What's there new & exciting to say about 100m's? They're well-
designed, impeccably laid-out, never very expensive & they sound
fantastic. All those "new" modular manufacturers should have taken a
few more cues from the 100m, although I guess they're more
interested in moving units that weekend warriors can plug into their
frac-euro-thingies like electric train cars at an attractive price
than anything else. Hey, it's a new market, who can fault them.
The 100m gets around all sorts of AC/DC issues purely by how the
panels are laid out, and the internal bussing is an excellent
extension of the System 700. The sound is clean & mean, and the low
frequencies are so intact that the other day at work I beefed up a
Minimoog bass track by running it through a 100m filter. Go figure.
The 100m didn't really get its day in the sun on records, mainly
because the System 700 was earlier on the scene, especially in
British pop bands such as the Human League & any of Daniel Miller's
projects like Depeche Mode & Yaz. In the instrument marketplace its
release was eclipsed by the polysynth craze.
Just be thankful that not every 100m module in the world went
towards Mr. Zimmer's handsome wall decoration. There are plenty of
systems out there for people to make rock-solid synth tracks with
the power of the Roland team's integrity of design & audio fidelity.
Switch your sequencer to plus 10 volts, blow your speakers & scratch
your head about that gate module. There's plenty to chew on already.
