The Roland RS-202 was a polyphonic string synthesizer, introduced by Roland in 1976. It was the successor to the Roland RS-101, released in 1975.[1][2]
The synthesizer operated using sawtooth wave oscillators, which used a frequency divider in a similar manner to an electronic organ to provide full polyphony across a five-octave keyboard.[3][4] The signal was then fed through a single envelope shaper, making the instrument paraphonic. The front panel had two separate controls for the top and bottom of the keyboard, which could have independent sounds.[3] Each note could be assigned a separate envelope articulation, which was necessary to avoid re-triggering the attack if an extra note was added to an existing chord being played. To achieve a more realistic sound of an ensemble of string players, the output was fed through a chorus effect using a number of delay lines triggered by low frequency oscillators.[5]
An American company called Multivox manufactured a clone of the RS-202, called the MX-202. It used similar internal components, though the sound was weaker.[6]
Notable users of the RS-202 include Genesis' Tony Banks, Camel's Peter Bardens, Los Bukis and Tomita.[6][7]
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