DIY Organist Finds Solutions From Roland

Michael Morganstern, Ph.D, is a 70-year-old retired Silicon Valley engineering executive. He has played accordion since age 12, and began organ studies at age 55 with a "homebrew" organ made from the wooden case and pedals of an old non-operational Hammond organ, two Roland JV-90 synthesizers, a JV-880 synthesizer, an audio mixer and a pedal to MIDI kit. Later, this "do it yourself" setup was upgraded to a Roland C-190 organ keyboard.

While the organ was a fun woodworking and electronics project, it was not all that an organ can be, and after finding that the Roland C-330 studio organ was affordable, physically attractive, modest in size, and had every feature desired including amazing sound, he purchased one.

Today, Mike's home music studio includes two Roland Classic organs - the two-manual C-330 and C-190 classical organ keyboard - and a Roland digital accordian. Roland distributes its organ products through Rodgers Instruments Corporation in the United States.

The Roland FR-7x is the third electronic accordion Mike has owned. He says this reedless accordion is nothing short of fabulous in quality and choices of sound.

The Roland accordion emulates both orchestral instruments and accordions of varied types, so that whether he's playing Chopin piano works or French street music, each piece is wonderfully rendered. Best of all is the responsiveness to bellows pressure, key velocity and touch as appropriate provide astounding expressiveness.

Mike says that he is definitely not a "brand-loyal person," but every time he compares products, the best choice turns out to be Roland (and Boss, a Roland brand). For example, he purchased a Boss DB-30 metronome specifically because it's capable of 30 beats per second, compared to the slowest tempo that competitive products offered of 40 beats per second. As a retired engineering executive, it is clear to him that Roland listens to comments from professional musicians and incorporates suggestions into their products and is committed to continuous product improvement. That makes a big difference.