The instrument
The Roland System-100M is a modular analog synthesizer manufactured in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It was the successor of the Roland System-100, a semi-modular keyboard. The System-100M is the last modular system from Roland. Three different control keyboards are available: the monophonic 180 with 32 keys, the monophonic 181 with 49 keys for four octaves and the polyphonic 184 for four octaves with arpeggiator. The 190 case is designed for 3 modules, the 191 case for 5 modules.
The following modules were offered:
110 VCO/VCF/VCA module, 1979
112 2 VCO module, 1979
121 2 VCF module, 1979
130 2 VCA module, 1979
131 Output Mixer, 1979
132 Dual C/V Audio Mixer and Voltage Processor, 1979
140 2 Env/LFO Module, 1979
150 Ring, Noise, S&H, LFO Module, 1979
165 Portamento Controller, 1983
172 Phase Shifter/Audio Delay/Gate Delay, 1979
173 Signal/Gate/Plot, 1983
182 Analog Sequencer, 1979
Details
The System-100M modular synthesizer in smem comprises the modules 110, 112, 2 x 140, 191-J and the polyphonic keyboard 184.
110 VCO-VCF-VCA: The module contains an oscillator with switchable triangle, pulse and sawtooth waves. The VCO runs directly into the resonant low-pass filter (24 dB per octave). The VCA has two inputs, the first of which is normalized to the VCF, two modulation inputs, one of which is connected to the VCF, as well as two outputs and a control to increase the gain or keep the VCA open.
112 Dual VCO: The oscillator module comprises two independent VCOs for switchable triangle, pulse and sawtooth waves. It offers manual and external PWM, phase synchronization and sync input/output jacks.
140 Dual envelope and LFO: The two ADSR envelopes can be triggered by gate, gate + trigger, an external gate or the manual momentary switch. The LFO has a range of 0.05Hz to 30Hz and has five switchable waveforms (sine, triangle, square, sawtooth and inverted sawtooth). There is a wide frequency range (L, M, H) and a frequency control with additional delay.
Quelle: Alex Ball Music