A 6-part multi-timbral digital synthesizer with 30-voice polyphony and a 61-note keyboard. Released in 1989.

The U-20 offers 4MB ROM of sampled sounds, referred to as "RS-PCM sound generation" in the manual. The unit is basicially just a sample-playback device, with only limited pitch and vibrato controls and no way to edit the presets apart from combining them. No filter or even envelope editing is available. A drum section is included as the 7th timbre. There are 64 presets in all, with double the amount using external U110/U220 RAM cards.

A few onboard digital effects - reverb, chorus and delay - are included, and can be used simultaneously. Other features include an arpeggiator and chord memory.
The keyboard is velocity and aftertouch sensitive, but is said to require maintenance every few years. The keys can be split and layered to max. 7 parts, but users have reported problems with this due to the slow CPU.
U-20's user interface consists of many menus viewed on a backlit 24x2 LCD display, with a special "jump" button assignable to a desired menu for quick access. For external control, MIDI in/out is included.


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