It may seem strange to sing the praises of a synth that’s not old enough to be vintage and not new enough to be trendy, but having had it in my studio since its release, it’s clear why the System-8 has such longevity. Thanks to Roland’s steady stream of firmware upgrades-and the ability to sideload Roland’s up to three top-notch Plug-Out emulations of their iconic analog gear, the System-8 is a synth that can remain fresh and engaging long after the “new gear dopamine” wears off.
While there’s well-deserved attention given to the new Jupiter-X and Xm series (which, frankly are fantastic) the System-8 still clocks in at just under $1500, making it a perfect first synth for diving into professional hardware or adding a genuinely powerful four-octave controller as your bedroom studio grows. It’s rare that a digital synth will steadily remain in production for close to five years, but the Roland System-8 hit that anniversary this year. Turning it over to Fran: -PK Francis Preve on SYSTEM-8
I watched too much Cobra Kai lately, so I just did an 80s karate dance around to that music and now I need to go ice my hips. Roland didn’t ask for this – so they’ll wake up to it in Japan, presumably. So it’s a good argument for the download, plus a set of tips on how to use it. I always enjoy listening to Fran’s biases, because they tend to be well informed. And so here’s Francis’ very biased take on why he loves the SYSTEM-8. Serendipity: Francis Preve is CDM’s wacky neighbor who appears from time to time, and he’s the creator of Driven – hence his signature all over it. But then just go to Library, type SYSTEM in the search box at top so you don’t have to scroll, install SYSTEM-8 first, then once that download finishes, get SYSTEM-8 DRIVEN, too. You do have to install Roland Cloud first, if you don’t have that. Not only do you not need much money, but you don’t need much hard drive space, either – it all clocks in at just a few MB. You can grab the SYSTEM-8, plus the new Driven patch collection.
Obviously, the hardware isn’t free, but the Roland Cloud plug-in version is free to try now through April 20. It’s the pinnacle of what Roland did with PLUG-OUT and models of vintage gear, but mashed-up into a new monster synthesizer in hardware and software, all using the circuit modeling (ACB) tech that I love so dearly. Want that new synth feeling, but for free? That’s the hybrid-vintage-modeled-new synth SYSTEM-8 this month from Roland – and we’ve got the sound designer of its new preset library to tell us why we should download it.
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