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

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The controls extend to the back of the neck, with several important ones under your left thumb. First up are two rotary controllers – one for volume and one for aftertouch.

Unfortunately, this aftertouch control is slightly misleading – it doesn't control aftertouch as we know it as the AX-Synth doesn't have an aftertouch keybed (shame). Basically, it's an extra rotary modulation control and acts differently depending on the sound selected.

There are three further buttons on the back of the neck for switching on portamento, kicking in the bender mode and activating the hold function. The bender mode is particularly useful on lead guitar type sounds, as it only bends the last note played. Nice.

The hold button is almost like a sustain button – you play the note, press hold and it sustains infinitely until you let go, freeing you up to fiddle with the D-Beam and modulation.

Keyboard-wise, the AX-Synth has a 49-note, four-octave, velocity-sensitive C to E design (an improvement on the AX-7's 45-note E to C design). It feels good and is playable at most angles, though we found it a little too stiffly sprung and the action sometimes got in the way of faster runs.

While on the subject of playability, Roland has made two-handed playing a genuine option via a couple of different places to attach the strap. Another of the AX's clever bits of attention to detail.

The front panel of the AX-Synth houses all the internal and external MIDI patch selection buttons, a seven-segment old-school red LED display (same as the AX-7s), transpose buttons and controls for storing 16 of your favourite patches for instant recall (via the A and B favourite buttons).

The keyboard also doubles up as a numeric keypad for selecting external MIDI channels (bottom octave) and patch changing (top octave).

Patch selecting while playing is a doddle and it's great that the up/down patch selectors have been moved from the neck (on the AX-7) to the front panel. It's much easier stepping through the sounds using your right hand, rather than your left.

Perhaps it would have worked a bit better if the front panel had been tilted towards the player more, though, as it's quite hard to see the display panel once you've strapped on.

Sounds

Probably the most important difference between AX-Synth and its AX-series predecessors is the inclusion of the 128-note polyphonic, Fantom G-derived sound engine.

It's great to have this onboard as it means that you don't have to connect to external MIDI gear just to make a sound, and you can instantly start playing without any connections. Big hats off to Roland for doing this, though built-in (mini?) speakers would have been a nice bonus.

On the whole, the onboard sounds are very playable and very controllable and there's something for every type of player, whether you're into funk, soul, rock or acoustic.

There's definitely an emphasis on lead type sounds – lots of synths, guitars and squalling saxes – and while they won't set the world on fire, they are generally good quality, designed to cut through a mix.

Highlights include the 'Supernatural' violins, cellos and brass (the mod bar is assigned to expression on several of these sounds). Furthermore, there are some great analogue style basses and leads, huge-sounding polysynths and pads, a couple of nice pianos, organs, clavs, choirs and more. The only thing missing here is front panel control for the effects.