Roland System-100M


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

ModelTypeReleasedDescription
110Module1979VCO / VCF / VCA
111ModulePrototypeVCO / VCF
112Module1979Dual VCOs
120ModulePrototypeVCF / VCA
121Module1979Dual VCFs
130Module1979Dual VCAs
131Module1980Output Mixer / Tuning Oscillator / Headphone Amp
132Module1980Dual CV / Audio Mixers & Voltage Processors
140Module1979Dual ADSR Envelope Generators / LFO
141ModulePrototypeDual Envelope / Gate Delay / Inverter-Adder
150Module1979Ring Mod / Noise / S&H / LFO
160ModulePrototypeComputer Interface
165Module1983Dual Portamento Controller
170ModulePrototypePitch to Voltage converter / Envelope Follower / Amp
172Module1980Phase Shifter / Audio Delay / Gate Delay
173Module1983Signal Gate & Multiple Jacks
174Module1983Parametric EQ
180Keyboard197932-key Controller Keyboard
181Keyboard197949-key Controller Keyboard
182Module1980Analog Sequencer
184Keyboard198149-key 4-note Polyphonic Controller Keyboard
190Rack1979Three-Module Rack
191JRack1979Five-Module Rack

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/VCA112 Dual VCO121 Dual VCF130 Dual VCA140 Dual Envelope/LFO150 Ring Mod/Noise/S&H/LFO172 Phase Shifter/Delay/LFO173 Quad Gate/Multiples182 Sequencer297 Dual Portamento/CV Utilities 305 EQ/Mixer/Output

Notable users