Roland AX-1

Roland AX-1 1994 Cherry Red
Manufacturer	Roland
Period	1992-1994
Red and Black.

The Roland AX-1 is a keytar (a shoulder-held clavier keyboard worn like a guitar), produced by Roland, that does not produce its own sounds but controls other devices (such as keyboards, sound modules and samplers) via MIDI. The industrial design of the Roland AX-1 was done in a basement studio in London, U.K. by two designers, David Sherriff and Andrew Leggo, who ran a small design studio called Space Logic. The electronic design and engineering was done by Roland Europe, Italy.

The Roland AX-1 has a pitch bend ribbon and a touchpad-like expression bar on its neck. It also has a sustain switch on the back of its neck for ease of playing. It has 45 velocity sensitive keys. It does not produce its own sounds but must be plugged into a MIDI device in order to be played. The AX-1 was followed by the Roland AX-7 which added many additional features.

This instrument functions as a MIDI controller; it produces MIDI messages that are sent to an external synthesizer or sound module. (Thus it produces no sound on its own.) It is fully compatible with General MIDI, General MIDI Level 2, and Roland's own GS MIDI implementation. It can store up to 32 patches.

A black model was also produced, the AX-1B.