Roland System-500 Patchbook Project

I’ve been slowly translating, reworking, and remixing the two basic patch books I have for the Roland SYS-500 modular synthesizer (the Roland patch book issued with the complete set, and the vintage System 100m patch examples manual from 1979) and added just a few others as well for general use, and uniform presentation.

The idea came about in the users group on face-page after I remixed the manuals for each of the SYS-500 modules, and drew up a blank patch notes sheet which included all of the modules in the series for users of this instrument, people still asked a lot of basic questions about how to get certain types of sounds from the System-500. So I thought it might be helpful to present some basic patch ideas from the history of these modules, as well as any others from within the group.

I put the message out to our small, and fairly inactive group and invited everyone who was into it to submit a patch or two for the book. So far, I transcribed a patch from Ben DivKid’s video about the initial release of the first set of modules, and included two of my own (a response to someone asking how to make bell sounds, and a very basic primer for using the System 500 as an SH-101 type of instrument (sub/square, saw, subtractive synthesis, single envelope and optional LFO) but nobody else has submitted anything. That doesn’t mean they won’t – time is not up – so this patch book, I hope, will grow and change. I am ready to receive your patch examples via the facebook group and will transcribe them in the style of this book and include them. Feel free to join us there.

Hope this is helpful on your adventures to discovery!

LOVE