Roland System-8

This is my review after 3 months of use.
I really liked the idea of a synth capable to host synths like Jupiter-8, Juno-106, JX-3P and other Roland's monophonic synths.
Never owned one of them, so I can't say how these
PLUG-OUTS are close to the originals, but they sound very good.
Building quality is good. Someone criticized the plastic case and the green lights...
Yes, it's plastic and it's lightweight, but I find that's a nice looking plastic.
The control panel is amazing, knobs and faders are pleasant to feel and the green lights can be dimmed.
The onboard effects are good, maybe not the best sounding if compared with those of Behringer Deepmind or Korg Prologue, but they do their job and diving in the menu a good set of parameters allows to further refine the effects, especially delays and reverbs.
The strong point of the synth is the native System-8's engine, with a standard subtractive architecture and a noticeable set of 24 waveforms for the two main oscillators, including 14 FM waveforms, plus a third oscillator acting as a sub-oscillator.
The COLOR parameter of each oscillator allows to further shape each waveforms and can be modulated by several modulation sources.
Cross modulation, Sync and Ring modulation are available as well.
Talking about modulations, I can't avoid to mention the single LFO.
Compared to other synthesizers in the same price range, where at least 2 LFO's are available, the presence of a single LFO might be rather questionable.
I've considered this carefully before buying, and the option to record knobs motions in the step sequencer
seemed to me a valid compromise solution.
Nevertheless, you would expect a single fully functional LFO and I found out soon that's not the case...
Apart the inability to separately modulate the pitch of each oscillator, or at least switch off the modulation on one of them, the LFO behaviour is very unusual and it's something that you wouldn't expect on a synth.
The System-8's LFO has 6 waveforms (sine, triangle, saw, square, sample&hold and random) and it's available as source modulator for PITCH, FILTER, AMP and COLOR.
While all the six LFO's waveforms are usable for PITCH, FILTER and AMP modulations, only what would seem a sine or a triangular shape is "available" for COLOR modulations.
Whatever action you take on the LFO waveforms knob,
the result is forcibly the same single wave shape.
The same happens with the other waveforms in VARIATION 2 and VARIATION 3 of the LFO, where only one out of six works.
Needless to say how useful would be to use a Square wave LFO, or a Saw, a Sample&Hold or a Random, to modulate FM oscillators.
As well with the other two VARIATION's waveforms, that would be extremely useful with FM oscillators.
I would say that's is clearly a bug of the System-8 LFO, since on its little brother System-1M and System-1 VST, as some users reported, all the six LFO waveforms are instead available for oscillator's COLOR modulations.
It's really baffling to me.
Still talking about modulations, also using oscillator 3 as source modulation for osc1 or osc2 COLOR produce a strange effect, a clear dissonance every four key pressed.
This has been reported as an intended behaviour, since it mimics old analog synths behaviour.
But, again, this behaviour it's not the same on the software version, the System-8 VST, where the same modulation
doesn't produce the same effects and is way more usable.
In conclusion, I must report another issue when external MIDI sync is enabled, in order to use the System-8 with a DAW external sequencer.
Enabling TEMPO SYNC for rhythmic effect using DELAYS onboard effects, some bizarre changes in pitch of delayed notes are clearly audible,
and the display on System-8 shows an unstable BPM value.
I find it extremely annoying and after all possible tests, USB MIDI, MIDI cables, DAW settings, I gave up and manually match the tempo between the DAW and the synth.
Since I described known issues that many users reported on many places on the Web since the end of 2016
(but unfortunately I discovered them after the purchase),
it's really disappointing to still find the same issues 4 years later.
The System-8 is a good syntesizer, without these issues would be a GREAT synth.

Firstly, I will prefix this review by saying that I didn't buy this synth in order to get the Jupiter-8 and Juno-106 plugouts as they're not really my cup of tea, however, they are very well implemented on the System-8 and sound fantastic.

I just use the System-8's native engine as I believe it sounds really lovely. It is very versatile sonically and creating sounds with a knob-per-function interface is a true joy. There are lots of filter types (18 at time of writing) and lots of oscillator shapes - including one called "FM" which is very handy.

Many people complain that it only has one LFO but this isn't a limitation at all because like the Korg Minilogue, it has a 4-lane motion sequencer - except on the System-8 it has 64 steps so you can "record" all manner of movements into your sounds and play back those movements for every key stroke. This allows you to completely shape a sound to your liking in an intuitive way by "playing" the controls as you record them as opposed to having to "program" those changes with a complex modulation matrix etc.

The other benefit is that it can output audio via USB at 96kHz along with the MIDI so that saves a channel of your audio interface as well!

All in all, it's a fantastic synth. The only downside to some is that there is no aftertouch on the keyboard, but that doesn't personally bother me.

I would definitely buy this synth again if anything happened to mine. Highly recommended.

Great synth with classic sounding. Better than unreliable Roland Juno 106 for almost equal price today.
Juno 106 plugout have some nice features that original Juno 106 doesn't support but Juno 60 has (envelope PWM). And you can use two envelopes. So it can emulate Juno 60/6 sounds.

Pros:
* Great sound of plugouts that equal to original devices. (in blind tests system8 is winner for analogue warmth)
* Great sounding system 8 engine (with system 100 filter especially)
* Almost all features can be tuned without menu
* Lightweight ;)

Cons:
* One LFO but this can be fixed by motion sequences
* Not best onboard effects
* Plastic case (but not really a problem)

Picked this up as I got annoyed at how slow the ACB-plugin versions were to use and definitely don't regret it.

Looks pretty horrid but the sound and the user interface more than make up for it. Much nicer to use than the plugins and is light enough to gig with without any issues. Build is plastic but the controls feel quite solid, so not an issue. Keyboard is very mediocre.

As a note, in late 2023 Roland managed to get some ACB-models running on the Fantom-workstation, so if you need something with more power you can pick one of those up instead. I prefer Yamaha's workstations so the System-8 is a very solid "Roland classics in a box" choice for me.

Closest in "jupiter - juno character" from everything outside there ... if you don't want to go the Roland "cloud" software only route , it's an excellent synth for today's music ... very quick in dialing usable - almost production ready synth sounds ... it may become your secret weapon ... System 8 internal engine is an excellent synth by itself ... maybe not for the asking price but if you'll add the JP-JU plug outs and the way it behaves as a controller - it's weight - practicality then everything seems well "balanced" ( although no aftertouch )
... the keys are indeed a little shorter but that's not a problem once you'll play a couple of times ... A very good buy overall unless you are looking for 100% pure vintage sound ( in which case be prepared to spend at least a small fortune PLUS get an experienced technician @ standby mode !!! )