Bristol’s seminal Reprazent crew, veteran drum’n’bass trooper DJ Krust has identified Roland’s V Synth as one of his most vital studio tools. In his interview with Kraft, he commented that:

At the heart of my studio is the Roland V-Synth. It’s one of the best synths I’ve used for the kind of thing it does and it’s pretty versatile – it helps shape my sounds and give me endless choice when it comes to manipulating them. This keyboard is the backbone of my unique sound and has taken it in a whole new direction.

The functions are in a league of their own. It allows you to use it in a multi-dimensional way, really – it has something called an Elastic Audio Synthesizer, so when you sample a sound it gives it a smooth, unbelievable texture. Then you can send that sound through all the functions the keyboard has and resample it if you want.

One of my favourite parts of the V-Synth is the Multi Step Modulator. This turns your sound into a kind of rhythm which you can then process. It works well on drums or long sounds. When you add this to key velocity or aftertouch with a filter on the D Beam, and LFO on the Time Trip Pad. You can quickly see how much you can do to the sound – the only limit is your imagination.