The title of this chorale, Du Friedensfürst, Herr Jesu Christ translates to "Thou Prince of Peace, Lord Jesus Christ."
A friend of mine recently gave me an old Roland u-20. This is a synthesizer of the rompler category. A rompler stores sounds and plays them back, as opposed to a proper synth which generates sound internally using any number of methods such as additive or subtractive synthesis. This particular instrument, while vintage-ish, is a fairly low frills example from its time (1989). Judging by the prices on ebay, it is definatly not a sought after instrument.
I was not really expecting to ever use the u-20 for anything. However, after playing with it for a while I discovered that it has some really nice sounds. Many of these sounds are cheesy its true. But its GOOD cheese. It has some internal effects, the possibility of 30 voices, and 6 parts with a percussion part. unfortunately the interface is confusing. The Roland u-20 can be summed up as: the opposite of user friendly. Perhaps I am just spoiled with all of the modern vsti available now a days. Also many of the buttons on my u-20 do not work, which means I can't really edit any of the sounds or parameters. I have to just use stock patches.
Because the learning curve was so steep for me, I chose a really short piece for the u-20. This chorale is only 9 measures long without repeats. While short, it still has that amazing Bach part writing that one can expect from his chorales.
This project took several days to complete, mostly because I had to learn the u-20's ins and outs. The manual reads like it was written by stereo manufacturers. One confusing example is that the manual refers to both timbres and patches, but does not explain why two terms are needed for the same exact thing until the middle of the manual or so. I guess I am just a total newbie when it comes to hardware.
Link for video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LP7Igsd82zY
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