poonti
41
@ignatius: Thing is, those 30 year old Rolands still sound better than anything that’s come out since! That’s why they’re still wanted…plain and simple. Look at how many try to copy that sound and fail. If I want innovation, I’ve got Elektron. But this is about the best set of DM sounds coming out of a box (or two)…talking about 808 & 909. 303’s been copied successfully imo.
@poonti
There’s a theory that the old Roland x0x boxes don’t necessarily sound better than the later hardware, but that we associate their sounds with some of the best tracks of all time. Is it that the 303 filter shape or portamento speed are perfect or is it because it was the first affordable way for kids in Chicago to make mesmerising loops? What if, say, Yamaha had brought the DX200 to market 25 years sooner? Would we obsess over nuances in their FM ratios?</devils advocate>
@ignatius
Always nice to run into a Basterdized veteran on here. I was ‘d0nt’ on there.
poonti
43
@billywood: maybe that’s the case, but it’s the end result that counts for me…if they reproduce those sounds in a modern analog offering, I will buy in 100%…if they come out with the 2010’s version of the MC line of grooveboxes, I’m out…but obviously, if you’re not into the tech/house sound the x0x’s are nothing special, so something new could be of more interest.
In my case, I don’t need something new. Elektron is filling that bucket very nicely, thank you very much! Roland, gimme x0x, with x=3,6,7,8,9,please!
Luap
44
Huh?? Why on earth would it be cool for them to fail?? And yes, of course it would be ‘awesome’ if they came out with something brilliant. Wouldn’t that be the case of any company?
As for “System-8” Take GS talk with a bucket of salt.
Yeah, this is how I feel: too little, wayyyyyy too late! The absolute perfect time to come out with a reissue was in the mid-90’s, when they put out that ridiculous MC-303.
Remember all the analog “clones” during that time? They never quite captured the package that was the TB-303. Opportunity missed.
Korg experimented with the Monotron and re-discovered a market. Now, they have products with an authentic sound, that are cheap, and people love them (the products and the company)!
Roland is a stage piano company, now; kinda like Clavia. (I don’t want to diss Clavia too much. At least they put out a “new” drum thing and another iteration of the Nord Lead, which could have gone a lot further, as far as features are concerned.)
I suppose they could excite us again with something, but they have a long way to go with their marketing and how they see this “niche” market.
void
46
well, I wish I had the means to do something brilliant.
Just something brilliant, for a change, you know?
Don’t you too sometimes dream of doing something brilliant?
Syn303
47
when they put out that ridiculous MC-303.
Remember all the analog “clones” during that time? They never quite captured the package that was the TB-303. [/quote]
Actually Roland tried a second attempt at the 303 in the shape of that horrible plastic wedgie box called the MC-09. That too failed miserably.
As for the System-8 they were prototypes made during the development of the Jupiter-80 synthesizer. I suggest we all wait until Mr Bondzio of Hardfloor reveals what these new dance production prototypes are from Roland.
Remember Roland bought Cakewalk, so they could well be hardware/software controllers who knows…
Oliver Bondzio may not say anything about them at all, as Roland may want it all hush-hush until 2014.
when they put out that ridiculous MC-303.
Remember all the analog “clones” during that time? They never quite captured the package that was the TB-303. [/quote]
Actually Roland tried a second attempt at the 303 in the shape of that horrible plastic wedgie box called the MC-09. That too failed miserably.
As for the System-8 they were prototypes made during the development of the Jupiter-80 synthesizer. I suggest we all wait until Mr Bondzio of Hardfloor reveals what these new dance production prototypes are from Roland.
Remember Roland bought Cakewalk, so they could well be hardware/software controllers who knows…
Oliver Bondzio may not say anything about them at all, as Roland may want it all hush-hush until 2014.[/quote]
they recently sold cakewalk to Gibson… destroyer of the wonderful Studiovision
basterds for life 
the big hole in the synth market is the full on modern FM synth w/proper controls and knobs and sliders etc all on the panel. that’d be great.
as for vintage rolands… sure… i’d love a 101 to fall out of the sky into my studio but it’s not keeping me up at night or preventing me from making music and i get all the sounds i could ever use out of what i already have.
also… i wonder who really reveres all the old stuff most? is it old people like me who lived through the 1st analog revival or is it all the kids in their 20s?
i love acid and analogue and all that… but i have no desire to hear thousands upon thousands of tracks that are all wrapped up in the fetish of analogue retro gear and have nothing else going for them…
if roland etc can create the user experience of jamming on the old stuff but w/new possibilities then great… i think the user interfaces of those things are in many cases awesome and inspiring… but strapping the same old sounds to them is going to bore me to tears… not everyone can squarepusher all over a 707/303/606 and blow minds… most people will end up doing this (which we can already do w/500 other things - sorry… i’m fucking bored):
Huh?? Why on earth would it be cool for them to fail?? And yes, of course it would be ‘awesome’ if they came out with something brilliant. Wouldn’t that be the case of any company?
As for “System-8” Take GS talk with a bucket of salt.[/quote]
I didn’t mean it’s cool for them to fail, I meant that I understand why people feel like they will fail. I hope they blow are minds and make the detractors eat their words… Whether that will actually happen remains to be seen.
i hope it’s not a reissue since i just got the tt-303 (which is sooooo killer) and the octatrack sequencing the jomox or just using good samples covers the drum territory… but if it is an 808 or 909 update i won’t be able to resist
I’m hoping it’s something like a digital osc analog filter polysynth… something to compete directly with the prophet 12 or something like that…
jonah
53
D-beam is great. It’s not miles away from tweaking the knobs on a 303.
I’m all for more interaction and immediacy. Sorry, but you don’t look any more goofy waving your arms around than you do twiddling with intensity and determination.
303, 808 and 909 all in one would kinda blow. If it’s actually usable without menu diving, it’s huge, expensive and has too many parameters in front of you at once. Either way, totally missing what worked about the originals.
It’s interesting, Boss (and they are Roland) has done more to change music in recent memory, with it’s loopers and the SPs. If I think back over the last 10 years? I’ve heard more good music that was influenced by working with the loop stations and cheap, yet fun samplers. The new loop station seems very cool and it’s nice that they finally acknowledged that way more people than guitarists or people using their feet were using them.
jonah
54
Oh and have you used the 303’s sequencer? 
Can you imagine the hate it would get today? I have a hard time believing that folks raised on Live or visual software in general would put up with that.
flabby
55
They’ve made a drum machine building on the sound of the old TR classics but with new capabilities and sampler that lets you sample a short percussive sound and have a set of parameters that represent the sound itself - true resynthesis. It has a sequencer that is algorithmic that via various parameters you can create an evolving rhythmic structure from one loop.
…oh yeah and it comes with a cerebral mod grip
Prints
56
If Roland were REALLY smart, and aware of the effects of their products on the music scene, they would take the SP series of samplers into a bit of a new direction.
The SP-303/404 samplers have really created a scene. They should create an SP-404 ANALOG that samples in 12-bit and has ANALOG effects/filter. It should also bring back the vinyl sim compression that has become so ubiquitous; the fact that they got rid of it on the SP-404SX shows how out of touch they are.
If this imaginary device was ever created, they’d sell like hotcakes.
ehm
58
I hope it’s not just another software with a hardware controller
(like the video says. for a new age)
also, I find it ugly. I hate the green on it and it looks a bit big to bring to live gigs.
I think its going to be some kind of controller for Roland new suite of softwares. I hope im wrong…
Ho! and the thing is incredibly ugly.
Analog resurgence for sure! Loving it. Unfortunately Roland hasn’t figured it out yet. Sadly this is Digital only.
