It’s not unusual these days to see large, established brands create an ‘internal startup’ or ‘startup within the company,’ a process which as those phrases imply establishes an internal group that marries the agility of a startup with the resources and financial backing of a larger organization. Motivations for doing so vary—a new focus outside the core business, concerns about disruptive innovation, etc.—but when Roland Corporation created their Roland Professional Group as an ‘internal startup’ the focus seems to have been mainly on a shorter product incubation period and faster time-to-market, and even without insider knowledge of Roland’s typical timeframes and processes it’s nevertheless notable that work only began on this first batch of AIRA products as recently as April 2013.
Let’s briefly address the elephant in the room, namely that these are not slavish, expensive all-analog recreations of classic Roland instruments. Given their history and philosophy, continuing to demand that Roland develop and market an all-analog ‘modern 303’ or ‘new 808’ seems more and more like wasted energy, for better or worse. Let’s take it on faith that Roland knows a thing or two about what such fantasy products would cost and what kind of sales they might see, and let’s also recognize that putting out new instruments that purposely follow the same trajectory as the original TB-303 and TR-808—rejected by their target market and languishing for years in second-hand shops before finally being recognized and embraced for their unique character—would be nigh on impossible.
With that out of the way, we can focus on what’s great, new and exciting about the AIRA line, and in doing so let’s look first at some common branding and terminology that spans all the products.
First up is ACB, or Analog Circuit Behavior: while the concept of modeling all the component circuitry in a classic analog instrument isn’t new even within Roland, here a new brand signals a new approach, or at least a thoroughly modern one. While Roland has tried various methods in the past of ‘recreating’ their classic analog pieces to varying degrees of acclaim and success—witness the ROMpler-based MC-XXX line of grooveboxes—they now have several recent years of widespread analog fetishism to draw upon in this latest approach, and per the behind the scenes teaser videos they’ve posted to date they seem to recognize this time around that it’s not just about building a ‘perfect’ component model that will perform a certain ‘perfect’ way every time, but also about modeling the subtle variations and imperfections inherent in temperamental old circuits. Among Roland’s own selling points for the TR-8 drum machine is ‘obsessive attention to detail’ and ‘reproducing the original TR’s unique variations in tone that occur when multiple instruments are entered in accented steps,’ so it seems evident that ACB goes deeper than previous approaches have.
Another new term that comes with these new instruments is SCATTER, which is present on all four models but has a slightly different meaning on each; generally, though, it can be thought of as a built-in ‘randomizer’ or ‘glitch’ function that can be used for variation and/or inspiration. A well-known trick on the original TB-303 is to leave the batteries out overnight, which lets the 303 ‘create’ new/random patterns on its own. Various 303 clones and emulators have reproduced this behavior with ‘pattern randomizing’ or ‘pattern morphing’ functions, and SCATTER takes this idea and really runs with it: in addition to having random pattern generation/modification functions, the SCATTER function on the new TB-3 allows for constrained randomizing—slicing, reverse, gating, etc.—to create variations on your patterns both subtle and extreme, all controllable in real time while the unit is playing.
And finally there’s PLUG-OUT, which unlike ACB and SCATTER seems to be unique to the new SYSTEM-1 synthesizer. PLUG-OUT refers to SYSTEM-1‘s ability not only to control software plug-in versions of classic Roland synths but also to host those same plug-ins internally, allowing you to take them on stage in your SYSTEM-1 without the need for a connected computer.
The SYSTEM-1 PLUG-OUT Synthesizer is styled after Roland’s venerable SYSTEM 100 and draws upon the semi-/modular lineage of it and the later SYSTEM 100M and SYSTEM 700. Its internal synth engine consists of four oscillators with oscillator ‘colors’ that can effect continuous waveform changes as well as -12dB and -24dB filters with independent high pass filters. Also on offer are various modulation options—oscillator sync, cross mod, ring mod—and built-in delay and reverb. Like the other members of the AIRA family it boasts a super-approachable and -accessible knobby, LED-laden interface that invites tweaking, all housed in a compact enclosure with 25 full-size keys. On SYSTEM-1 the aforementioned SCATTER function works on the built-in arpeggiator, offering a wide variety of phrase variations with real-time control over their depth. At the outset there’s a painstakingly recreated, supremely authentic PLUG-OUT version of the classic SH-101 monosynth, which Roland promises is ‘just the beginning.’ Might we see PLUG-OUT versions of various JUNOs, JUPITERs, JXs, etc. in the future?
Taking a closer look at the TB-3 Touch Bassline instrument we find its chromatic keyboard controls housed, as the name implies, in a touch pad interface, making this unit a combination of the classic TB-303 Bass Line synth and various modern X/Y/pressure touch pad effects units. In addition to using the touch pad keyboard for the obvious function of entering bassline sequences in an easier, more intuitive way than the original TB-303, it can also be used as a three-dimensional touch surface to control various effects tweaks—while the TB-3 front panel has the expected knobs to control filter cutoff/resonance and accent level, these filter effects can also be run simultaneously and smoothly via the touch surface, as can pitch, volume, envelope modulation and decay parameters.
One member of the AIRA family we haven’t mentioned yet is the VT-3 Voice Transformer, which in addition to now-standard AUTO-PITCH effects also boasts a vocoder modeled after the VP-330, ‘lo-fi’ MEGAPHONE and RADIO options, synthetic-sounding ROBOT voices and ‘singable’ SYNTH, LEAD and BASS sounds. There are convenient, front-face slider controls for pitch, formant and the built-in reverb. Using the SCATTER function on VT-3 induces glitchy, ‘broken’ sounding vocal chops and stutters—James Blake fans take note!
Last but certainly not least is the TR-8 Rhythm Performer, which during Roland’s teaser campaign has been getting the lion’s share of attention and scrutiny, owing no doubt to the legendary stature of its progenitors: the classic, ubiquitous, sought-after and massively influential TR-808 and TR-909 Rhythm Composers. As expected, there are obsessively analyzed and faithfully recreated ACB circuit models and a tweakable knobby front panel; going beyond what’s expected there are large, backlit step sequence entry buttons, Attack and Comp knobs for the kicks and snares, and the AIRA-standard SCATTER function to create on-the-fly fills, stutters, glitches and pattern variations. Other additions of note are the built-in, per-step reverb and delay effects and an external audio input tied to a built-in side chain function to apply rhythmic ‘pumping’ compression on your external sounds. There are also two assignable analog outputs on the back in addition to the L/R mix out in case you want to route certain drum sounds to their own mixer channels or effects loops.
The entire AIRA line can connect to your computer via built-in USB jacks that transmit both audio and MIDI, and can receive external MIDI clock over 5-pin DIN to sync with other devices. And not only do they play nice together as a product family, they look great together, too, with similar styling and case/LED accent colors.
We hope this provides a good overview of the AIRA family as a whole as well as the individual models. We’ll have more in-depth information to offer once we get our hands on some units, but in the meantime please visit Nova Musik and/or call us at (877) 290-NOVA to place a pre-order or with any further questions you may have. We’ve also collected together some features bullet points direct from Roland as well as the AIRA family videos that have been posted to date after the jump.
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