New Roland "DANCE" hardware- AIRA TR-8, TB-3, VT-3, SYSTEM-1

[Kriminal]

The audio isnt great on those videos, the keys are louder than the synth

[fmr]

According to this interview (in German) the SYSTEM-100, SYSTEM-100M and SYSTEM-700 are among the further planned "Plug-Outs" for the SYSTEM-1 synth.

Unfortunately, I cannot read german, but if the guy mentioned System-100M and System-700 among the plug-outs, it must be joking.

The fact is that, as of now, even the ultra simple SH-101 is not ready. And they have a background of promises broken that goes back to ten years. So, let's wait for the first "plug-out", see how it works, and then we may start talking about the next (if there is still a System-1 in the Roland product line by then).

[ghettosynth]

According to this interview (in German) the SYSTEM-100, SYSTEM-100M and SYSTEM-700 are among the further planned "Plug-Outs" for the SYSTEM-1 synth.

Unfortunately, I cannot read german, but if the guy mentioned System-100M and System-700 among the plug-outs, it must be joking.

I can read a little german, but google translate does a much better job.

Gerüchten zufolge diente das „Roland System-100“ als Vorbild für die virtuelle Klangerzeugung des Roland System-1. Trifft das zu?
...
Rumor has served the "Roland System-100" as a model for the virtual tone generator of the Roland System-1. Is that correct?

The System 100 is the model for the System-1. It couldn't really be anything else if they are planning on doing the SH101 separately.

[breakmixer]

It's 1999 all over again where people were sold a bill of goods with vendors asserting that plugins were equal to the real thing.

What I'm finding strange at this moment is that their are more than usual(usually none) second hand Bass Bot TT-303 up on Ebay UK, surely they are not selling the Bass Bot to get the TB-3, seems a bit coincidental.

I'm not sold(yet) on the TB-3 nor the System-1, Just the TR-8 for me from the 3 so far.

[mztk]

http://www.musicradar.com/news/tech/mus ... nth-595779

and now Akai are at it too

[MFXxx]

The Akai hijack thread maybe...?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyxngciB_zg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... yxngciB_zg

Understood usb and live performance, my german is nein lol

Anyway larger than I thougt...analogue...we will see...hos it taste with custard?

[ghettosynth]

Understood usb and live performance, my german is nein lol

Anyway larger than I thougt...analogue...we will see...hos it taste with custard?

I like the size. I was hoping to hear it, but, it was nice to see someone holding on to one. I think the current trend of tiny stuff is just too small for good live jamming. This seems like it's large enough to facilitate modding. I would like individual trigger outs for my other analog drum kit. This might be the right companion for my TS-306.

[ghettosynth]

Strangely though I am at the point now where achieving the utmost in sonic purity is not as important as making a good song.

Related, with respect to dance music it is often not about "the song", per se, but about the track. I'm not trying to make a pedantic distinction here, but I think that the difference matters quite a bit, especially with respect to these sorts of instruments.

[idfpower]

At any rate, this is also why I don't get these toys with the same old tired attempts at live variation. Expectations have changed and I'm not seeing any resurgence of interest in minimalist live acid. As was mentioned, I can see them being synced to traktor and used to spice up an existing DJ set. In that case, the simple live variation is enough when played over the top of an existing track. I just find it hilarious that the don't let DJs demo the stuff. Although, I rarely see DJs using these kinds of toys. It might be more wishful thinking than actual market demand.

IMO the hardware manufacturers are pushed in a tight corner by the abundance of software that gets releeased monthly - and the fact that you can get a very powerful VSTI for the fraction of the price of a hardware unit is not helping either. So they are forced to come up with products that are cheap enough to stay in competition (see the Volcas and the like), are fun enough to entice ppl - even it's just for messing around with them in your free time and not for proffessional purposes - and finally, gain new customers that are making the transition from software to their first hardware units and are not too keen on perfect emulations of past sounds. These cater to those folks that post a lot of "live jams" recordings made in their own bedrooms. But on the other hand, if you know how to push these little boxes beyond their limits and you can come up with crafty ways to implement them in your music and stye, you can obtain interesting results To some these are mere toys or cheap imitations, to others they're real instruments that can be used to make music - YouTube is full of guys who managed to make good music by using a lot of toyish/lo-fi/improv gear


Anyway:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXOgZimnznE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GTMvxe3m64

The synth is too expensive for my budget, but honestly I like its sound a lot. It sounds gritty and in your face, seems like it can be pushed into making aggressive leads and raspy basses with ease and overall all these units (especially System-1 and TB-3) have a sound strongly reminiscent of the '90s (they remind me a lot of Prodigy in the "Music for the Jilted Generation" days). Plus Roland did at least one thing right (as opposed to Korg's Volcas): you can save your presets (plus the units come with banks on board). I think for now ppl react based on what they expected these units to be or sound like (faithful emulations/recreations of past successful products) but in time they'll get the proper recognition & respect.

[SLiC]

For me, the lack of a velocity sensative keyboard is a joke, who ever thought velocity and after touch wasn't needed shouldn't be allowed to design synths! I assume the only defence is that it is just a module and you should plug in a real keyboard to play it? Then make it a small desktop module!! It just makes me think Roland have lost the plot and I stop looking at their stuff.....

[ghettosynth]

For me, the lack of a velocity sensative keyboard is a joke, who ever thought velocity and after touch wasn't needed shouldn't be allowed to design synths! I assume the only defence is that it is just a module and you should plug in a real keyboard to play it? Then make it a small desktop module!! It just makes me think Roland have lost the plot and I stop looking at their stuff.....

In fairness, it's reasonable to exclude velocity for a vintage synth "clone."

[mztk]

f*** supersaw.
it has the usual modulation options and the resolution may allow it to
sound better than the first wave of VA; but , it's going to be hard
to surprise, after thousands of esoteric free VST plugins stretching
the limits of what you can do with a stream of bits.

they are going to want to come out with some decent plugouts for it.
who knows, maybe there'll be junos and jupiters and jx's-then it becomes
something more interesting, as a retrospective of roland classics. if they
open up the plugout format for 3rd party programmers, that will be interesting.
look at their history providing expansion cards, and soundbank cards for 80s
gear. looks like it is an all-in-one kit, relatively light weight, for people who
want to have all of it.

thread hijacked by akai, very nicely. seems there are modding possibilities
like hacking extra outs. maybe the drumsounds can be punked up too, and
maybe there are ways to add more trig outs. you'll be able to do so much
with just a bassline and a little drumkit, and it's portable(run on batteries?
probably not). did i hear right? the price in euros to be 209? against 199usd?
why did they just wave it around and not play any of the sounds? all these guys
yapping about specs endlessly instead of playing the sounds.

the akai knobs look cheapo, good excuse to put some nice ones on. with any luck
the case is metal. and you can always put a sticker over that terrible logo. or
paint. worth getting one just to open it up and start punking it up.

[SunWind]

In fairness, it's reasonable to exclude velocity for a vintage synth "clone." Very few, if any, monosynths had velocity sensitive keyboards. I think that the main reason they excluded it, however, is to have a very inexpensive and simple keyboard. The keyboard was commented on in the review above where the Roland rep claims that it helps to keep the device thin. One could also argue that for DJs, velocity sensitivity is actually a hindrance. If you don't really know how to play, at least a little bit, you might find the variation in sound that you'd get from bad technique unacceptable.

Pretty lame argumentation: on one hand Roland wants to move forward in time with their technology then why go back in time in excluding velocity? And, most keyboards (even cheaper ones) have options to select different velocity curves AND even set to a fixed velocity up to 127 which would suit those DJs in your argumentation. So no reason to exclude velocity at all. Also, CME XKey does show that keyboards can be very thin and have velocity as well - so the point of helping to keep the device thin does not count either.

[mztk]

true enough, they could have done that- and then no-one would ever have used fixed
velocity! the alpha juno 1 has fixed velocity, and it is a good thing. it is useful to have
a fixed velocity MIDI keyboard. you don't get the same results playing a vel'sens' keyboard
-so hopefully it has a chord memory somewhere.

[Kriminal]

Its nice to have the option, you can always set vel sens to zero.