Roland System-8 Manual

Roland System-8 – historic turning point?
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It’s not as easy as all that. And be assured, some of those sounds (we can only make comparisons on the basis of our
test candidate, the Jupiter-8 Plug-Out) were NEVER to be found on the original instrument. But then, that’s not the
point: to be fair, many of the System-8 sounds appear to be really useful. They inspire the player, in their own way, to
make music (creatively). Which is one very good argument in favor of a modern instrument.
Anyway, audio purists might discover some noise in the System-8 signal path, along with some (inexplicable) “ticks”
or drop-outs (listen to soundfile Electric Piano and you’ll know what we’re talkig about).
Special Assets and a couple of Question Marks
Now, stepping aside from all the sound details and conceptual extraordinaries, we reach the following fundamental
insight: the System-8 helps keep the good tradition of analog synthesis (here: virtual analog) alive.

Roland System-8 Specifications

General

Product type	Digital synthesizer
Product color	Black
Keyboard number of keys	49
Maximum polyphony (notes)	8
Display type	LCD
Built-in display	Yes
Display number of characters	16
USB ports quantity	1
Compatible memory cards	SD, SDHC
Power source type	DC

Weight and Dimensions

Depth	364 mm
Width	881 mm
Height	109 mm
Weight	5900 g