The series of FA workstations, which is a budget alternative to Fantom top stations, produced in 2000-2010, till now had only 2 keyboard versions - 5 and at 7.5 octaves. Now Roland offers a new version - FA-07 - 6 octaves. Except the keyboard, the synthesizer is no different from the other models of the series. However the release of FA-07 by the Japanese company actually nails the right to be called the only 6-octave workstation in its price range replacing the slightly outdated KORG Krome 73.

Analog generator waveform is far from being perfect – it’s unstable and suffers from inevitable voltage-brought deformation. Many of the analog filters are unsteady – you might hear some noises, phase shift or self-oscillation. But these very drawbacks make the signal so brisk, lively – well, actually, alive indeed. Digital developments helped to tame analog sound, cut it into samples, increase polyphony, give you a synthesizer equipped with the functions which were simply unobtainable in analog instruments. In 1990s instrument manufacturing companies got highly interested in analog modeling technologies development – they were eager to re-create those smallest details of electric musical instrument circuit behavior.

Should we buy a new one or a second hand unit will serve us well? Here we’ll talk about a never-ending dilemma, designs and pricing, the reasons of purchasing an old instrument or a new one straight after being assembled. We’ll analyze it while having a close up on the Japanese synthesizers (and an English one).