Roland System-8 Reference Manual

© 2016 Roland Corporation 02
Contents
Panel Descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Editing a Patch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Editing a Patch’s Bender Settings or Patch Name (PATCH
EDIT) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Simulating Aging (CONDITION) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Specifying the Tempo of Each Patch (Patch Tempo) . . . . . . 10
Initializing a Patch (Patch Init) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Saving a Patch (WRITE) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Patch Eects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Editing a Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Making Settings for the Entire Performance (PERFORM
EDIT) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Making Settings for Each Part (PART EDIT) . . . . . . . . . 16
Initializing a Performance (Perform Init) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Saving a Performance (WRITE) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Accessing the MENU Screens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Making System Settings (SYSTEM Setting Screen) . . . . . . . 21
Saving the System Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Viewing the System Version (VERSION INFO) . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Viewing Plug-Out Information (PLUG-OUT INFO) . . . . . . . . 26
Convenient Functions (UTILITY) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Backing Up Data to SD Card (BACKUP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Restoring Data That Was Backed Up to SD Card (RESTORE) 27
Exporting Sound Data to an SD Card (EXPORT) . . . . . . . . . . 27
Importing Sound Data from an SD Card (IMPORT) . . . . . . . 28
Changing the Order of Patches/Performances
(EXCHANGE) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Returning to the Factory Settings (FACTORY RESET) . . . . . 29
Removing a PLUG-OUT (PLUG-OUT REMOVE) . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Formatting an SD Card (SD CARD FORMAT) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Deleting a File from an SD Card (Delete File) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Overwrite-Saving Edited Data (Overwrite) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Using the Vocoder (VOCODER) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Connecting a Mic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Using the Vocoder in Patch Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Using the Vocoder in Performance Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
When the PerfMode Is “DUAL” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
When the PerfMode Is “SINGLE” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
About the Step Sequencer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
STEP SEQUENCER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Recording Steps Consecutively (STEP REC) . . . . . . . . . 35
Recording in Real Time (REAL TIME REC) . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Starting Realtime Recording by Keyboard Input . . . . 36
Recording a Specic Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Editing a Specic Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Transposing the Playback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Muting the Playback of a Specic Part
(Performance Mode Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Saving Step Sequencer Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
About FIRST STEP and LAST STEP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Selecting the First Step (FIRST STEP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Selecting the Last Step (LAST STEP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Changing the Steps While Maintaining the Spacing
of the First and Last Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
STEP SEQ MENU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Copying a Pattern (PTN COPY) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Specifying the Note Length of One Step (SETTING) . 38

Roland System-8 Specifications

General

Product type	Digital synthesizer
Product color	Black
Keyboard number of keys	49
Maximum polyphony (notes)	8
Display type	LCD
Built-in display	Yes
Display number of characters	16
USB ports quantity	1
Compatible memory cards	SD, SDHC
Power source type	DC

Weight and Dimensions

Depth	364 mm
Width	881 mm
Height	109 mm
Weight	5900 g