The Roland System-100M is a modular analog synthesizer manufactured by the Roland Corporation in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It was the successor of the Roland System-100, a semi-modular keyboard.
In the 1980s, shortly after its introduction, Richard Burgess of Landscape called the 100M "one of the best synthesisers on the market, with so many control functions available independently, whereas most synths only have one or two LFOs to do all the modulating." Ian Boddy considered the System 100M "an almost ideal introduction to the world of modular synthesis," and praised its oscillator sync sound, especially when sampled to achieve polyphony.
By the 1990s, although digital synthesizers were starting to replace analog ones, several prominent musicians still enthused about their 100Ms. Jack Dangers of Meat Beat Manifesto said "the best thing about it is that it's modular and it uses a patchbay, so you can send things back on themselves and get, like, analogue feedback, you really can... You can do cross-modulation, too. It's pretty good for external sound sources, as well." Chris Carter called it "as versatile, expandable, and affordable a system as you can get without going the DIY route" in 1995.
Components
Model Type Released Description 110 Module 1979 VCO / VCF / VCA 111 Module Prototype VCO / VCF 112 Module 1979 Dual VCOs 120 Module Prototype VCF / VCA 121 Module 1979 Dual VCFs 130 Module 1979 Dual VCAs 131 Module 1980 Output Mixer / Tuning Oscillator / Headphone Amp 132 Module 1980 Dual CV / Audio Mixers & Voltage Processors 140 Module 1979 Dual ADSR Envelope Generators / LFO 141 Module Prototype Dual Envelope / Gate Delay / Inverter-Adder 150 Module 1979 Ring Mod / Noise / S&H / LFO 160 Module Prototype Computer Interface 165 Module 1983 Dual Portamento Controller 170 Module Prototype Pitch to Voltage converter / Envelope Follower / Amp 172 Module 1980 Phase Shifter / Audio Delay / Gate Delay (with LFO) 173 Module 1983 Signal Gate & Multiple Jacks 174 Module 1983 Parametric EQ 180 Keyboard 1979 32-key Controller Keyboard 181 Keyboard 1979 49-key Controller Keyboard 182 Module 1980 Analog Sequencer 184 Keyboard 1981 49-key 4-note Polyphonic Controller Keyboard 190 Rack 1979 Three-Module Rack 191J Rack 1979 Five-Module Rack
New Modules Model Type Released Description 185 Module 2009/2021 Multi-stage Sequencer by RYK Modular. Updated version released 2021 175 Module 2022 Triple Vactrol Resonator by RYK Modular
Hardware re-issues and recreations
In 2020, Behringer announced a series of Eurorack format modular synthesizer modules based on the original Roland System-100M modules: 110 VCO/VCF/VCA 112 Dual VCO 121 Dual VCF 130 Dual VCA 140 Dual Envelope/LFO 150 Ring Mod/Noise/S&H/LFO 172 Phase Shifter/Delay/LFO 173 Quad Gate/Multiples 182 Sequencer 297 Dual Portamento/CV Utilities (combination of 132 Dual CV / Audio Mixers & Voltage Processors & 165 Dual Portamento Controller) 305 EQ/Mixer/Output (combination of 131 Output Mixer / Tuning Oscillator / Headphone Amp & 174 Parametric EQ)
Notable users
Aphex Twin Ian Boddy Vince Clarke The Human League Landscape Meat Beat Manifesto Public Image Ltd Throbbing GristleIndustrial music pioneer Chris Carter with gear, 1980, Boing Boing
References musicradar.com gearnews.com
External links
Vintage Synth Explorer - Roland System 100m Sound On Sound retrospective Module descriptions M185 from RYK Modular