The rumour mill is back! It's time for speculation, and this time, it's about the new Roland Boutique! Roland has us going before with their sneak preview of the Aira machines, and that all turned out well. But now, let's sit back and enjoy some good old-fashioned guesswork!
Boutique?
The video below is vague, but they don't call it a 'teaser' for nothing. Let's have a look at some possible scenarios. First of all, the name: 'Boutique'... In the world of vintage synthesizers, this term refers to all that is specialised and not to be found in big, impersonal stores. A boutique is a little store with a sort of workshop, a place with a very unique instrument behind the counter. It's not about the latest synths for the masses, but about a one-of-a-kind synth for a connoisseur. In spite of all this, we realise we can't really call Bax-shop a boutique. We're counting on getting our hands on these new synthesizers, though! But who can say? These Roland Boutique synthesizers might very well be for aficionados only.
Analogue?
We're guessing 'Boutique' stands for everything that is vintage; after all, the video teaser does show a number of milestones in synthesizer history. For example, the Roland Jupiter-8 has been in the top 10 list of the most popular synths of all time, not to mention the JX-3P and the beloved Juno-106. Could this mean that Roland is going old-school again? After all, the JD-Xi and JD-Xa synthesizers already feature a real analogue voice, and the Aira line-up is already full of good analogue modelling.
Portable
Towards the end of the teaser video, Roland shows what looks like three portable desktop synths with mini keys. Is this a sort of Arturia MicroBrute? These kinds of small synths are a trend right now, as we saw when Yamaha recently released a similar line, the Reface series, consisting of four 'mini' synths.
Plug-out?
More speculation? Perhaps these are the new implementations for Roland's Plug-out system? It wouldn't be too far-fetched, seeing it's still a new concept with lots of growth potential.
Well, this is all we can come up with for now. We probably won't have to wait long for an answer to our questions, as was the case with the Aira release. Till then... what do you think?
