Roland INTEGRA-7

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Roland INTEGRA-7

W × H × D (mm)	481 × 89 × 262
Rack units	2U, full width
Weight	3.6kg
Manufacturer	Roland
Release date	2013
Standards	General MIDI General MIDI 2
Parts	16
Max polyphony	128
Normal presets	1384 SuperNATURAL sounds All XV internal tones All 12 main SRX boards 256 GM2 ExPCM presets
Effects	16x MFX (67 types) 16x EQ (+1 Master EQ) Reverb (6 types) Chorus (3 types) 6x Compressor/EQ on Drum tones Motional Surround

The Roland INTEGRA-7 is a rackmount module released in 2013 by Roland. It is notable as it contains the same SuperNATURAL engine introduced with the Fantom-G's ARX boards lineup, as well as recreations of all of the XV tones and SRX expansion presets. Since it has 16 MFX slots and 16 parts, it does not suffer from the limitation of JV and XV synths where only a few parts can use EFX/MFX at the same time; in this sense it offers multitimbrality without compromises.

Tone Engines

The INTEGRA-7 houses multiple synth engines across 2 categories of tones.

The first category of tones is PCM.

PCM tones consists of two types, being PCM Synth and PCM Drum Kit, which are equivalent to what was called "Patches" and "Rhythm Sets" on previous Roland synthesizers. In either PCM Synth or PCM Drum Kit, you will always have the following banks, in order; PRST (XV-5080 content), USER, GM2 (or can be GM2# if the ExPCM HQ GM2 + HQ PCM sounds expansion is loaded). After those, will be whatever SRX expansion you have loaded (or ExPCM). The INTEGRA-7's legacy PCM engine implementation serves as a basis for the JV, XV and SRX VST plugins provided by Roland Cloud. GM2, GM2# and ExPCM tones are unable to be edited.

The second category of tones is SuperNATURAL.

SuperNATURAL tones consists of 3 different types of tones; SN Acoustic, SN Synth and SN Drum Kit, which all operate as different tone generators/engines. Each type of SN tone sports the PRST bank (which is where the main tones are), USER and whichever SN-based expansion you have loaded in the virtual expansion slots. Despite the different synth engines across PCM and SN tones, all types of tones are able to be processed by the same set of MFX.

PCM Synth (PCM-S)

PCM Synth is where most of the sounds in the unit are, and its engine is largely based on the stereo 4-partial/oscillator tone architecture of previous Roland synthesizers like the XV-5080. The recreated XV content (PRST bank), the GM2 bank and the non-SN onboard virtual expansions (SRX, HQ ExPCM/GM2) are considered part of the "PCM Synth" Category.

PCM Drum Kit (PCM-D)

PCM Drum Kit is much of the same in terms of implementation of Rhythm Sets from previous Roland modules, featuring up to 88 unique 4-partial percussion tones mapped across the keyboard and able to be edited and processed with the same set of envelopes and filters that PCM Synth tones have. The INTEGRA-7 also introduces a set of 6 Equalizers and Compressors to process sounds in a PCM Drum Kit tone.

Despite the separation, the PCM Drum Kit still is able to access the same PCM waves as PCM Synth much like rhythm sets from previous Roland modules can.

SN Acoustic (SN-A)

First of the SuperNATURAL tones is "SN Acoustic", which are exclusively sampled instruments such as Acoustic and Electric Pianos, Guitars, Basses, Clavs, Organs, Strings (Plucked & Bowed), Horns, Woodwinds/Reeds, Mallets, and more.

These sounds feature unique parameters and controls particular to that instrument, like adjusting the loudness of a fretnoise on a guitar tone, or the bars on an organ tone, etc. as well as sampled articulations accessible over CCs. SN-A tones adapt to how it is played, simulating proper dynamic change with velocity or even switching from a legato type of sound to a section depending on how many voices are used. Roland refers to this as "behavior modeling".

While these tones are still sampled, they do not take from the PCM engine tones or can be edited like a standard PCM sound (and its sounds are not accessible by the PCM engine or any other for that matter). This means these tones don't really have the editing capability of previous Roland synthesizers, doing away with the partial system and much of the patch functionality baked into 1 oscillator/"instrument" (INST) bank sound loaded in the SN-A tone. This makes these tones closer to a sample library than a real synthesizer tone.

Expand

Warning: Long!
The following are parameters and controls for various types of SN-A tones;

Guitar Tones

• Legato/Slides - Sequencing as legato or playing it as such on a keyboard automatically produces a natural legato sound, akin to a slide expression on a guitar.

• Mute - Controlling the tone over CC80 switches it over to a muted guitar sound.

• Harmonics - Similarly to the Mute function, but CC81 switches the sound to guitar harmonics.

• Playing Noise - CC16 adjusts the volume of the playing noise.

• Guitar Strumming - CC19 can turn on a strum mode, which switches the guitar tone to one for strumming, and automatically strums chords played (alternating between up and down strokes). The speed of the stroke can be adjusted via CC17.

String Tones

• Portamento - CC65 can turn on a more exaggerated Portamento articulation in place of the default natural legato sound when sequencing.

• Staccato - CC80 switches it over to Staccato articulation.

• Pizzicato - CC81 switches it to Pizzicato.

• Tremolo - CC82 switches it to a Tremolo.

• Playing Noise - CC16 adjusts the volume of the playing noise.

• Expression - CC01 smoothly adjusts the dynamics and expression (NOTE: CC07/Expression CC does not utilize the unique dynamic fluctuation or work the same, it only adjusts the volume of the patch).

Brass/Woodwind Tones

• Staccato - CC80 changes the articulation to Staccato.

• Falls - CC81 changes the articulation to a fall.

• Glissando - CC19 can adjust it so that MIDI pitch bending create a glissando/fall sound instead whether pitching up or down respectively.

• Growling - CC18 adjusts the strength of the horn 'growling' articulation on the sound.

• Breath Noise - CC16 adjusts the volume of the breath noise.

• Expression - CC01 smoothly adjusts the dynamics and expression (NOTE: CC07/Expression CC does not utilize the unique dynamic fluctuation or work the same, it only adjusts the volume of the patch).

Most or all of this (depending on the type of tone) can also be adjusted manually on the hardware in the tone editor as well (in the INST tab).

SN Synth (SN-S)

The second type of SuperNATURAL tone is "SN Synth" which is a different tone generation engine entirely, utilizing 3 oscillators capable of SAW, SQR, PW-SQR, TRI, SINE, NOISE, SUPER-SAW as wave options, as well as the option to choose a PCM oscillator (with its own selection of 450 PCM waveforms when working with the SN Synth engine). Every SN-S oscillator comes with a volume (AMP) & pitch envelope, 2 LFOs and a choice of 7 filter modes with the same envelope adjustments (filter ADSR, resonance, cutoff, velocity sensitivity, key feel, etc).

The oscillators and filters of classic analog synthesizers were a basis for the SN-S engine's, and has VA synth capabilities.

The entirety of the contents of SN Synth can be found in Roland's current flagship VST, Zenology (in a bank called PRST_D Basic Synth).

SN Drum Kit (SN-D)

The third and last type of SuperNATURAL tone is "SN Drum Kit". It is another percussion group similar to a rhythm set (PCM Drum Kit), though only capable of up to 62 mapped percussion tones (from Eb1 to E6). SN Drum Kit tones are similar in implementation to SN Acoustic, where the legacy 4-partial system is done away with for a single Drum INST oscillator that has a lot of the functionality baked into whatever sound is chosen there. And much like SN-A tones, features some properly emulated dynamics beyond typical volume difference, and timbral variance between strikes. The dynamic range can be adjusted per percussion basis.

Every percussion sound in an SN-D tone has a Variation parameter that influences how the rhythm is played (with 3 flams, 3 buzz rolls, and a normal roll as options).

Every percussion part has its own reverb and chorus parameter, tuning, attack, decay, panning, etc. And like PCM Drum Kit, can access 6 sets of assignable EQs/Compressors to process a percussion tone. ExSN6, the last of the 6 SuperNATURAL expansions, is exclusively made up of SN-D tones.

Onboard Expansions

While the Roland INTEGRA-7 has no physical expandability of its own, it features 4 'Virtual Expansion slots', with 17 selectable expansion options:

• SRX01:Dynamic Drum Kits
• SRX02:Concert Piano
• SRX03:Studio SRX
• SRX04:Symphonique Strings
• SRX05:Supreme Dance
• SRX06:Complete Orchestra
• SRX07:Ultimate Keys
• SRX08:Platinum Trax
• SRX09:World Collection
• SRX10:Big Brass Ensemble
• SRX11:Complete Piano
• SRX12:Classic EPs
  • Based on the XV version with only 50 presets, doesn't include the other 52 patches SRX 12 has on the Fantom-S/X.
• ExSN1:Ethnic (SuperNATURAL)
• ExSN2:Woodwinds (SuperNATURAL)
• ExSN3:Session (SuperNATURAL)
• ExSN4:A. Guitar (SuperNATURAL)
• ExSN5:Brass (SuperNATURAL)
• ExSN6:SFX (SuperNATURAL)
• ExPCM:HQ GM2+HQ PCM Sounds
  • Unlike the other expansions, this expansion utilizes all of the slots if selected and its sounds are not editable. When selected, it replaces the existing GM2 bank with its own (Marked uniquely GM2#) and adds another bank called ExPCM in PCM Synth.

Oddities

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PR-C 100 Vanishing, as heard on Roland JV-2080, then INTEGRA-7, then the Roland Cloud XV-5080 VSTi

• Because the XV/SRX sound content is recreated, some effects and settings may differ from the original hardware.

How different depends on the patch, but particularly bad examples include PR-C 100 Vanishing - on real JV and XV synthesizers, it sounds smooth. While on the INTEGRA-7, it sounds more grainy due to different behavior of the Pitch Shifter MFX.

• The expansion content is seemingly stored in an encrypted form on an SD Card inside the unit.