- If you're a fan of Roland's late-'70s synthesizers but don't have a few grand to invest in one of the remaining units still in working condition, the Japanese company's recent PLUG-OUT news should be of interest. There are four PLUG-OUT instruments now available, the most recent a recreation of the SYSTEM-100, a massive semi-modular synth first released in 1975. The SYSTEM-100 was an upgradable instrument that consisted of a Model 101 base keyboard synth and three optional add-on units that connected together like Legos. These included the Model 104 Sequencer, the Model 103 Mixer, and the Model 102 Expander, which, in addition to another oscillator/filter combo, also added a sample-and-hold and ring modulator.
When it came time to design the SYSTEM-100 PLUG-OUT, Roland sourced components from the Model 101 and 102 units and essentially created a brand new instrument based loosely around the original designs. The result has two voltage-controlled oscillators, a noise source, two low frequency oscillators (LFOs), a VCF and VCA each with their own dedicated ADSR envelope and the sample-and-hold & ring mod from the Model 102. Nearly all of the components have the same retro look and feel of the original counterparts, including the input/output CV jacks. These can be connected via virtual patch cords within the GUI to add loads of potential for synthesis that you wouldn't be able to achieve with a standard-flow instrument like the SH-101. If you happen to have the new SYSTEM-1m hardware, you can use its modular jacks to route signals between the PLUG-OUT instrument and itself or other devices with real-world patch cables.
Installation of the SYSTEM-100 plug-in is essentially identical to the other PLUG-OUT instruments. The process starts with a free trial installer that, annoyingly, doesn't give you a choice of where to place the plug-in. But in my tests, I had no problem moving the plug-in files to my directory of choice. The trial installation gives you 14 days to test the plug-in, after which the audio will either become distorted or drop in volume until the activation process is completed.
Once you get up and running, you're greeted with the classic gray/green and black color scheme of the SYSTEM-100. The top of the plug-in window is where you can navigate through the presets, open the patch popup screen or open the different settings and options dialogs. In my early tests I found that some of the popups don't work in Bitwig Studio 1.3, and a look at the list of compatible hosts shows that Bitwig is not yet supported, which is unfortunate. After moving my tests to Live 9, though, things functioned correctly. I was thankful to find that the option popup menu worked, because it allows you to zoom the GUI up to 200%. This is fairly critical due to its compact nature, which stays pretty true to the original hardware's size ratios and thus has some really miniature controls.
The designers who worked on the SYSTEM-100 plug-in must have realized that the relative complexity of the instrument calls for some visual aids to help make things clearer. To that end, they used colored highlights to differentiate input jacks (green) from output jacks (red), and there is a dedicated button labeled Signal Flow that causes an overlay to appear. This overlay shows the directional flow of audio between the different modules and control voltage between the jacks that have cableless routings. These touches go a long way to help make the instrument more intuitive for musicians who may have never laid eyes on the original. One of the odder design choices was the addition of the routing matrix, which gives you a Battleship-style pin grid for routing CV signals similar to what you see on the famous EMS Synthi. While this is certainly cool to look at and can perhaps speed up the process of patching cables, it feels a bit out of place here.
While many would argue you can get your money's worth out of the plug-in on its own, one of the main selling points of the PLUG-OUT products is their ability to be loaded onto Roland's SYSTEM-1 hardware and played without a computer. I tested this with a SYSTEM-1 keyboard and was pleased with the results. The ACB-modeled algorithms do an impressive job of recreating the original SYSTEM-100's sonic character, and the sound feels more analog than your usual VA synth. However, when playing the SYSTEM-100 in PLUG-OUT mode, you lose some control due to the SYSTEM-1's physical layout. Specifically, you can't control the second LFO or the sample-and-hold module. For me, the lack of sample-and-hold's hands-on control was the bigger disappointment, because that's one of the components that gave the SYSTEM-100 its magic. It is a great source of pseudo-random voltage for having the instrument sequence itself.
Despite that, the technology Roland built into their digital recreation makes it one of the more impressive-sounding plug-ins I've tested, and I was consistently surprised at the depth of what could be achieved thanks to the original modular design. If you're a SYSTEM-1 owner looking for a really solid sounding PLUG-OUT option and aren't afraid to lean on your computer for some of the sound design work, the new SYSTEM-100 is well worth a look.
Ratings:
Sound: 4.8
Cost: 4.0
Versatility: 4.1
Ease of use: 4.1