Roland Aira System 1--SonicState review vid
Forum rules
READ: VSE Board-Wide Rules and Guidelines
READ: VSE Board-Wide Rules and Guidelines
- meatballfulton
- Moderator
- Posts: 6104
- Joined: Wed Apr 13, 2005 9:29 pm
- Gear: Logic Pro X
Roland Aira System 1--SonicState review vid
Here's part 1, Nick will do a part 2 once the first "plugout" arrives
I listened to Hatfield and the North at Rainbow. They were very wonderful and they made my heart a prisoner.
-
- Active Member
- Posts: 373
- Joined: Sun Mar 30, 2008 12:27 pm
Re: Roland Aira System 1--SonicState review vid
When Hen Hen...will you lay that little egg
- madtheory
- Supporting Member!
- Posts: 5404
- Joined: Mon May 01, 2006 12:45 pm
- Real name: Tomas Mulcahy
- Gear: Wurlitzer Opus 1536, Model F, Morovdis Arpeggiator, Maplin My First EQ, Jeff Wayne Thunderchild rack, Thermostat, Buck Owens' Moog.
- Location: Cork, Ireland
- Contact:
Re: Roland Aira System 1--SonicState review vid
So let me get this straight, there is no plugout yet? 

- Jabberwalky
- Synth Explorer
- Posts: 2163
- Joined: Fri Apr 01, 2005 6:03 pm
- Gear: A hybrid of vintage and modern junk
- Band: Variar
- Location: Pgh, PA
- Contact:
Re: Roland Aira System 1--SonicState review vid
I don't want one, but honestly that thing sounds really close to the Sh2 I had.
- ryryoftokyo
- Active Member
- Posts: 650
- Joined: Sat May 05, 2007 1:19 am
- Real name: Ryan
- Gear: Metal, plastic, wood, and electricity.
- Band: Tarot Sync
- Location: Massachusetts, USA
- Contact:
Re: Roland Aira System 1--SonicState review vid
I just don't get the appeal here aside from the high resolution pots and the possibilities of this whole plug out thing. Other than that, you're paying way too much for a dedicated VST controller.
MU Modular (Moog, Dotcom, STG, Analog Systems, and Moon modules), MS20 (x2), Microbrute, Electribes (EA-1, EMX), microKorg, AN1x, Nord Lead 2x, Blofeld, Alpha Juno 2, DX7, JX8P, Poly 61 (x2), Split 8, TR-505, Monotron Delay, Ace Tone FR-3, Paia Fatman
- Hybrid88
- Synth Explorer
- Posts: 2251
- Joined: Sat Jan 17, 2009 8:26 am
- Gear: V-Synth, and other stuff...
- Location: Australia
Re: Roland Aira System 1--SonicState review vid
Thing sounds pretty good actually 

- meatballfulton
- Moderator
- Posts: 6104
- Joined: Wed Apr 13, 2005 9:29 pm
- Gear: Logic Pro X
Re: Roland Aira System 1--SonicState review vid
I agree, it sounds real good. Way better than the zipper and alias infested SH-32 I used to own.
Seems like a typical modern Roland product, great potential shackled by a bizarre feature set. I'm more interested in seeing where they go with the "plugouts" and how the competition responds.
Wonder how soon we'll start hearing Scatter all over some hot dance hit

Seems like a typical modern Roland product, great potential shackled by a bizarre feature set. I'm more interested in seeing where they go with the "plugouts" and how the competition responds.
Wonder how soon we'll start hearing Scatter all over some hot dance hit



I listened to Hatfield and the North at Rainbow. They were very wonderful and they made my heart a prisoner.
- madmarkmagee
- Active Member
- Posts: 416
- Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2011 8:18 am
- Gear: King Korg
ESQ-1
Reface DX
Microbrute
Shruthi-1
Pittsburgh System-1
Juno 106 (needs work) - Location: Sydney
Re: Roland Aira System 1--SonicState review vid
I agree that it is a nice sounding digital filter and the ability to put a plug out into the synth is Very good idea, means you can get a lot of different soft synths (hopefully at a cheapish price) and not be glued to your pc.
Hopefully this will be a success and Roland will continue to work with the idea. In a few years we will hopefully see a similar concept in serious poly form.
Looks like you can only install one plug out in the board at a time? If that is the case, it would be a shame.
Good to see Roland returning to their roots as innovators.
Hopefully this will be a success and Roland will continue to work with the idea. In a few years we will hopefully see a similar concept in serious poly form.
Looks like you can only install one plug out in the board at a time? If that is the case, it would be a shame.
Good to see Roland returning to their roots as innovators.

- griffin avid
- Synth Explorer
- Posts: 1568
- Joined: Fri Mar 25, 2005 11:08 am
- Location: New York
- Contact:
Re: Roland Aira System 1--SonicState review vid
Wonder how soon we'll start hearing Scatter all over some hot dance hit
You've already been hearing stuff like it and that's why it's in there.
I don't do the promises thing well.
I like the sound too, but unless it's A LOT of plug outs, I'm good.
Because you could accomplish the same thing with, let's say, oh I don't know....FAMOUS PRESETS and call it a new synth. I need something special and a radical sound departure to be convinced I've moved from one Modeled source to the next. I need to hear a NEW ENGINE at work.
IF they do this right, then I could see the value beyond this one keyboard.
Just like IF they add more drum machine sounds to the TR-8- it would increase in value.
Their track record just got good with that new Jupiter because every month they seem to be releasing expansions.
Seeing this [AIRA] is a whole line, I believe future support to be more likely. This isn't a one-off that some dedicated users are loving. These are a range of products and I can't imagine this not being their focus for the next 300+ days.
And like anything else, add more features and more reasons to buy and sales will hold.
At $600 USD, I'm paused, focused and wallet at the ready.
You've already been hearing stuff like it and that's why it's in there.
I don't do the promises thing well.
I like the sound too, but unless it's A LOT of plug outs, I'm good.
Because you could accomplish the same thing with, let's say, oh I don't know....FAMOUS PRESETS and call it a new synth. I need something special and a radical sound departure to be convinced I've moved from one Modeled source to the next. I need to hear a NEW ENGINE at work.
IF they do this right, then I could see the value beyond this one keyboard.
Just like IF they add more drum machine sounds to the TR-8- it would increase in value.
Their track record just got good with that new Jupiter because every month they seem to be releasing expansions.
Seeing this [AIRA] is a whole line, I believe future support to be more likely. This isn't a one-off that some dedicated users are loving. These are a range of products and I can't imagine this not being their focus for the next 300+ days.
And like anything else, add more features and more reasons to buy and sales will hold.
At $600 USD, I'm paused, focused and wallet at the ready.
Music Product: Better Sounds for Beats http://www.StudioAVX.com
Music Production: Resources and Research http://www.ProducersEdgeMagazine.com
Music Produced: Abstract Hip Hop Sci-Fi: http://www.TheDynamicUniverse.com
Music Production: Resources and Research http://www.ProducersEdgeMagazine.com
Music Produced: Abstract Hip Hop Sci-Fi: http://www.TheDynamicUniverse.com
- Re-Member
- Active Member
- Posts: 316
- Joined: Wed Sep 05, 2007 9:44 pm
- Gear: Juno-60, SH-101, TR-606, JP-8000, MC-505, CZ-101, DX100, DX11, R3, microSTATION, Monotribe, MS-20 Mini, SQ-1, Volca Series, Minilogue, Moog Theremin
- Location: PDX
Re: Roland Aira System 1--SonicState review vid
Sounds good from what I'm hearing, but this review is sort of lacking... He doesn't demonstrate how the Cross Mod sounds between the two oscillators, plus he doesn't demonstrate how the LFO sounds modulating the pitch, which is where aliasing pops up the most.
I also noticed that on Roland's website, the SH-101 plugout emulation is going to use separate envelopes for filter and amp. This is totally going to ruin how it sounds because the SH-101 doesn't function this way. The filter and amp should be locked into one envelope.
I can't say I'm sold on this yet till I see the price drop and more plugout emulations offered. The raw tone and filter is a h**l of lot nicer sounding than my JP-8000, that's for sure, but I'd also have to hear it pushed to the extremes.
I also noticed that on Roland's website, the SH-101 plugout emulation is going to use separate envelopes for filter and amp. This is totally going to ruin how it sounds because the SH-101 doesn't function this way. The filter and amp should be locked into one envelope.
I can't say I'm sold on this yet till I see the price drop and more plugout emulations offered. The raw tone and filter is a h**l of lot nicer sounding than my JP-8000, that's for sure, but I'd also have to hear it pushed to the extremes.
Re: Roland Aira System 1--SonicState review vid
This is an inane comment. the 101 had poor features due to it being a cheap instrument, and wanting to make it more flexible is going to "ruin" it? There were a number of people upset that Korg chose to not add PWM to the MS-20 mini, intentionally keeping limitations that existed from a purely financial standpoint does not make sense when the cost to adding that extra envelope is practically nil. The difficulty of setting similar envelope settiings is not hard unless you need someone to patch a poorly made single oscillator mono synth for you - and lets be real that 0 on attack, sustain and release, a bit of decay for snappy bass response is what these things are going to be set at for most of the people using it.Re-Member wrote:I also noticed that on Roland's website, the SH-101 plugout emulation is going to use separate envelopes for filter and amp. This is totally going to ruin how it sounds because the SH-101 doesn't function this way. The filter and amp should be locked into one envelope.
- Re-Member
- Active Member
- Posts: 316
- Joined: Wed Sep 05, 2007 9:44 pm
- Gear: Juno-60, SH-101, TR-606, JP-8000, MC-505, CZ-101, DX100, DX11, R3, microSTATION, Monotribe, MS-20 Mini, SQ-1, Volca Series, Minilogue, Moog Theremin
- Location: PDX
Re: Roland Aira System 1--SonicState review vid
How is what I'm saying inane? It's how the original synthesizer operates. I have the SH-101 sitting right in my studio and while I can admit that it's simple enough to program similar patches onto my VA synths which operate on two envelopes, the moment I tweak the Filter ADSR but not the Amp ADSR or vice versa, it ends up sounding entirely different than how my SH-101 operates in real time. In fact, in order to get my VAs to operate the same as my SH-101 and Juno-60, I have to go out of my way and remap the MIDI CC settings so I can control both envelopes simultaneously using an external set of knobs. It would be the same issue if they added a second envelope to the TB-303. It's not going to sound the same as the original if you're actually tweaking things in real time as you play. The limitations are a part of its sound. But you're probably right, "most people" won't care because they probably don't have experience playing the real deal.Hallu wrote:This is an inane comment. the 101 had poor features due to it being a cheap instrument, and wanting to make it more flexible is going to "ruin" it? There were a number of people upset that Korg chose to not add PWM to the MS-20 mini, intentionally keeping limitations that existed from a purely financial standpoint does not make sense when the cost to adding that extra envelope is practically nil. The difficulty of setting similar envelope settiings is not hard unless you need someone to patch a poorly made single oscillator mono synth for you - and lets be real that 0 on attack, sustain and release, a bit of decay for snappy bass response is what these things are going to be set at for most of the people using it.
- Hybrid88
- Synth Explorer
- Posts: 2251
- Joined: Sat Jan 17, 2009 8:26 am
- Gear: V-Synth, and other stuff...
- Location: Australia
Re: Roland Aira System 1--SonicState review vid
hmm you know that's pretty much spot on to me.

- meatballfulton
- Moderator
- Posts: 6104
- Joined: Wed Apr 13, 2005 9:29 pm
- Gear: Logic Pro X
Re: Roland Aira System 1--SonicState review vid
Don't panic yet, I saw a mention that the two EGs could be locked together for "authentic" 101 behavior.
I listened to Hatfield and the North at Rainbow. They were very wonderful and they made my heart a prisoner.