Roland U-220 1992 Black MIDI Vintage Digital Synthesizer Expander

Up for sale is my Roland U-220 MIDI Synthesizer Expander. It works fine and sounds great - also the Display is still very good.

Only issue is that the power knob sometimes is a bit jerky if you want to switch the unit off. 
Probably only needs opening and cleaning - otherwise full OK and and great collectable synth for this price! 
Will not loose value any more ;-)

 
And here's one of the classic early ROMplers, the Roland U-220. The U-220 is the successor to the original , and it's the rack version of the U-20 synthesizer. Both instruments came out right after the world-famous  had raised the bar quite a bit for sample-based synthesizers, and, like the  (that came out at around the same time), were meant to provide the users with a solid base of "bread and butter" sounds for pop, rock and dance music.

The U-series uses a type of synthesis called RS-PCM - which stands for ReSynthesized Pulse Code Modulation, and it's Roland's 2nd generation sampling technique. It is based on high-quality samples.

The structure of this synth reminds of the D-50 and its tones, partials and patches. Here we have 128 basic components called "tones", that can be used to build "timbres". Timbres can then be combined in various ways to build "patches". This is a fairly elaborate process which seems daunting at the beginning, but fairly easy once you are used to the way the U-220's OS works.
 

Besides instrument waveforms/tones, the U-220 also features drum samples. They are fairly punchy and typically with an 80s feel. You can certainly use these percussion tones to form patches - indeed, some of the more creative factory patches use drum sounds as starting points.

One drawback of the U-series is that there are no filters. The editing options are few and limited to choosing tone, setting level, pitch, vibrato, and effects parameters - so clearly the U-series is not the best option if you want a full-fledged synthesizer that you can edit to the max.

This is definitely a plug 'n' play, performance synth: this module responds beautifully to velocity messages, and also the aftertouch is incredibly responsive and guarantees "felt" performances. It's also 6+1 (for rhythm) polytimbric, so you can use it to compose full songs.

The U-series can also be expanded thanks to two slots for the SN-U110-series of PCM cards, which really open up all kinds of possibilities for this machine.

It's also interesting to note that - from what I can hear - many of the waveforms in the U-series ROM ended up in the hugely successful Sound Canvas series - which largely contributed to the success of the GM (General MIDI) standard in the early 90s.