KVR Audio

Doc Brown · Post by **Doc Brown** » Fri Jun 27, 2014 4:48 pm

Is it just me or is it sorely lacking a chorus effect? I'm assuming they will announce a Juno 60 or similar plugout at some point. How could that not include a chorus?

Kriminal · Post by **Kriminal** » Fri Jun 27, 2014 4:52 pm

Doc Brown wrote: Is it just me or is it sorely lacking a chorus effect? I'm assuming they will announce a Juno 60 or similar plugout at some point. How could that not include a chorus?

The plug out has a chorus, among other fx

pdxindy · Post by **pdxindy** » Fri Jun 27, 2014 6:35 pm

rod_zero wrote:The idea is brilliant, many of us have been waiting for something like this.

+1

ghettosynth · Post by **ghettosynth** » Fri Jun 27, 2014 7:45 pm

Shy · Post by **Shy** » Fri Jun 27, 2014 11:42 pm

But some modern Roland instruments like Integra-7 are pretty damn great, mostly because of exceptional recordings / sample programming quality. They even have pretty good filters. It's mostly the "we're bringing back excellent analog instruments with our new and improved digital versions" stuff that they suck at, like everyone else. At least this System 1 has a nice interface. Although I suppose if I check, I'll find out that it only sends 7-bit MIDI CC.

ghettosynth · Post by **ghettosynth** » Fri Jun 27, 2014 11:47 pm

JCJR · Post by **JCJR** » Sat Jun 28, 2014 12:40 am

Granted people want the knobs and sound of an SH101 but the recent roland all-digitals like the FA have some pretty good potential "analogish" sounds hiding in the parameters, and I don't mind pushing buttons and micro-editing lots of screens. Which is fairly painless on the FA.

The other day watched a couple of youtube videos of arp odyssey white face. Had forgotten how wide a swath that thing could cut. Guess SH101 would be the same attraction.

I just eventually got tired of every one of the zillion combinations of sliders and switches when I had my white face, so after about 15 years it started getting in the way and sold it off.

Had some other little early roland mono synth in the same era, not the 101. It was fun for a long time too. If I'd had an SH101 would have got just as tired of it as I did the odyssey.

ghettosynth · Post by **ghettosynth** » Sat Jun 28, 2014 1:49 am

Sendy · Post by **Sendy** » Sat Jun 28, 2014 3:14 pm

ghettosynth wrote:
Sendy wrote:Check out the Nick Batt demo of the System-1... I did, didn't like it. Especially the supersaw, it sounds cramped, linear and "blatty" (you know, uneven rough low end, as many fundamentals interfere in a chaotic swirl). When you compare that to the JP-8k supersaw, the difference is night and day, it's light, airy, the perfect vanilla spice for pads.

How does Roland manage to pioneer so many classic dance sounds and then go on to completely screw them up? It's legendary.
I wouldn't use the word Pioneer. I think that the answer is really that Roland screws up everything but, in retrospect, people like the mistakes. The 808 was never intended to go boooooooom, that was really just sloppiness in the decay circuit. The 909 was really meant to be as close to an acoustic kick as possible, but without using samples because you couldn't get variation and subtlety from samples at the time. Everyone else was using samples though so that engineering to get this nice variable kick paid off. Again, I don't think that they were trying to create the definitive techno kick sound, they thought that it sounded better than samples.

The 101 wasn't meant to be a tabletop techno dream. You were supposed to buy one to be Duran Duran, and the 303, of course, is legend, it was really viewed as a failure by Roland.

Now, to give credit where credit is due, I think that their filters were awesome and are a large part of why their synths are so well regarded.

Definitely, I meant "pioneer" with the bare minimum of intent. But they had a knack of stumbling into great sounds and I think their older engineers had some really creative solutions which, a bit like the lo-fi chiptune mentality, created interesting idiosyncratic sounds out of limitations.

Honestly all this new Roland stuff seems a bit like a joke to me, though I'm sure you can make great music with it regardless.

ghettosynth · Post by **ghettosynth** » Sat Jun 28, 2014 5:32 pm

Biome_Digital · Post by **Biome_Digital** » Sat Jun 28, 2014 7:56 pm

Only time will tell.

Sendy · Post by **Sendy** » Sat Jun 28, 2014 8:26 pm

ghettosynth wrote:
Sendy wrote: Definitely, I meant "pioneer" with the bare minimum of intent. But they had a knack of stumbling into great sounds and I think their older engineers had some really creative solutions which, a bit like the lo-fi chiptune mentality, created interesting idiosyncratic sounds out of limitations.
Yes, their analog engineering was really quite something. I may slag on their intent, but the 909 kick is quite an interesting circuit. Interestingly, however, the SH-101, not so much. It's really quite cookie cutter. Yes, it makes use of the incomparable IR3109, but, other than that, it's pretty basic.

Honestly all this new Roland stuff seems a bit like a joke to me, though I'm sure you can make great music with it regardless.
That's pretty much how I feel about it, although I'm hoping that it sparks a revolution in live minimal techno.

I'm hoping the whole electronica, EDM, IDM, scene has a sort of 90's revival, perhaps retaining some of what we learned about mastering and mixing, but returning to the more free-flowing arrangements of the early/mid 90's. Electronic music needs to regain it's innocence and wonder. I'm sick of the prevailing wind of "get the job done" and "it's not what you say, but how loud you say it".

Think Orbital, Snivilisation-era. We just never seem to get stuff like that anymore.

The 101 is definitely a very boring synth technically on paper. It's one of the plainest synths out there. I guess it just filled that niche of Plain Jane and filled it well. It's neon, there's little shade or subtlety to it, but that's often great for background ostinatos where you don't want the sound to be too big or interesting.

noiseboyuk · Post by **noiseboyuk** » Sun Jun 29, 2014 5:03 pm

pdxindy wrote:
rod_zero wrote:The idea is brilliant, many of us have been waiting for something like this.
+1

A cautious +1. Here's where I'm coming from - very happy with soft synths, don't want hardware, want it all loaded up when I open a project. BUT - there's no beating hands on hardware control. And not generic 8 pots whose functions constantly vary - I want a knob permanently marked "resonance", etc and that's where the System 1 comes in. Conceptually its similar to the Virus TI, except you have the potential to control many more synths this way, which is great.

So this looks like the right approach. The SH-101 is an ok start, but if they then offer a Jupiter 8, 106 etc, then things get really interesting. If they'd ever branch out to different manufacturers then it would be an absolute dream. What I don't yet have a grasp of is if the dedicated controls on the System 1 are enough to encompass all those synths. It wouldn't literally have to have every single control the same for me, as long as it covered all the essential functionality that those synths had (and of course the sonics).

Personally I'm not too fussed about the onboard sounds, though if there is an identical plugin version I'd be much more interested - anyone know? And final initial question - anyone know if when you switch focus to a software plugin instance, the System 1 automatically follows? That's critical functionality.

pdxindy · Post by **pdxindy** » Sun Jun 29, 2014 5:52 pm

noiseboyuk wrote:
pdxindy wrote:
rod_zero wrote:The idea is brilliant, many of us have been waiting for something like this.
+1
A cautious +1. Here's where I'm coming from - very happy with soft synths, don't want hardware, want it all loaded up when I open a project. BUT - there's no beating hands on hardware control. And not generic 8 pots whose functions constantly vary - I want a knob permanently marked "resonance", etc and that's where the System 1 comes in. Conceptually its similar to the Virus TI, except you have the potential to control many more synths this way, which is great.

So this looks like the right approach. The SH-101 is an ok start, but if they then offer a Jupiter 8, 106 etc, then things get really interesting. If they'd ever branch out to different manufacturers then it would be an absolute dream. What I don't yet have a grasp of is if the dedicated controls on the System 1 are enough to encompass all those synths. It wouldn't literally have to have every single control the same for me, as long as it covered all the essential functionality that those synths had (and of course the sonics).

Personally I'm not too fussed about the onboard sounds, though if there is an identical plugin version I'd be much more interested - anyone know? And final initial question - anyone know if when you switch focus to a software plugin instance, the System 1 automatically follows? That's critical functionality.

Just to clarify my big +1... I like the idea of being able to use a set of plugins in the DAW and be able to also use/transfer them in a standalone controller synth. However, I doubt Roland is the one to do it and do not particularly find the S1 appealing.

With the S1 hardware itself...

not that important, but I know I would get annoyed always looking at the glowing green all the time

more important, there is no modwheel/pitchwheel (yes there is that jogwheel type scatter knob that also does pitch)
25 keys is just not enough... 37 please
There is no Velocity or Aftertouch

And while I understand the notion of keeping things to a knob per parameter, it means that there is not much flexibility for future plug-out synths. With this hardware setup, how would you later have a bandpass filter type on a different plugout synth for example?

Seems like a small screen would be helpful in this regard.

Roland says there will be more plugout synths besides the SH-101... Are they all going to have the same basic architecture and all without velocity/AT/modwheel? Seems like very little future flexibility is possible.

JCJR · Post by **JCJR** » Sun Jun 29, 2014 6:09 pm

No velocity is way too retro. Lots of sounds work best with little or no velocity response, but losing the feature altogether is rather extreme.

Roland Aira System-1 + SH101 Plug Out Finally Announced