New FA-06 and FA-08 Music Workstations

Let Your Creativity Flow

Roland FA-06 Music Workstation with 61-note keyboard.

Until now, keyboard workstations have typically been difficult to use to their full potential, slowing down your musical inspiration with confusing features and complex interfaces. But Roland has changed all that with the FA-06 and FA-08, two user-friendly instruments that are extremely powerful and versatile, yet effortless to operate. This new breed of workstation brings you an unmatched level of creative freedom in every playing situation, combining all the professional tools you need with a practical and intuitive interface that’s a dream to navigate.

Offering a huge selection of Roland’s very best sounds, a 16-track sequencer, seamless DAW integration, an easy-to-use sampler, and much more, the FA series flows comfortably into every part of your musical world. The FA-06 includes a synth-action keyboard with 61 velocity-sensitive keys, while the FA-08 is equipped with an 88-note Ivory Feel-G Keyboard providing weighted-action performance derived from Roland’s high-end pianos. Beyond their keyboard types, all features in the FA-06 and FA-08 are identical.

FA-06/FA-08 Music Workstation

Roland FA-08 Music Workstation with 88-note Ivory Feel G keyboard.

Think Less, Play More

First and foremost, Roland designed the FA series for ultra-fast workflow in everything you do, from playing live to composing to working in the studio. The instrument powers up quickly and is ready to go in seconds, a stark contrast to other workstations that can take a full minute or more to boot. A large color LCD provides an inviting, hi-res graphical screen for surfing through sounds and functions, and the panel’s logical organization lays out every section clearly.

Dedicated buttons give you direct control of essential functions such as sound selection, octave range, transpose, sequencer control, and more. The Sound Modify section features six knobs and a simple assignment matrix, letting you tweak a multitude of things in real time while performing, including filter cutoff, attack, release, effects parameters, and many user-assignable settings. Roland’s famous D-Beam is also on board, providing yet another dynamic control option for spicing up your performances. The FA series also includes Rhythm Pattern, Arpeggio, and Chord Memory functions, along with a tempo display and dedicated panel controls for tapping or dialing in tempos on the fly.     

Sound Modify section on the FA series.

Roland’s Best Sounds and Multi-Effects

Inside the FA-06 and FA-08 is a collection of over 2000 tones derived from the INTEGRA-7, Roland’s flagship pro sound module, including all SuperNATURAL synth and XV-5080 PCM tones, plus an essential collection of expressive SuperNATURAL acoustic tones from pianos and organs to bass, drums, strings, and more. The FA series is compatible with free INTEGRA-7 synth tone downloads at Roland’s Axial sound library site, and it’s also possible to extend the internal sound set with optional wave expansion collections.

Independent MFX engines—each with 67 effects types—are available for all 16 parts of a Studio Set, giving you an enormous amount of sound processing for live playing and song mixing. Six separate COMP+EQ processors are dedicated for individual drum sounds, allowing you to create punchy, record-quality percussion tracks without robbing processing from other parts. The workstation’s output can be enhanced with global EQ, chorus, and reverb, as well as dramatic TFX (total effects) such as DJ FX Looper, Isolator, and many others.

Hi-res color display and sound category buttons on the FA-06/FA-08 Music Workstation.

Sampler Based on the SP-404SX

The FA series is equipped with a performance sampler based on Roland’s popular SP-404SX, which is renowned for its fast, friendly operation. You can sample internal sounds and/or external sources connected to the rear-panel Mic/Guitar and Line inputs, and then easily assign them to the 16 pads for triggering and looping on the fly. Via SDHC cards, samples load instantly with no wait time, a great benefit when performing live. In addition, a variety of onboard editing functions are on tap for tweaking samples. Of course, you can also use WAV, AIFF, or MP3 files transferred from a computer with the FA series’ sampler.

Sampler section on the FA-06/FA-08 Music Workstation.

Instantly Capture Your Songs & Ideas

The FA series features a powerful 16-track sequencer with streamlined operation for building songs quickly. At any time, you can start recording with a simple button press, so you’re always able to capture your ideas as they happen. It’s easy to expand those ideas into complete arrangements using the workstation’s sounds, and continuous recording in loop mode lets you fill up all 16 tracks without stopping the sequencer! Song tracks can be edited, mixed, and bounced to an SDHC card as a stereo audio file, and it’s also possible to export tracks as individual WAV audio files or MIDI data for further development in your computer-based DAW.

Roland FA-06 Music Workstation used for DAW production in a home studio.

Easily Connect to Your Computer DAW

Computers are the hub of modern studio production, and the FA series transitions effortlessly into this environment via USB. With a press of the dedicated DAW Control button, you can instantly set up the FA-06/FA-08 to communicate with your computer and use the keyboard, knobs, and buttons send MIDI data to your DAW for playing software synths, adjusting plug-ins, operating transport controls, and more. The FA series also functions as a USB audio interface, with high-quality sound capture and playback via the workstation’s rear-panel audio jacks.

Learn more about these powerful music workstations at the FA-06 and FA-08 product pages.

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