The Roland System 100 (not to confused with their later 100M) was a fabulous little system when it was released in 1975. You could buy each component as you liked and they all fitted together like some kind of engineering jigsaw until you had the full system shown above.

There were five components - the Model 101 main synth and keyboard (front central), the almost identically specified Model 102 expander (upright behind the 101), the Model 103 4-channel stereo mixer right), the versatile Model 104 24-step sequencer (left) and the Model 105 speakers. Altogether, it was a complete and self-contained electronic music studio.

The main synth had just a single oscillator but with variable sliders to balance different 'footage' levels (i.e. 16', 8', 4', 2'), it could create a bigger sound than might be imagined. There was also (unusually) a multi-mode resonant filter offering high, band and lowpass filter types. Interestingly, Roland dispensed with their 'bender' which limited the system's performance possibilities.

The 102 expander was similarly equipped but added sample+hold in place of portamento and a ring modulator in place of the noise generator. What was unique about both, however, was that they also had 3.5mm jack sockets on every 'module' to allow custom patching (much like the ARP2600's normalised jacks).

The sequencer is also deserving of a mention in that it could be used as a single channel sequencer with (up to) 24 steps or as a two-channel device with (up to) 12 steps. The fact that it could be routed to almost anything (including itself!) allowed some serious control applications. It could also be clocked from an external source for synchronised operation.

Despite being used by bands such as the Human League in their heyday, there is no indication whether the System 100 was a big success for Roland or not. It certainly gained popularity in later years with artists such as Vince Clarke, Orbital and others but this is probably more due to the fact that following the decline of analogue synths in the early 80s, those systems that were available on the second-hand market were dirt cheap! The System 100 was superceded in 1979 by the truly modular 100M.

I have some electronic percussion sounds here taken on a System 100. Whilst not representative of the possibilities offered by the system, they are potentially useful nonetheless and cover a wide range of electronic kicks, snares, thunks, thonks, bleeps, squeaks, noise bursts and more - 60 samples mapped out on every semitone over a five octave range from C1-B5.