – their strap-on “shoulder synthesizer”.
The Lucina set off Synthtopia’s Super-Doppler Keydar™ alert system when it was announced. And, while Roland may not be pegging the Lucina AX-09 as a keytar, the “shoulder synthesizer” name doesn’t quite cut it.
Here’s what Roland has to say about the AX-09:
With a stylish body and 37 keys, the Lucina AX-09 is compact, lightweight, and loaded with 150 high-quality sounds that cover a wide stylistic range, from synth leads to solo violin. It can be played in either a standing position using a shoulder strap or in a traditional horizontal tabletop orientation.
Find the perfect sound quickly with the Category buttons, and press the Preview button to hear the currently selected sound with a pre-programmed riff. Assign your top 12 sounds to the Favorites bank for instant, one-button recall. Volume, reverb, and patch edits can be stored with each Favorite.
The design of the Lucina AX-09 is actually kind of cool, making the synth equally at home played horizontally or as a keytar.
The positioning of some of the controllers, though, looks more convenient for strap on play vs horizontal.
Lucina AX-09 Features:
- Lightweight, compact design
- Easy-to-use, intuitive user interface
- 150 high-quality sounds that cover a wide stylistic range
- 37-note velocity-sensitive keyboard, 128-voice polyphony
- External-In Jack and USB-Memory Audio Player Function
- Runs on AC or battery power
- It’s a cheap keytar!
The Lucina AX-09 synth is available in White and Black Sparkle, with suggested prices of $699.00 and $799.00.
D-Beam enabled Strap-On with touch controller, runs up to 4 hours and according to the specs page it's nearly 10 inches deep.
Hot.
P.S. "Black Sparkle", really?
I think you may have misunderstood the thrust of this article.
Whoops, my bad! Oh well, all this talk of a stylish body in traditional horizontal tabletop orientation has inspired me to go practice some fingering..
Did Synthtopia say that it was cheap or was that a quote from Roland.. It isnt really that cheap..
Lazlo – that's my perspective.
The MSRP prices are about $100 more than you can expect to pay.
$600 for a keytar is low-end.
On a more serious note, is it just me or is Roland completely inept at marketing this thing? First there was this tragic promo video:
https://www.synthtopia.com/content/2010/03/25/is-t…
The picture above and the ones at Roland's site are some woman pretending to rock out (I guess?) on it (she looks like her pants are too tight, really..), and their new video is all about how it's great from the cheesy "Hi I'm a kid over-enthusiastically reading a script written by an adult" perspective.
Clearly they're trying to break the lower-cost family market. I just feel like they might be killing it for everyone else.
I'd like to see a demo of the sounds, rather than a bunch of people telling me it has great sounds because Roland makes it. Rolands best videos IMO have always been of their talented musicians showing what their instruments can really do.
heh heh heh "strap-on"
Oh god. I’m glad I didn’t see these ads before buying my Roland Lucina. I chose Lucina because I found it more affordable than the AX-Synth. Ironically, if my parents were the ones buying it for me, I would’ve went for the AX-Synth instead, but whatever. LOL. As a music student and a beginner with synths, I’m loving it so far. But if I have watched these videos beforehand, I would’ve probably changed my mind. These ads are just downright awful. O_o
I was referring to ads like the one Alastair was referring to, just to be clear.