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This is one beefy system. I recently got myself a complete system (101 keyboard/synth , 102 expander synth , 103 mixer , 104 sequencer and a pair of 109 speakers). The first thing that strikes me is that the sound is not at all as Roland-y as the system100M. This one has got the same filter as the SH-5 synthesizer and is to my ears closer to Moog than traditional Roland. Then again I constantly run it with a grey ARP2600 as one big synth to make things even more fun , so that might fool me a bit , dunno.
The PWM on the system is sweet sounding indeed , actually warmer sounding than the 2600´s , and using the hard and soft sync inputs on the 102 expander is a quick way to get wonderful lead sounds. A drawback is of course that there are very few patchpoints , but it hasn´t bothered me so far and I doubt that it will later. I can only see that it would be a serious issue if you´re into very experimental stuff , and the most important jacks are there for my needs.
The 103 mixer is quite a crude box with a built-in spring reverb , which is actually one of the better ones I ever heard. Instant sci-fi and nostalgia...
The 104 sequencer is easy to master and useful for a number of purposes. You can control cv-pitch and gate as well as changes in modulation/filter sources. For pitch purposes I find it a bit unreliable and dodgy though , getting those knobs in exactly the right position takes some time and there are better ways of controlling that via Midi/cv boxes imo.
I think the system is great for all sorts of sounds. It excels at bass and lead in particular , and I´ve even got some Tomita strings out of it (monophonic but great :-) It might be limited on it´s own , having only two oscillators , so you´ll probably feel the need to expand it with other modulars at one point or another but it has a definite unique character all of it´s own. Character is the key here.
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