There was the official announcement from Roland, they reported which 4 new modules will be included in the System-500 Analog Modular Synthesizer line, and also told about each of them. This will be a single synthesizer module - 510 Synth, a 5-in-1 module containing various modulation methods -  555 Lag/S&H, dual analog re-designed filter similar to the one in Roland SH-5 synthesizer in one module - 505 VCF, and 531 Mix - 6-channel modular mixer.

Roland launched its second brand new masterpiece too soon after the first one. Having announced two state of the art synths in roughly a year Roland leaves us a bit puzzled. The thing is that System-8 and JD-XA now have to compete against each other on the market though they’ve got practically nothing in common.

Analog generator waveform is far from being perfect – it’s unstable and suffers from inevitable voltage-brought deformation. Many of the analog filters are unsteady – you might hear some noises, phase shift or self-oscillation. But these very drawbacks make the signal so brisk, lively – well, actually, alive indeed. Digital developments helped to tame analog sound, cut it into samples, increase polyphony, give you a synthesizer equipped with the functions which were simply unobtainable in analog instruments. In 1990s instrument manufacturing companies got highly interested in analog modeling technologies development – they were eager to re-create those smallest details of electric musical instrument circuit behavior.

“The Future. Redefined.” online-festival brought to us interesting new products made by Roland Corporation, as we expected. Roland System-8 for sure seems the most attractive one to keyboardists – it’s a synthesizer with uploadable libraries and based on the same architecture as that System-1 featured though it offers a full-sized keyboard, much more control elements on the front panel surface and the main peculiarity – it’s already equipped with Roland Jupiter-8 and Roland Juno-106 models emulation.

Serato and Roland started their cooperation with the release of an unprecedented product – DJ controller which not only triggers and controls but also allows creating on the spot. DJs will make a built-in sequencer the part of their live performance.