Roland's RS202 hales from 1976, and was something of a landmark product for Roland. It featured the first outing of the classic Ensemble / Chorus effect that would later grace the Juno and Jupiter lines, and which contributed in large part to the warmth and movement of Roland's big analogue machines.

The RS202 had no ambition to be a huge polysynth, though. It was a string machine, plain and simple, albeit with a useful Brass section incorporated alongside the two String footages. It also had tone controls and two flavours of the wonderful Ensemble to liven things up - position II gives a lush chorus, while position I adds some lively modulation to create the sound that captured the imagination of a generation. Stepping neatly into the Disco scene, the RS202 pretty much defined the sound of 'disco strings' - its character being sweet and soaring in the top octaves, but interestingly gritty and raw in the midrange. (It's quite a contrast to Logan and Godwin in this sense: a much more rough-round-the-edges tonality until you get to the high notes.)