Roland System-100M

The Roland System-100M was a semi-modular analog synthesizer manufactured by the Roland Corporation in the early 1980s. It was the successor of the Roland System-100, a semi-modular keyboard.

System-100M
A Roland System-100M (top left) controlled by a Commodore 64
Manufacturer	Roland Corporation
Dates	1979-c.1984[1]
Price	£1242 for 5-module system with monophonic keyboard[1]
Technical specifications
Polyphony	Depends on chosen modules. Usually monophonic or 4-voice polyphonic.
Oscillator	Each VCO has triangle, falling sawtooth, and pulse output (110, 112 modules)
LFO	Each voltage-controlled LFO has sine, triangle, square, rising sawtooth, and falling sawtooth output (140, 150 modules); the manually set LFO has triangle output only (172 module)
Synthesis type	Analog subtractive
Filter	low-pass (110, 121 modules)
Effects	Phase shifter and BBD-based audio delay available (172 module)
Input/output
Keyboard	32 keys, monophonic (180 keyboard); 49 keys, monophonic (181 keyboard); 49 keys, 4-voice polyphonic (184 keyboard)
Left-hand control	Pitch bend (181 and 184 keyboards only); portamento on/off (181 only); automated arpeggio (184 only)

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."[2] Ian Boddy considered the System 100M "an almost ideal introduction to the world of modular synthesis,"[3] and praised its oscillator sync sound, especially when sampled to fake analog modular polyphony.[4]

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."[5] Chris Carter called it "as versatile, expandable, and affordable a system as you can get without going the DIY route."[6]