This weekend at the Dancefair in Utrecht was the first public outing of the AIRA range. If you've missed it - the new range of analogue modelled instruments from Roland that uses their ACB (Analog Circuit Behaviour) technology.

We were fortunate to get hold of the TR8 - the new drum machine that models both the classic TR808 and the TR909 machines - see our review from Friday here.

We also looked at the TB3 Touch Bassline too - this is the TB-303 reimagined - with a new touchpad interface.

Anyhow, the System-1 has been much awaited too, though we surmise by the lack of available review units, that its not quite as far along as the other models. With 2 oscillators and four voices, its got plenty to tweak, but what makes the System-1 more of an interesting proposition is the fact that it has the ability to run an addition synth model using Roland's own Plug-in format.

Presumably this will be uploaded via USB  - the first model is yet to be confirmed but a source tells us that its a close run thing between SH-101, SH-2 and System-100.

We also hear (totally unconfirmed) that one plug will ship with the unit and additional models will be in the range of $99 - but again this is not confirmed.

The System-1 will be dropping in June with street prices of £499/$599

We hope to get more hands-on soon.

Many thanks to Eric from ChampsOriginalTrend.com for getting the footage.

Roland Social

• Roland A-88MKII Gets MIDI 2.0 Update 17-Nov-23
• Roland Releases Super Instrument 15-Nov-23
• Major Update For The Roland FANTOM Series 08-Nov-23
• Roland JX-3P Updated 25-Oct-23
• Collector's Version Of The SP-404MKII Sampler 19-Oct-23