Roland System-8 – historic turning point?
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The next generation of musicians has the enjoyment of twisting and adjusting on instruments that follow the
classical, tried-and-true structure of OSC-MIXER-FILTER and AMP. Or of turning knobs, discovering the influence of
a ring modulator on the interaction of the oscillators and exploring the effects of cross-modulation. That in itself is a
very good thing. And should that nest-egg someday be big enough to fulfill the dream of a Jupiter-8, then the
System-8 user will already be familiar with the Jupiter’s basic sound architecture. So far so very good.
In addition, the System-8 has ist own very useful, musically effective basic sound. A battery of presets is at your
fingertips and the Plug-Outs do their own stuff, of course, to widen your musical horizon. Which means the System-8
is a very useful and sensible choice as a sound-designer-synth. Its strengths lie — just one opinion among many, I
know — in the experimental field and in the area of soundscapes and specially-colored solo sounds.
