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Roland isn't calling the AX-Synth a keytar, but everyone else is.

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Roland first entered the keytar market with the SH-101 in 1983 (the mod grip option turned it from a humble monosynth into a keytar). Following this, it released the AX-1 in 1992 and the AX-7 in 2002 (both successful MIDI controller keytars that had no onboard sounds).

After discontinuing the AX-7 in 2007, second-hand prices began to rocket – a testament to how popular these products actually are. Face it: keytars are so bad they're good and, in recognition of the need for cheese, Roland has brought it back big style.

As keytars go, the AX-Synth a gorgeous beast. It looks great in white, with flowing clean lines and, if you've got the nerve and desire, you WILL stand out on stage.

Coupled with neon blue lights on the preset select buttons, it all adds up to a very elegant product (though we have to say it's slightly let down by the plastic that it's fashioned from).

Connectivity

There are plenty of connections on the AX-Synth. You get a pair of jack audio outs, a headphone socket, MIDI In and Out, a foot pedal socket and USB/USB MIDI that enables the AX-Synth to communicate with PCs (and hopefully Macs soon). The USB editor will allow editing of the AX's built-in synth sounds on your computer.

Once edited, sounds can then be uploaded back to the AX-Synth. This is great, though it would have been even better if there were independent controls for envelopes, filter resonance/cutoff and effect control on the front panel itself. It's a bind that you have to connect to a computer even for these basic duties. However, you can change the reverb send and patch volume levels using Shift+Tone buttons.

Power can be supplied to the AX-Synth via the supplied walwart power supply or from eight Ni-MH rechargeable batteries (AA size) or normal AAs. Roland has even included two hooks to stop wires being yanked away when on stage.

Features

Strapping on the AX-Synth for the first time is a truly liberating experience. It feels well balanced and everything falls instantly to hand. On the front of the neck are controls for octave up and down, the modulation bar (which feels great for mod duties and fits the hand perfectly) and the touch controller for pitch bending.

However, here's our first gripe – the neck is a little thick under the touch controller and it's sometimes hard performing accurate pitch bends. It's also quite a long way to reach round over the top of the mod bar. Not a massive problem, but if you have smaller hands, the AX-Synth might be hard to get to grips with (no pun intended).

Next to the mod bar and touch controller are three buttons that assign functionality to the D-Beam infrared controller – a now common device on Roland products. These buttons can control either pitch or filter, or can be assigned to other controller duties as required (volume is a useful assignment here). The D-Beam is always handy to have around and it's a great visual controller, too.