Just hopping in to say that it just seems to be another case of Rolanditis - the SH4D also doesn’t pass audio over USB.
That being said, as someone with a P-6 and 2 x S-1s, I can firmly advocate for the P-6 as the ultimate accessory for these little fellas.
Almost every line they do has silly inconsistencies, just look at how varied the rest of the aria line is, I mean you can’t even use midi cc on the J-4 or parts of the T-8 and let’s not even think about how wildly different all the boutiques are despite being the same form factor. My biggest ‘what?’ there is that the traditionally monophonic sequencer of the 101 has been adapted to very usefully be polyphonic but the Juno version which you really want to play chords with can only do 1 note per step…
I agree. And that feeling grows even more when you compare the latest AIRA compacts to the “mid-range” MC101/TR6s, which have aged badly in the latest years.
hopefully not dissing a designer here but the p6 and s1 feel like they were designed very intentionally and with love, whereas the initial three compacts seemed more like easy to produce, design by committee, scaled back units to introduce the line and see if people were into the form factor.
I wonder if there were “lessons learned” from the initial release of the MC101\TR6s platform. That format seems to have hit a dead end since the pandemics. And I wouldn’t be surprised if there were more Compacts in the future.
Where could they go with another? Something like a little J-8 (modeled after JP-8000) with supersaw?
Not to get too off-topic from the S-1. I haven’t tried the P-6 but I’m not much of a sampler guy - I really love synthesizers so I’m hoping for something closer to the S-1 if they release another. Vs another effects device like the E-4. I certainly appreciate all of them for the features they do have at the prices they are at
I also think that people just love to complain, and when it’s not merited, it just feels uninteresting to me
The S-1 is could be the best value for money synth ever made, considering what it does, how it sounds, and how affordable and small it is, yet still managing to be very hands on
I’m quite amazed about how they even managed to pack so much advanced tech into something so small
I don’t know about dead end but the MC-101 and TR-6S are amazing devices, and I have a hunch sold really well for Roland. It is strange we didn’t see anything else in this form factor, but yeah the Aira Compacts came along and just muddied the water even more, already muddy with the boutiques.
In terms of future for the compacts, I’d like to see them revisit the drum machine. The one on the T-8 is painfully basic, esp when looked at from the perspective of the later units (S-1 and P-6). Same goes for the Juno/poly idea badly implemented by the J-6.
I’ve thought this about so many of the newish Roland stuff. And I love Roland. The boutique line kept getting better, but they left some of the OGs in the dust. Updating the JP-08 with twice the polyphony, ditching the ribbons, and fixing the USB noise would’ve been great. Adding microtiming to the TR-8s would be incredible. Even implementing some of the great stuff from the P-6 in to the 404 MK2 would be delightful.
Isn’t the usb noise only present if you power the unit with the same usb cable as audio transfer, and can be mitigated by using batteries, or external power, or analog outputs?
I’ve also had severe USB noise issues with the my S-1 as well as several Boutiques and a TR-6S. It could be one over several things: two devices being plugged into the same Midiface MIDI hub or sequencer. Sharing a USB power supply. And any USB connection to any computer would be the worst. The unbalanced single 3.5mm TRS outputs don’t help the noise level either.
If you don’t need USB MIDI/data using a high quality, separate USB power supply for each Roland device works well; especially the Apple ones are quiet in my experience. If you do require to get both power and data/MIDI over USB, I found that the Ifi iDefender USB isolator works.
My S1 has pretty terrible USB noise if it’s plugged into power. Nothing else I own has this issue, including devices with which I have used the same plug and cable as I use on the S1.
I just run it off the battery when I’m ready to record, so it’s not a real issue, but it’s definitely present.
had a lot of fun making this tune with the s-1 and ep-133. sequenced from the ep133 and then i did the tweaking business when i recorded the tune into the 404. it was pretty fun watching the keyboard flash around while being sequenced.
