Zen-Core

The brilliance of Zen-Core lies in its flexibility. It’s designed for music creators across the board, whether you prefer working in software or hardware, in the studio or on the go. This dynamic system enables you to share sounds between different Roland hardware and even between hardware and software, giving you the freedom to seamlessly transition from your studio to live gigs or jam sessions.

Zen-Core is not just about rich sounds. It’s about constant evolution. Built on the flexible BMC chip, all Zen-Core products can receive new features and expansions, keeping your instrument up to date and ready for fresh creative ideas. The post-launch updates add substantial new features and sounds to Zen-Core products, enhancing their value to customers.

Through Roland Cloud, you can purchase additional sound engines and sound packs, expanding the horizons of your Zen-Core instrument, and fuelling your creativity.

Roland Zen-Core is a versatile synthesizer system that merges Virtual Analog modelling technology, traditional PCM sampling techniques, and high-quality DSP effects to create a diverse sound palette. The Zen-Core technology is incorporated across various Roland hardware and software products, enabling seamless sound sharing between compatible Zen-Core products, thanks to the Roland Behaviour Modelling Core (BMC) processor chips.

Zen-Core provides a seamless workflow from idea to final production to live performance. It allows musicians to start ideas on any gear, transfer them for recording, and finally to another product suitable for live performance. This flexibility allows musicians to utilise their sounds at every production stage without compromise, fostering easier collaboration between different stages.

No, all Zen-Core products are not identical, Zen-Core products share the same foundational technology but are designed with unique features, interfaces, and user-focused functionalities, catering to a broad range of musicians.

Some Zen-Core products contain additional sound engines or features, like digital samplers or sequencers, for more diverse music production. The hardware interfaces also differ across products, ranging from keyboard synthesizers to grooveboxes, depending on the user’s preferences and musical style.

Each Zen-Core product is tailored to specific user groups and use cases, from professional studio producers to beginners or hobbyists. The robustness, ease-of-use, learning features, and even price point vary accordingly.

A Zen-Core tone is comprised of 4 synth partials and 1 effect. Each partial has one oscillator, one filter, one amp, and two LFO’s. This structure means a single Zen-Core tone can include up to 4 Oscillators, each with their filter and amp settings, and eight independent LFO’s. The number of tones a Zen-Core product supports at once varies. For instance, the MC-101 allows up to 4 Zen-Core tones simultaneously, while the flagship Fantom can use up to 16 at once.

The Jupiter-X/Xm and Juno-X utilise the Zen-Core technology but also feature another technology called Analog Behaviour Modelling (ABM). This technology recreates analogue synth sounds from legacy Roland synthesizers by precisely modelling the behaviour of the analogue components, ensuring the experience of using these synthesizers feels authentically analogue.