NAMM 2025: The NAMM show where music's big gear manufacturers wheel out their big guns for the year ahead and, of course, Roland is never one to miss the opportunity to launch a major new keyboard line.
In our video above, we caught up with David Ahlund, Roland’s global synth product specialist to find out more about their new performance-focused V-Stage line. So where does V-Stage fit in with Roland’s already burgeoning synth line up, we wondered?
“It’s basically an all-in-one gig rig but it has a complete focus on keyboard sounds, so that means organ, acoustic piano, electric piano. We do have a synthesizer section as well but the main focus is keyboard sounds with a dedicated section for each. It’s also designed to be very quick to operate, to set up your scenes and your patches,” Ahlund explained.
Of course, by now Roland have got their synth development and technology back-end thoroughly fettled with all of their current instruments featuring their Zen Core engine, a shared technology both able to accurately emulate their classic synths and be the backbone for future-focused synth developments.
It’s the power behind the Jupiter, Juno, JX and SH emulations on board their Fantom, Jupiter and Juno hardware keyboards, and is also what drives the plug-ins (both old and new) within their Roland Cloud digital service.
It comes as no surprise therefore to find that the new V-Stage has Zen Core inside too.
“It does have the Zen Core sounds but that’s not the focus,” corrects Ahlund. “The focus is the organ, acoustic piano and the EP which have different technologies. The organ and acoustic piano are all modelled and the EP is a new, we call it ‘enhanced supernatural’ with brand new samples of tine EPs, reed EPs.”
And there’s Roland’s V-Piano tech on board, the digitally modeled infinitely variable piano that offers precise control of every parameter from frame size to degree of lid opening. “Because it’s modeled you can really tweak the piano and make very detailed adjustments to it,” says Ahlund.
So who is the new V-Stage – available in both 76 and 88-note piano-weighted versions – aimed at?
“It’s largely aimed at professional players who mainly focus on keyboard sounds. Like if you’re in a soul-funk band, or a church band... the synthesizer is still there if you want a nice pad layer on the acoustic piano,” explains Ahlund.
And, having got hands-on with both new keyboards we can testify as to their quality of build and road-worthiness – right down to those cheeky Nord Stage-emulating wooden red end panels…
V-Stage will be available this Spring priced at $3,500 for the 76-note version and $3,999 for the piano-weighted 88.
Check out our video above to see and hear it in action.
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